in the door was lifted, and a voice exclaimed, "You are the
two husbands, my lords."

They turned.

"Barkilphedro!" cried Lord David.

It was indeed he; he bowed low to the two lords, with a smile on his
face. Some few paces behind him was a gentleman with a stern and
dignified countenance, who carried in his hand a black wand. This
gentleman advanced, and, bowing three times to Gwynplaine, said, "I am
the Usher of the Black Rod. I come to fetch your lordship, in obedience
to her Majesty's commands."

BOOK THE EIGHTH.

_THE CAPITOL AND THINGS AROUND IT._

CHAPTER I.

ANALYSIS OF MAJESTIC MATTERS.

Irresistible Fate ever carrying him forward, which had now for so many
hours showered its surprises on Gwynplaine, and which had transported
him to Windsor, transferred him again to London. Visionary realities
succeeded each other without a moment's intermission. He could not
escape from their influence. Freed from one he met another. He had
scarcely time to breathe. Any one who has seen a juggler throwing and
catching balls can judge the nature of fate. Those rising and falling
projectiles are like men tossed in the hands of Destiny--projectiles and
playthings.

On the evening of the same day, Gwynplaine was an actor in an
extraordinary scene. He was seated on a bench covered with
fleurs-de-lis; over his silken clothes he wore a robe of scarlet velvet,
lined with white silk, with a cape of ermine, and on his shoulders two
bands of ermine embroidered with gold. Around him were men of all ages,
young and old, seated like him on benches covered with fleurs-de-lis,
and dressed like him in ermine and purple. In front of him other men
were kneeling, clothed in black silk gowns. Some of them were writing;
opposite, and a short distance from him, he observed steps, a raised
platform, a dais, a large escutcheon glittering between a lion and a
unicorn, and at the top of the steps, on the platform under the dais,
resting against the escutcheon, was a gilded chair with a crown over
it. This was a throne--the throne of Great Britain.

Gwynplaine, himself a peer of England, was in the House of Lords. How
Gwynplaine's introduction to the House of Lords came about, we will now
explain. Throughout the day, from morning to night, from Windsor to
London, from Corleone Lodge to Westminster Hall, he had step by step
mounted higher in the social grade. At each step he grew giddier. He had
been conveyed from Windsor in