The World's Greatest Books — Volume 05 — Fiction eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 378 pages of information about The World's Greatest Books — Volume 05 — Fiction.

The World's Greatest Books — Volume 05 — Fiction eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 378 pages of information about The World's Greatest Books — Volume 05 — Fiction.

This document declared that the child abandoned by those on the sinking vessel was the only child of Lord Fermain Clancharlie, deceased.  At the age of two it had been sold, disfigured, and put out of the way by order of King James II.  Its parents were dead, and a man named Hardquanonne, now in prison at Chatham, had performed the mutilation, and would recognise the child, who was called Gwynplaine.  Being about to die, the signatories to the document confessed their guilt in abducting the child, and could not, in the face of death, refrain from acknowledgment of their crime.

The prisoner Hardquanonne had been found at Chatham, and he had recognised Gwynplaine.  Hardquanonne died of the tortures he had suffered, but just before his death he said, “I swore to keep the secret, and I have kept it as long as I could.  We did it between us—­the king and I. Silence is no longer any good.  This is the man.”

What was the reason for the hatred of James II. to the child?

This.  Lord Clancharlie had taken the side of Cromwell against Charles I., and had gone into exile in Switzerland rather than acknowledge Charles II. as king.  On the death of this nobleman James II. had declared his estates forfeit, and the title extinct, believing that the heir was lost beyond possible recovery.  On David Dirry-Moir, an illegitimate son of Lord Clancharlie, were the peerage and estates conferred, on condition that he married a certain Duchess Josiana, an illegitimate daughter of James II.

How was it Gwynplaine was restored to his inheritance?

Anne was Queen of England when the bottle was taken to the Admiralty in 1705, and shared with the high official whose business it was to attend to all flotsam and jetsam, a cordial dislike of Duchess Josiana.  It seemed to the Queen an excellent thing that Josiana should have to marry this frightful man, and as for David Dirry-Moir he could be made an admiral.  Anne consulted the Lord Chancellor privately, and he strongly advised, without blaming James II., that Gwynplaine must be restored to the peerage.

Gwynplaine, without having time to return to the Green Box, was carried off by Barkilphedro to one of his country houses, near Windsor, and bidden the next day take his seat in the House of Lords.  He had entered the terrible prison in Southwark expecting the iron collar of a felon, and he had placed on his head the coronet of a peer.  Barkilphedro had told him that a man could not be made a peer without his own consent; that Gwynplaine, the mountebank, must make room for Lord Clancharlie, if the peerage was accepted; and he had made his decision.

On awakening the next morning he thought of Dea.  Then came a royal summons to appear in the House of Lords, and Gwynplaine returned to London in a carriage provided by the queen.  The secret of his face was still unknown when he entered the House of Lords, for the Lord Chancellor had not been informed of the nature of the deformation.  The investiture took place on the threshold of the House, then very ill-lit, and two very old and half-blind noblemen acted as sponsors at the Lord Chancellor’s request.  The whole ceremony was enacted in a sort of twilight, for the Lord Chancellor was anxious to avoid any sensation.

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The World's Greatest Books — Volume 05 — Fiction from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.