Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v2.djvu/138

114 preserved a calm exterior. The cry of the prisoner, Tis he!" overwhelmed him completely. The words, "Registrar, take that down!" froze him with horror. It seemed to him that a scoundrel had dragged him to his fate without his being able to guess why, and that the man's unintelligible confession was closing round him like the clasp of an iron collar. He fancied himself side by side with him in the posts of the same pillory. Gwynplaine lost his footing in his terror, and protested. He began to stammer incoherent words in the deep distress of an innocent man, and quivering, terrified, uttered the first frantic protests that occurred to him:

"It is not true! It was not me! I do not know this man. He cannot know me, since I do not know him. I have my part to play this evening. What do you want of me? I demand my liberty. Nor is that all. Why have I been brought into this dungeon? Are there no longer any laws in the land? You may as well admit at once that there are no laws. My Lord Judge, I repeat that I am not the man. I am innocent of any crime; I know I am. I want to go away. This is not justice. There is nothing between this man and me. You can find out. My life is no secret. They came and arrested me like a thief. Why did they come like that? How could I know the man? I am a travelling mountebank, who plays farces at fairs and markets. I am the Laughing Man. Plenty of people have been to see me. We are staying now in the Tarrinzeau Fields. I have been earning an honest livelihood these fifteen years. I am five-and-twenty. I lodge at the Tadcaster Inn. I am called Gwynplaine. My lord, let me out. You should not take advantage of the low estate of the unfortunate. Have compassion on a man who has done no harm, who is without protection, and without defence. You have before you only a poor mountebank."