Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v2.djvu/141

Rh green, torn, and jagged in many places, which seemed to have been folded in very small folds. One side of the sheet was covered with writing; and standing under the light of the lamp, the sheriff held the paper close to his eyes, and in his most solemn tone read as follows:

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

"On this, the twenty-ninth of January, one thousand six hundred and ninetieth year of our Lord, there was wickedly deserted on the desert coast of Portland, with the intention of allowing him to perish of hunger, of cold, and of solitude, a child ten years old. This child was sold at the age of two years, by order of his most gracious Majesty, King James the Second.

"This child was Lord Fermain Clancharlie, the only legitimate son of Lord Linnæus Clancharlie, Baron Clancharlie and Hunkerville, Marquis of Corleone in Sicily, a Peer of England, and of Ann Bradshaw, his wife, both deceased. This child was the inheritor of the estates and titles of his father. For this reason he was sold, mutilated, disfigured, and put out of the way by desire of his most gracious Majesty.

"That child was brought up, and trained to be a mountebank at markets and fairs. He was sold at the age of two, after the death of the peer, his father, and ten pounds sterling were given to the king as his purchase-money, as well as for divers concessions, tolerations, and immunities, etc.

"Lord Fermain Clancharlie, at the age of two years, was bought by me, the undersigned, who write these lines, and mutilated and disfigured by a Fleming of Flanders, called Hardquanonne, who alone is acquainted with the secrets and modes of treatment of Doctor Conquest. The child was intended by us to be a laughing mask,—masca ridens.

"With this intention Hardquanonne performed on him the operation, Bucca fissa usque ad aures, which stamps an everlasting laugh upon the face. The child, by means known only to Hardquanonne, was put to sleep and made insensible during its performance, knowing nothing of the operation which he underwent. He does not know that he is Lord