Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v2.djvu/142

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Clancharlie. He answers to the name of Gwynplaine. This fact is the result of his youth, and the slight powers of memory he could have had when he was bought and sold, being then barely two years of age.

"Hardquanonne is the only person who knows how to perform the operation Bucca fissa, and the said child is the only living subject upon which it has been attempted. The operation is so unique and singular that though after long years this child will be an old man instead of a child, and his black locks will have turned white, he would be immediately recognized by Hardquanonne.

"At the time of this writing, Hardquanonne, who has perfect knowledge of all the facts, and participated as principal therein, is detained in the prisons of his Highness the Prince of Orange, commonly called King William III. Hardquanonne was apprehended and seized on the charge of being one of a band of Comprachicos or Cheylas. He is imprisoned in the jail at Chatham.

"It was in Switzerland, near the Lake of Geneva, between Lausanne and Vevay, in the very house in which his father and mother died, that this child was, in compliance with the orders of the king, sold and given up by the last servant of the deceased Lord Linnæus, which servant died soon after his master, so this secret is now unknown to any one on earth, excepting Hardquanonne, who is in the dungeon of Chatham, and ourselves, now about to perish.

"We, the undersigned, brought up and kept, for eight years, for professional purposes, the little lord purchased by us of the king. Now, fleeing from England to escape Hardquanonne's fate, our fear of the penal indictments, prohibitions, and fulminations of Parliament induced us to desert, at night-fall, on the coast of Portland, the said child Gwynplaine, who is really Lord Fermain Clancharlie.

"Now, we have sworn secrecy to the king, but not to God. To-night, at sea, overtaken by a violent tempest by the will of Providence, full of despair and distress, kneeling before Him who could save our lives, and may, perhaps, be willing to save our souls, having nothing more to hope from men, but