Victor Hugo - The Man Who Laughs - Cosmopolitan University 2

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 bought by us of the king.
"To-day, flying from England to avoid Hardquanonne's ill-fortune, our
fear of the penal indictments, prohibitions, and fulminations of
Parliament has induced us to desert, at night-fall, on the coast of
Portland, the said child Gwynplaine, who is 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 everything to fear from God, having
for only anchor and resource repentance of our bad actions, resigned to
death, and content if Divine justice be satisfied, humble, penitent, and
beating our breasts, we make this declaration, and confide and deliver
it to the furious ocean to use as it best may according to the will of
God. And may the Holy Virgin aid us, Amen. And we attach our
signatures."
The sheriff interrupted, saying,--"Here are the signatures. All in
different handwritings."
And he resumed,--
"Doctor Gernardus Geestemunde.--Asuncion.--A cross, and at the side of
it, Barbara Fermoy, from Tyrryf Isle, in the Hebrides; Gaizdorra,
Captain; Giangirate; Jacques Quartourze, alias le Narbonnais; Luc-Pierre
Capgaroupe, from the galleys of Mahon."
The sheriff, after a pause, resumed, a "note written in the same hand as
the text and the first signature," and he read,--
"Of the three men comprising the crew, the skipper having been swept off
by a wave, there remain but two, and we have signed, Galdeazun; Ave
Maria, Thief."
The sheriff, interspersing his reading with his own observations,
continued, "At the bottom of the sheet is written,--
"'At sea, on board of the _Matutina_, Biscay hooker, from the Gulf de
Pasages.' This sheet," added the sheriff, "is a legal document, bearing
the mark of King James the Second. On the margin of the declaration, and
in the same handwriting there is this note, 'The present declaration is
written by us on the back of the royal order, which was given us as our
receipt when we bought the child. Turn the leaf and the order will be
seen.'"
The sheriff turned the parchment, and raised it in his right hand, to
expose it to the light.
A blank page was seen, if the word blank can be applied to a thing so
mouldy, and in the middle of the page three words were written, two