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which unknown beasts roar. The prodigies of the forest are nothing
compared to the inventions of their pride. Their vanity is full of
phantoms which move as in a sublime night, armed with helm and cuirass,
spurs on their heels and the sceptres in their hands, saying in a grave
voice, 'We are the ancestors!' The canker-worms eat the roots, and
panoplies eat the people. Why not? Are we to change the laws? The
peerage is part of the order of society. Do you know that there is a
duke in Scotland who can ride ninety miles without leaving his own
estate? Do you know that the Archbishop of Canterbury has a revenue of
£
40,000 a year? Do you know that her Majesty has £700,000 sterling from
the civil list, besides castles, forests, domains, fiefs, tenancies,
freeholds, prebendaries, tithes, rent, confiscations, and fines, which
bring in over a million sterling? Those who are not satisfied are hard
to please."
"Yes," murmured Gwynplaine sadly, "the paradise of the rich is made out
of the hell of the poor."
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