Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor was William Cowper. We must not confound

this chancellor with his namesake and contemporary William Cowper, the

anatomist and commentator on Bidloo, who published a treatise on

muscles, in England, at the very time that Etienne Abeille published a

history of bones, in France. A surgeon is a very different thing from a

lord. Lord William Cowper is celebrated for having, with reference to

the affair of Talbot Yelverton, Viscount Longueville, propounded this

opinion: That in the English constitution the restoration of a peer is

more important than the restoration of a king. The flask found at

Calshor had awakened his interest in the highest degree. The author of a

maxim delights in opportunities to which it may be applied. Here was a

case of the restoration of a peer. Search was made. Gwynplaine, by the

inscription over his door, was soon found. Neither was Hardquanonne

dead. A prison rots a man, but preserves him--if to keep is to preserve.

People placed in Bastiles were rarely removed. There is little more

change in the dungeon than in the tomb. Hardquanonne was still in prison

at Chatham. They had only to put their hands on him. He was transferred

from Chatham to London. In the meantime information was sought in

Switzerland. The facts were found to be correct. They obtained from the

local archives at Vevey, at Lausanne, the certificate of Lord Linnæus's

marriage in exile, the certificate of his child's birth, the certificate

of the decease of the father and mother; and they had duplicates, duly

authenticated, made to answer all necessary requirements.

All this was done with the most rigid secrecy, with what is called royal

promptitude, and with that mole-like silence recommended and practised

by Bacon, and later on made law by Blackstone, for affairs connected

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The Man Who Laughs