"Will your lordship deign to remember this: I am called Barkilphedro; I

am clerk to the Admiralty. It was I who opened Hardquanonne's flask and

drew your destiny out of it. Thus, in the 'Arabian Nights' a fisherman

releases a giant from a bottle."

Gwynplaine fixed his eyes on the smiling face of the speaker.

Barkilphedro continued:--

"Besides this palace, my lord, Hunkerville House, which is larger, is

yours. You own Clancharlie Castle, from which you take your title, and

which was a fortress in the time of Edward the Elder. You have nineteen

bailiwicks belonging to you, with their villages and their inhabitants.

This puts under your banner, as a landlord and a nobleman, about eighty

thousand vassals and tenants. At Clancharlie you are a judge--judge of

all, both of goods and of persons--and you hold your baron's court. The

king has no right which you have not, except the privilege of coining

money. The king, designated by the Norman law as chief signor, has

justice, court, and coin. Coin is money. So that you, excepting in this

last, are as much a king in your lordship as he is in his kingdom. You

have the right, as a baron, to a gibbet with four pillars in England;

and, as a marquis, to a scaffold with seven posts in Sicily: that of the

mere lord having two pillars; that of a lord of the manor, three; and

that of a duke, eight. You are styled prince in the ancient charters of

Northumberland. You are related to the Viscounts Valentia in Ireland,

whose name is Power; and to the Earls of Umfraville in Scotland, whose

name is Angus. You are chief of a clan, like Campbell, Ardmannach, and

662

The Man Who Laughs