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Trerice on the left. Lord Arundel, the elder of the two, was very
feeble. He died the following year, bequeathing to his grandson John, a
minor, the title which became extinct in 1768. The procession, leaving
the Painted Chamber, entered a gallery in which were rows of pilasters,
and between the spaces were sentinels, alternately pike-men of England
and halberdiers of Scotland. The Scotch halberdiers were magnificent
kilted soldiers, worthy to encounter later on at Fontenoy the French
cavalry, and the royal cuirassiers, whom their colonel thus addressed:
"
Messieurs les maitres, assurez vos chapeaux. Nous allons avoir
l'honneur de charger." The captain of these soldiers saluted
Gwynplaine, and the peers, his sponsors, with their swords. The men
saluted with their pikes and halberds.
At the end of the gallery shone a large door, so magnificent that its
two folds seemed to be masses of gold. On each side of the door there
stood, upright and motionless, men who were called doorkeepers. Just
before you came to this door, the gallery widened out into a circular
space. In this space was an armchair with an immense back, and on it,
judging by his wig and from the amplitude of his robes, was a
distinguished person. It was William Cowper, Lord Chancellor of England.
To be able to cap a royal infirmity with a similar one has its
advantages. William Cowper was short-sighted. Anne had also defective
sight, but in a lesser degree. The near-sightedness of William Cowper
found favour in the eyes of the short-sighted queen, and induced her to
appoint him Lord Chancellor, and Keeper of the Royal Conscience. William
Cowper's upper lip was thin, and his lower one thick--a sign of
semi-good-nature.
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