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magister, who had then for his residence the house formerly belonging
to the converted Jews. Two under-clerks were kneeling, and turning over
the leaves of the registers which lay on the fourth woolsack. In the
meantime the Lord Chancellor took his place on the first woolsack. The
members of the chamber took theirs, some sitting, others standing; when
the Archbishop of Canterbury rose and read the prayer, and the sitting
of the house began.
Gwynplaine had already been there for some time without attracting any
notice. The second bench of barons, on which was his place, was close to
the bar, so that he had had to take but a few steps to reach it. The two
peers, his sponsors, sat, one on his right, the other on his left, thus
almost concealing the presence of the new-comer.
No one having been furnished with any previous information, the Clerk of
the Parliament had read in a low voice, and as it were, mumbled through
the different documents concerning the new peer, and the Lord Chancellor
had proclaimed his admission in the midst of what is called, in the
reports, "general inattention." Every one was talking. There buzzed
through the House that cheerful hum of voices during which assemblies
pass things which will not bear the light, and at which they wonder when
they find out what they have done, too late.
Gwynplaine was seated in silence, with his head uncovered, between the
two old peers, Lord Fitzwalter and Lord Arundel. On entering, according
to the instructions of the King-at-Arms--afterwards renewed by his
sponsors--he had bowed to the throne.
818
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