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"Many different things."
"My Lord Cholmondeley, what will be the rank of this young Lord
Clancharlie in the House?"
"
My Lord Bishop, the interruption of the Republic having displaced
ancient rights of precedence, Clancharlie now ranks in the peerage
between Barnard and Somers, so that should each be called upon to speak
in turn, Lord Clancharlie would be the eighth in rotation."
"Really! he--a mountebank from a public show!"
"The act, per se, does not astonish me, my Lord Bishop. We meet with
such things. Still more wonderful circumstances occur. Was not the War
of the Roses predicted by the sudden drying up of the river Ouse, in
Bedfordshire, on January 1st, 1399. Now, if a river dries up, a peer
may, quite as naturally, fall into a servile condition. Ulysses, King of
Ithaca, played all kinds of different parts. Fermain Clancharlie
remained a lord under his player's garb. Sordid garments touch not the
soul's nobility. But taking the test and the investiture outside the
sitting, though strictly legal, might give rise to objections. I am of
opinion that it will be necessary to look into the matter, to see if
there be any ground to question the Lord Chancellor in Privy Council
later on. We shall see in a week or two what is best to be done."
And the Bishop added,--
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