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Updated: May 21, 2025
"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:
It was a wonder that Hardquanonne's flask, in which was the metamorphosis of Gwynplaine into Lord Clancharlie, should have floated for fifteen years on the ocean, on the billows, in the surf, through the storms, and that all the raging of the sea did it no harm. But I can see the reason. There are destinies with secret springs. I have the key of mine, and know its enigma.
"To-day, flying from England to avoid Hardquanonne's ill-fortune, our fear of the penal indictments, prohibitions, and fulminations of Parliament has induced us to desert, at night-fall, on the coast of Portland, the said child Gwynplaine, who is Lord Fermain Clancharlie. "Now, we have sworn secrecy to the king, but not to God.
Then the doctor said, "Capgaroupe." "Here," said the Provençal. "Have you Hardquanonne's flask?" "Yes." "Give it me." Capgaroupe drank off the last mouthful of brandy, and handed the flask to the doctor. The water was rising in the hold; the wreck was sinking deeper and deeper into the sea. The sloping edges of the ship were covered by a thin gnawing wave, which was rising.
He wept like an old man. He wept for everything at which he had ever laughed. He paid off arrears. Man is never nonsuited when he pleads his right to tears. The corpse they had just buried was Hardquanonne's; but Ursus could not know that. The hours crept on. Day began to break. The pale clothing of the morning was spread out, dimly creased with shadow, over the bowling-green.
As to Barkilphedro, he was joyful a circumstance which gave a lugubrious expression to his face. If there be one thing in the world which can be more hideous than another, 'tis joy. He had had the delight of being the first to taste the contents of Hardquanonne's flask. He seemed but little surprised, for astonishment is the attribute of a little mind.
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