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The Man Who Laughs, a novel by Victor Hugo |
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Part 2: Book 3. The Beginning Of The Fissure - Chapter 5. The Wapentake |
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_ PART II: BOOK THE THIRD. THE BEGINNING OF THE FISSURE CHAPTER V. THE WAPENTAKE
Gwynplaine, as he picked up a farthing which had fallen when counting the receipts, had, in the presence of the innkeeper, drawn a contrast between the farthing, representing the misery of the people, and the die, representing, under the figure of Anne, the parasitical magnificence of the throne--an ill-sounding speech. This observation was repeated by Master Nicless, and had such a run that it reached to Ursus through Fibi and Vinos. It put Ursus into a fever. Seditious words, lese Majeste. He took Gwynplaine severely to task. "Watch over your abominable jaws. There is a rule for the great--to do nothing; and a rule for the small--to say nothing. The poor man has but one friend, silence. He should only pronounce one syllable: 'Yes.' To confess and to consent is all the right he has. 'Yes,' to the judge; 'yes,' to the king. Great people, if it pleases them to do so, beat us. I have received blows from them. It is their prerogative; and they lose nothing of their greatness by breaking our bones. The ossifrage is a species of eagle. Let us venerate the sceptre, which is the first of staves. Respect is prudence, and mediocrity is safety. To insult the king is to put oneself in the same danger as a girl rashly paring the nails of a lion. They tell me that you have been prattling about the farthing, which is the same thing as the liard, and that you have found fault with the august medallion, for which they sell us at market the eighth part of a salt herring. Take care; let us be serious. Consider the existence of pains and penalties. Suck in these legislative truths. You are in a country in which the man who cuts down a tree three years old is quietly taken off to the gallows. As to swearers, their feet are put into the stocks. The drunkard is shut up in a barrel with the bottom out, so that he can walk, with a hole in the top, through which his head is passed, and with two in the bung for his hands, so that he cannot lie down. He who strikes another one in Westminster Hall is imprisoned for life and has his goods confiscated. Whoever strikes any one in the king's palace has his hand struck off. A fillip on the nose chances to bleed, and, behold! you are maimed for life. He who is convicted of heresy in the bishop's court is burnt alive. It was for no great matter that Cuthbert Simpson was quartered on a turnstile. Three years since, in 1702, which is not long ago, you see, they placed in the pillory a scoundrel, called Daniel Defoe, who had had the audacity to print the names of the Members of Parliament who had spoken on the previous evening. He who commits high treason is disembowelled alive, and they tear out his heart and buffet his cheeks with it. Impress on yourself notions of right and justice. Never allow yourself to speak a word, and at the first cause of anxiety, run for it. Such is the bravery which I counsel and which I practise. In the way of temerity, imitate the birds; in the way of talking, imitate the fishes. England has one admirable point in her favour, that her legislation is very mild." His admonition over, Ursus remained uneasy for some time. Gwynplaine not at all. The intrepidity of youth arises from want of experience. However, it seemed that Gwynplaine had good reason for his easy mind, for the weeks flowed on peacefully, and no bad consequences seemed to have resulted from his observations about the queen. Ursus, we know, lacked apathy, and, like a roebuck on the watch, kept a lookout in every direction. One day, a short time after his sermon to Gwynplaine, as he was looking out from the window in the wall which commanded the field, he became suddenly pale. "Gwynplaine?" "What?" "Look." "Where?" "In the field." "Well." "Do you see that passer-by?" "The man in black?" "Yes." "Who has a kind of mace in his hand?" "Yes." "Well?" "Well, Gwynplaine, that man is a wapentake." "What is a wapentake?" "He is the bailiff of the hundred." "What is the bailiff of the hundred?" "He is the _proepositus hundredi_." "And what is the _proepositus hundredi_?" "He is a terrible officer." "What has he got in his hand?" "The iron weapon." "What is the iron weapon?" "A thing made of iron." "What does he do with that?" "First of all, he swears upon it. It is for that reason that he is called the wapentake." "And then?" "Then he touches you with it." "With what?" "With the iron weapon." "The wapentake touches you with the iron weapon?" "Yes." "What does that mean?" "That means, follow me." "And must you follow?" "Yes." "Whither?" "How should I know?" "But he tells you where he is going to take you?" "No." "How is that?" "He says nothing, and you say nothing." "But--" "He touches you with the iron weapon. All is over then. You must go." "But where?" "After him." "But where?" "Wherever he likes, Gwynplaine." "And if you resist?" "You are hanged." Ursus looked out of the window again, and drawing a long breath, said,-- "Thank God! He has passed. He was not coming here." Ursus was perhaps unreasonably alarmed about the indiscreet remark, and the consequences likely to result from the unconsidered words of Gwynplaine. Master Nicless, who had heard them, had no interest in compromising the poor inhabitants of the Green Box. He was amassing, at the same time as the Laughing Man, a nice little fortune. "Chaos Vanquished" had succeeded in two ways. While it made art triumph on the stage, it made drunkenness prosper in the tavern. _ |
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