Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v1.djvu/40

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THE MAN WHO LAUGHS.

Windsor, which is another, and eight castlewards, one at Burton-on-Trent, with a royalty on the carriage of plaster of Paris; then Grumdaith, Humble, Moricambe, Trewardraith, Hell-Kesters (where there is a miraculous well), Phillinmore, with its turf bogs, Reculver, near the ancient city Vagniac, Vinecaunton, on the Moel-eulle Mountain; besides nineteen boroughs and villages with reeves, and the whole of Penneth chase, all of which bring his lordship 40,000l. a year.

The one hundred and seventy-two peers enjoying their dignities under James II. possess among them altogether a revenue of 1,272,000l. sterling a year, which is the eleventh part of the revenue of England.


In the margin, opposite the last name (that of Linnæus, Lord Clancharlie), there was a note in the handwriting of Ursus:—


"Rebel; in exile; houses, lands, and chattels sequestrated. It is well."


IV.

Ursus admired Homo. One admires one's counterpart. That is a universal law.

To be always raging inwardly and grumbling outwardly was the normal condition of Ursus. He was the malcontent of creation. By nature he was a man ever in opposition. He took the world unkindly; he gave his approval to no one and to nothing. The bee did not atone for its sting by its honey-making; a full-blown rose did not absolve the sun for yellow fever and black vomit. It is probable that in secret Ursus criticised Providence a good deal. "Evidently," he would say, "the devil works by a spring, and the mistake that God made is having let go the trigger." He approved of none but princes, and he had his own peculiar way of