The Man Who Laughs Part II, Book the Eighth, Chapter I - Analysis of Majestic Matters

In which the inexorable hand of fate sweeps Gwynplaine from the shadows of imprisonment to the august presence of the British aristocracy, where ancient ceremonies and heraldic pomp envelope him in the grandeur of a peer of the realm. Amidst a pageant of heralds, nobles, and solemn rites, he is introduced to the House of Lords, a realm at once venerable and mutable, where tradition clings to the walls like the very dust of history.