CHAPTER VIII.

INFERI.

There are two ways of making a footing at court. In the clouds, and you

are august; in the mud, and you are powerful.

In the first case, you belong to Olympus.

In the second case, you belong to the private closet.

He who belongs to Olympus has but the thunderbolt, he who is of the

private closet has the police.

The private closet contains all the instruments of government, and

sometimes, for it is a traitor, its chastisement. Heliogabalus goes

there to die. Then it is called the latrines.

Generally it is less tragic. It is there that Alberoni admires Vendôme.

Royal personages willingly make it their place of audience. It takes the

place of the throne. Louis XIV. receives the Duchess of Burgundy there.

Philip V. is shoulder to shoulder there with the queen. The priest

penetrates into it. The private closet is sometimes a branch of the

confessional. Therefore it is that at court there are underground

fortunes--not always the least. If, under Louis XI., you would be great,

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The Man Who Laughs