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given his way, so much was he feared. He who can make the king laugh
makes the others tremble. He was a powerful buffoon. Every day he worked
his way forward--underground. Barkilphedro became a necessity. Many
great people honoured him with their confidence, to the extent of
charging him, when they required him, with their disgraceful
commissions.
There are wheels within wheels at court. Barkilphedro became the motive
power. Have you remarked, in certain mechanisms, the smallness of the
motive wheel?
Josiana, in particular, who, as we have explained, made use of
Barkilphedro's talents as a spy, reposed such confidence in him that she
had not hesitated to entrust him with one of the master-keys of her
apartments, by means of which he was able to enter them at any hour.
This excessive licence of insight into private life was in fashion in
the seventeenth century. It was called "giving the key." Josiana had
given two of these confidential keys--Lord David had one, Barkilphedro
the other. However, to enter straight into a bedchamber was, in the old
code of manners, a thing not in the least out of the way. Thence
resulted incidents. La Ferté, suddenly drawing back the bed curtains of
Mademoiselle Lafont, found inside Sainson, the black musketeer, etc.,
etc.
Barkilphedro excelled in making the cunning discoveries which place the
great in the power of the little. His walk in the dark was winding,
soft, clever. Like every perfect spy, he was composed of the inclemency
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