The Man Who Laughs


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CHAPTER II.  
THE RESEMBLANCE OF A PALACE TO A WOOD.  
In palaces after the Italian fashion, and Corleone Lodge was one, there  
were very few doors, but abundance of tapestry screens and curtained  
doorways. In every palace of that date there was a wonderful labyrinth  
of chambers and corridors, where luxury ran riot; gilding, marble,  
carved wainscoting, Eastern silks; nooks and corners, some secret and  
dark as night, others light and pleasant as the day. There were attics,  
richly and brightly furnished; burnished recesses shining with Dutch  
tiles and Portuguese azulejos. The tops of the high windows were  
converted into small rooms and glass attics, forming pretty habitable  
lanterns. The thickness of the walls was such that there were rooms  
within them. Here and there were closets, nominally wardrobes. They were  
called "The Little Rooms." It was within them that evil deeds were  
hatched.  
When a Duke of Guise had to be killed, the pretty PrĂ©sidente of  
Sylvecane abducted, or the cries of little girls brought thither by  
Lebel smothered, such places were convenient for the purpose. They were  
labyrinthine chambers, impracticable to a stranger; scenes of  
abductions; unknown depths, receptacles of mysterious disappearances. In  
those elegant caverns princes and lords stored their plunder. In such a  
place the Count de Charolais hid Madame Courchamp, the wife of the Clerk  
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Quick Jump
1 236 472 708 944