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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 Présidente 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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