The Man Who Laughs VICTOR HUGO PART 2 BOOK 1 CHAPTER 8 doc

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 t

The Man Who Laughs VICTOR HUGO

PART 2 BOOK 1 CHAPTER 8

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, be Pierre de Rohan, Marshal of France; if you would be influential, be

Olivier le Daim, the barber; if you would, under Mary de Medicis, be glorious, be Sillery, the Chancellor; if you would be a person of consideration, be La Hannon, the maid; if you would, under Louis XV., be illustrious, be Choiseul, the minister;

if you would be formidable, be Lebel, the valet Given, Louis XIV., Bontemps, who makes his bed, is more powerful than Louvois, who raises his armies, and Turenne, who gains his victories From Richelieu, take Père Joseph, and you have Richelieu nearly empty There is the mystery the less His Eminence in scarlet is magnificent; his Eminence in gray is terrible What power in being a worm! All the Narvaez amalgamated with all the O'Donnells do less work than one Sõr

Patrocinio

Of course the condition of this power is littleness If you would remain powerful, remain petty Be Nothingness The serpent in repose, twisted into a circle, is a figure at the same time of the infinite and of naught

One of these viper-like fortunes had fallen to Barkilphedro

He had crawled where he wanted

Flat beasts can get in everywhere Louis XIV had bugs in his bed and Jesuits in his policy

The incompatibility is nil

In this world everything is a clock To gravitate is to oscillate One pole is attracted

to the other Francis I is attracted by Triboulet; Louis XIV is attracted by Lebel There exists a deep affinity between extreme elevation and extreme debasement

It is abasement which directs Nothing is easier of comprehension It is he who is below who pulls the strings No position more convenient He is the eye, and has the ear He is the eye of the government; he has the ear of the king To have the eye

of the king is to draw and shut, at one's whim, the bolt of the royal conscience, and

to throw into that conscience whatever one wishes The mind of the king is his cupboard; if he be a rag-picker, it is his basket The ears of kings belong not to kings, and therefore it is that, on the whole, the poor devils are not altogether

responsible for their actions He who does not possess his own thought does not possess his own deed A king obeys what? Any evil spirit buzzing from outside in his ear; a noisome fly of the abyss

This buzzing commands A reign is a dictation

The loud voice is the sovereign; the low voice, sovereignty Those who know how

to distinguish, in a reign, this low voice, and to hear what it whispers to the loud, are the real historians