L'homme qui rit. English

  CHAPTER VIII.

  INFERI.

  There are two ways of making a footing at court. In the clouds, and youare 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 theprivate closet has the police.

  The private closet contains all the instruments of government, andsometimes, for it is a traitor, its chastisement. Heliogabalus goesthere to die. Then it is called the latrines.

  Generally it is less tragic. It is there that Alberoni admires Vendome.Royal personages willingly make it their place of audience. It takes theplace of the throne. Louis XIV. receives the Duchess of Burgundy there.Philip V. is shoulder to shoulder there with the queen. The priestpenetrates into it. The private closet is sometimes a branch of theconfessional. Therefore it is that at court there are undergroundfortunes--not always the least. If, under Louis XI., you would be great,be Pierre de Rohan, Marshal of France; if you would be influential, beOlivier le Daim, the barber; if you would, under Mary de Medicis, beglorious, be Sillery, the Chancellor; if you would be a person ofconsideration, be La Hannon, the maid; if you would, under Louis XV., beillustrious, be Choiseul, the minister; if you would be formidable, beLebel, the valet. Given, Louis XIV., Bontemps, who makes his bed, ismore powerful than Louvois, who raises his armies, and Turenne, whogains his victories. From Richelieu, take Pere Joseph, and you haveRichelieu nearly empty. There is the mystery the less. His Eminence inscarlet is magnificent; his Eminence in gray is terrible. What power inbeing a worm! All the Narvaez amalgamated with all the O'Donnells doless work than one Sor Patrocinio.

  Of course the condition of this power is littleness. If you would remainpowerful, remain petty. Be Nothingness. The serpent in repose, twistedinto a circle, is a figure at the same time of the infinite and ofnaught.

  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 andJesuits in his policy.

  The incompatibility is nil.

  In this world everything is a clock. To gravitate is to oscillate. Onepole is attracted to the other. Francis I. is attracted by Triboulet;Louis XIV. is attracted by Lebel. There exists a deep affinity betweenextreme elevation and extreme debasement.

  It is abasement which directs. Nothing is easier of comprehension. It ishe who is below who pulls the strings. No position more convenient. Heis the eye, and has the ear. He is the eye of the government; he has theear of the king. To have the eye of the king is to draw and shut, atone's whim, the bolt of the royal conscience, and to throw into thatconscience whatever one wishes. The mind of the king is his cupboard; ifhe be a rag-picker, it is his basket. The ears of kings belong not tokings, and therefore it is that, on the whole, the poor devils are notaltogether responsible for their actions. He who does not possess hisown thought does not possess his own deed. A king obeys--what? Any evilspirit 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 whoknow how to distinguish, in a reign, this low voice, and to hear what itwhispers to the loud, are the real historians.