Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One VolumeVoltaire
Philosophy
Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One Volume
Voltaire
French fiction -- Translations into English
"No, your excellency," replied one of the zealots; "but we despise the
rest of the earth, because we preserve these rarities. We are a kind of
old clothes men, who derive our glory from the cast-off garbs in our
warehouses."
Amazan was willing to see the prince's palace, and he was accordingly
conducted thither. He saw men dressed in violet colored robes, who were
reckoning the money of the revenues of the domains of lands, some
situated upon the Danube, some upon the Loire, others upon the
Guadalquivir, or the Vistula.
"Oh! Oh!" said Amazan, having consulted his geographical map, "your
master, then, possesses all Europe, like those ancient heroes of the
Seven Mountains?"
"He should possess the whole universe by divine right," replied a
violet-livery man; "and there was even a time when his predecessors
nearly compassed universal monarchy, but their successors are so good as
to content themselves at present with some monies which the kings, their
subjects, pay to them in the form of a tribute."
"Your master is then, in fact, the king of kings. Is that his title?"
said Amazan.
[Illustration: The Old Man of The Seven Mountains.--"The Old Man of the
Seven Mountains went with great ceremony to the gate of the temple. He
cut the air in four parts with his thumb raised, two fingers extended
and two bent, in uttering these words in a language no longer spoken:
'To the city and to the universe.'"]
"Your excellency, his title is _the servant of servants_! He was
originally a fisherman and porter, wherefore the emblems of his dignity
consist of keys and nets; but he at present issues orders to every
king in Christendom. It is not a long while since he sent one hundred
and one mandates to a king of the Celts, and the king obeyed."
THE SERVANT OF SERVANTS.
The personal service of Pius IX. as it existed in 1873, without
counting Swiss gensdarmes, palatine guards, &c., is thus described
by the author of _The Religion of Rome_, page 21.
"The pope for his own exclusive personal service has four palatine
cardinals, three prelates and a master, ten prelates of the private
chamber, amongst whom are a cup-bearer, and a keeper of the
wardrobe; then two hundred and fifteen domestic prelates. Then
follow two hundred and forty-nine supernumerary prelates of the
private chamber, four private chamberlains of the sword and cloak,
Roman patricians, one of whom is a master of Santo Ospizto.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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