The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: public prosecutor, the minister--here they are, all hoodwinked, all
moving the spheres for some letters written by a duchess and a chit,
or to save the reason of a woman who is more crazy in her right mind
than she was in her delirium."
And he smiled haughtily.
"Ay," said he to himself, "and they believe in me! They act on my
information, and will leave me in power. I shall still rule the world
which has obeyed me these five-and-twenty years."
Jacques Collin had brought into play the overpowering influence he had
exerted of yore over poor Esther; for he had, as has often been shown,
the mode of speech, the look, the action which quell madmen, and he
|