The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: to reflect sometimes its stars, sometimes its storms.
The king was short of stature -- he was scarcely five feet
two inches: but his youth made up for this defect, set off
likewise by great nobleness in all his movements, and by
considerable address in all bodily exercises.
Certes, he was already quite a king, and it was a great
thing to be a king in that period of traditional devotedness
and respect; but as, up to that time, he had been but seldom
and always poorly shown to the people, as they to whom he
was shown saw him by the side of his mother, a tall woman,
and monsieur le cardinal, a man of commanding presence, many
 Ten Years Later |