|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: resumed with equal facility, the one his conscience, the other his
religion; they loved the same Virgin, one by conviction, the other by
policy; in short, if we may believe the jealous tales of Olivier de
Daim and Tristan, the king went to the house of the Fleming for those
diversions with which King Louis XI. diverted himself. History has
taken care to transmit to our knowledge the licentious tastes of a
monarch who was not averse to debauchery. The old Fleming found, no
doubt, both pleasure and profit in lending himself to the capricious
pleasures of his royal client.
Cornelius had now lived nine years in the city of Tours. During those
years extraordinary events had happened in his house, which had made
|
