the reflection on
the character of the greatest noble--nay, even the king himself; of
which I will give you a very bold instance. One day his simple majesty
told me he believed I had so much power that his people looked on me as
the king, and himself as my fool.

"At this I pretended to be angry, as with an affront. 'Why, how now?'
says the king; 'are you ashamed of being a king?' 'No, sir,' says I,
'but I am devilishly ashamed of my fool.'

"Herbert, earl of Vermandois, had by my means been restored to the favor
of the Simple (for so I used always to call Charles). He afterwards
prevailed with the king to take the city of Arras from earl Baldwin, by
which means, Herbert, in exchange for this city, had Peronne restored
to him by count Altmar. Baldwin came to court in order to procure
the restoration of his city; but, either through pride or ignorance,
neglected to apply to me. As I met him at court during his solicitation,
I told him he did not apply the right way; he answered roughly he should
not ask a fool's advice. I replied I did not wonder at his prejudice,
since he had miscarried already by following a fool's advice; but I told
him there were fools who had more interest than that he had brought with
him to court. He answered me surlily he had no fool with him, for that
he traveled alone. 'Ay, my lord,' says I, 'I often travel alone, and yet
they will have it I always carry a fool with me.' This raised a laugh
among the by-standers, on which he gave me a blow. I immediately
complained of this usage to the Simple, who dismissed the earl from
court with very hard words, instead of granting him the favor he
solicited.

"I give you these rather as a specimen of my interest and impudence than
of my wit--indeed, my jests were commonly more admired than they ought
to be; for perhaps I was not in reality much more a wit than a fool.
But, with the latitude of unbounded scurrility, it is easy enough
to attain the character of wit, especially in a court, where, as all
persons hate and envy one another heartily, and are at the same time
obliged by the constrained behavior of civility to profess the greatest
liking, so it is, and must be, wonderfully pleasant to them to see the
follies of their acquaintance exposed by a third person. Besides, the
opinion of the court is as uniform as the fashion, and is always
guided by the will of the prince or of the favorite. I doubt not that
Caligula's horse was universally held in his