Les bijoux indiscrets Author:Denis Diderot Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. II. fbe fifteenth trial of the Ring. Alp Han A. THE Sultan was not ignorant;that the young lords of the court had private lodges ; but he was late... more »ly informed, that thofe retreats were likewife ufed by fome fenators. He was much furprized at this. " What " do they do there, faid he to him- " felf ? (For in this volume he will keep up the cuftom of monology, which he contracted in the firft.) I ' fhould think, that a man, whom I 4 have entrufted with the tranquillity, " forune, liberty, and lives of my people, ought not to have a private ? lodge. But perhaps a fenator's pri chapter{Section 4' rate lodge is quite different from " that of a Petit -Maitre. Can a magi- ftrate, before whom the interefts of 1 the greateft of my fubjects are dif- '" cuffed, who holds the fatal urn, out ' of which he is to draw the widow's 4 lot, can he, I fay, forget the dig- 4 nity of his ftate, and the importance of his duty ; and while Cochin fa- tigues his lungs in vain by carrying " the cries of the orphan to his ear, can he be ftudying fubjects of gal- " lantry, which are to be ornaments over the door of a place of fecret debauchery ? That cannot be.- However, let us fee." He faid, and departed for Akanto, where the fenator Hippomanes has his private lodge. He enters, walks round the appartments, and examines the furniture. Every thing has a gay appearance. The private lodge oAgefilas, the niceft and moft voluptuous of his courtiers,tiers, is not more elegant. He was on the point of refolving to leave it, without knowing what to think ; (for befides all the rich beds, the looking- glafs alcoves, the foft fofa's ; the cabinet of exquifite liquors, and every thing elfe, were filent witnefles of what he defired to know :) when h...« less