““Her manifold ills were summed up in the King. Since the Valois, she had had no monarch so worthless. He did not want understanding, still less the graces of person. In his youth the people called him the “Well-beloved”; but by the middle of the century they so detested him that he dared not pass through Paris, lest the mob should execrate him. He had not the vigor of the true tyrant; but his languor, his hatred of all effort, his profound selfishness, his listless disregard of public duty, and his effeminate libertinism, mixed with superstitious devotion, made him no less a national curse.””
![“They feared her [the dream beloved], knowing that, being impossible, she was irresistable, and that was why the king loved her best.” quote by Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fba/salman-rushdie-153_dreams_they-feared-her-the-dream-beloved-knowin_3092396.jpg)
