The Cat And the King
“So I am deliberately selecting the events, or episodes, of my life that have most bearing on that, which means that I shall shortly have occasion to skip over some dozen years. It was not, I cannot too much emphasize, that these skipped passages of time were unhappy or even unfruitful; it is simply that they were not relevant, at least in my opinion, to the chosen topic.
At the time of the failure of Conti’s Polish aspirations, I had resolved to eschew the life of political action for that of a... historiographer, and I remained more or less faithful to this resolution from 1697 the year of the marriage of the king’s third legitimate grandson, the due de Berry, to which I shall advert in a near chapter. During all these dozen or more years I stayed at court, noting everything, recording everything, and trying my hand at essays and tracts on various subjects, such as the story of certain ducal houses or the rights of peers in the parlements. I had not decided what form my ultimate work would take, but I had an idea that it would be extensive: a history of the peerage, or a history of our kings, or maybe even a history of France itself.MoreLess
At the time of the failure of Conti’s Polish aspirations, I had resolved to eschew the life of political action for that of a... historiographer, and I remained more or less faithful to this resolution from 1697 the year of the marriage of the king’s third legitimate grandson, the due de Berry, to which I shall advert in a near chapter. During all these dozen or more years I stayed at court, noting everything, recording everything, and trying my hand at essays and tracts on various subjects, such as the story of certain ducal houses or the rights of peers in the parlements. I had not decided what form my ultimate work would take, but I had an idea that it would be extensive: a history of the peerage, or a history of our kings, or maybe even a history of France itself.MoreLess
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