THROUGH A GLASS LIGHTLY
out of being by a pacific friar. It perished perfect, consummate, unregretted—for the usurper proved himself omnipotent. The invincible Dom Pérignon, some ten years earlier, had lighted on a precious hoard beside which the Abbé Faria’s was a trifle: for it was a case of incalculable milliards. And though the founder of a line is ever its greatest hero, so that Napoleon the Little is the natural complement of Napoleon the Great, this monk contrived to maintain the splendour of his order. He imparted his secret only when, in articulo mortis, he placed the crown on the head of Friar Philippe, his legitimate successor; who in his turn bequeathed it in 1765 to Brother André Lemaire. And this one reigned for thirty years, an enviable despot, and passed it down to his successor
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