Victor Hugo - The Man Who Laughs - Cosmopolitan University 2

CHAPTER XII.
SCOTLAND, IRELAND, AND ENGLAND.
Let us note a circumstance. Josiana had _le tour_.
This is easy to understand when we reflect that she was, although
illegitimate, the queen's sister--that is to say, a princely personage.
To have _le tour_--what does it mean?
Viscount St. John, otherwise Bolingbroke, wrote as follows to Thomas
Lennard, Earl of Sussex:--
"Two things mark the great--in England, they have _le tour;_ in France,
_le pour_."
When the King of France travelled, the courier of the court stopped at
the halting-place in the evening, and assigned lodgings to his Majesty's
suite.
Amongst the gentlemen some had an immense privilege. "They have _le
pour_" says the _Journal Historique_ for the year 1694, page 6; "which
means that the courier who marks the billets puts '_pour_' before their
names--as, '_Pour_ M. le Prince de Soubise;' instead of which, when he
marks the lodging of one who is not royal, he does not put _pour_, but
simply the name--as, 'Le Duc de Gesvres, le Duc de Mazarin.'" This
_pour_ on a door indicated a prince or a favourite. A favourite is worse
than a prince. The king granted _le pour_, like a blue ribbon or a
peerage.
_Avoir le tour_ in England was less glorious but more real. It was a
sign of intimate communication with the sovereign. Whoever might be, by
birth or favour, in a position to receive direct communications from
majesty, had in the wall of their bedchamber a shaft in which was
adjusted a bell. The bell sounded, the shaft opened, a royal missive
appeared on a gold plate or on a cushion of velvet, and the shaft
closed. This was intimate and solemn, the mysterious in the familiar.
The shaft was used for no other purpose. The sound of the bell announced
a royal message. No one saw who brought it. It was of course merely the
page of the king or the queen. Leicester _avait le tour_ under
Elizabeth; Buckingham under James I. Josiana had it under Anne, though
not much in favour. Never was a privilege more envied.
This privilege entailed additional servility. The recipient was more of
a servant. At court that which elevates, degrades. _Avoir le tour_ was
said in French; this circumstance of English etiquette having, probably,
been borrowed from some old French folly.
Lady Josiana, a virgin peeress as Elizabeth had been a virgin queen,
led--sometimes in the City, and sometimes in the country, according to
the season--an almost princely life, and kept nearly a court, at which
Lord David was courtier, with many others.