Victor Hugo excelled in the superb gestures appropriate to such a scene:
witness the passage in _Hernani_, before the tomb of Charlemagne, where
the obscure bandit claims the right to take his place at the head of the
princes and nobles whom the newly-elected Emperor has ordered off to
execution:
Hernani:
Dieu qui donne le sceptre et qui te le donna
M'a fait duc de Segorbe et duc de Cardona,
Marquis de Monroy, comte Albatera, vicomte
De Gor, seigneur de lieux dont j'ignore le compte.
Je suis Jean d'Aragon, grand maitre d'Avis, ne
Dans l'exil, fils proscrit d'un pere assassine
Par sentence du tien, roi Carlos de Castille.
* * * * *
(_Aux autres conjures_)
Couvrons nous, grands d'Espagnol
(_Tous les Espagnols se couvrent_)
Oui, nos tetes, o roi!
Ont le droit de tomber couvertes devant toi!
An effective scene of this type occurs in _Monsieur Beaucaire_, where
the supposed hairdresser is on the point of being ejected with contumely
from the pump-room at Bath, when the French Ambassador enters, drops on
his knee, kisses the young man's hand, and presents him to the astounded
company as the Duc d'Orleans, Comte de Valois, and I know not what
besides--a personage who immeasurably outshines the noblest of his
insulters.
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