It was the first enjoyment of self-love that he had ever experienced.

Down to that day, he had known only humiliation, disdain for his condition, disgust for his person.

Hence, deaf though he was, he enjoyed, like a veritable pope, the acclamations of that throng, which he hated because he felt that he was hated by it.

What mattered it that his people consisted of a pack of fools, cripples, thieves, and beggars?
it was still a people and he was its sovereign.

And he accepted seriously all this ironical applause, all this derisive respect, with which the crowd mingled, it must be admitted, a good deal of very real fear.