There was more policy in that than admiration, I fancy; for the dwarf was all-powerful among them and dreaded accordingly, and I was the dwarf's pet and plaything, and all-powerful with him.

The hideous creature had a most hideous passion for me then, and I could wind him round my finger as easily as Delilah and Samson; and by his command and their universal consent, the mimicry of royalty was begun, and I was made mistress and sovereign head, even over the dwarf himself.

It was a queer whim; but that crooked slug was always taking such odd notions into his head, which nobody there dared laugh at.

The band were bound together by a terrible oath, women and all; but they had to take another oath then, that of allegiance to me.
"It quite turned my brain at first; and my eyes were so dazzled by the pitiful glistening of the pageant, the sham splendor of the sham court, and the half-mocking, half-serious homage paid me, that I could see nothing beyond the shining surface, and the blackness, and corruption, and horror within, were altogether lost upon me.

This feeling increased when, as months and months went by, they were added to the mock peers of the Midnight Court, real nobles from that of St.Charles.I did not know then that they were ruined gamesters, vicious profligates, and desperate broken-down rous, who would have gone to pandemonium itself, nightly, for the mad license and lawless excesses they could indulge in here to their heart's content.