ABSTRACT
Around the court there is general and continual gossip, a general attentiveness to the chances for favour or disfavour. It was the subsequent misfortune of the royal house that the crown got into a ‘false position’, like anyone who is to represent right or fairness, i.e. the permanent interests of the nation among raging factions. In the face of passions, the representative of right has always been in such a position.
