Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v1.djvu/302

262 outside in his ear; a noisome fly of the slums. This buzzing rules him. A reign is a dictation: the loud voice is the sovereign; the muffled voice is the sovereignty. Those who know how to distinguish this muffled voice in a reign, and to hear its whispers, are the real historians.