Vladimir Nabokov. Solus Rex
Vladimir Nabokov. SOLUS REX
"Oh, you remember! The magical origin of power, and the fact—"
"Yes, I do, I do," hastily interrupted the prince and forthwith found the best way to have done with the faded topic: "I didn't finish then because there were too many ears around. You see, our whole misfortune lies today in the government's strange ennui, in national inertia, in the dreary bickering of Peplerhus members. All this is so because the very force of the spells, both popular and royal, has somehow evaporated, and our ancestral sorcery has been reduced to mere hocus-pocus. But let's not discuss these depressing matters now,