This house, which was so large as to be fully known to none but some ancient officers who successively
inherited the secrets of the place, was built as if suspicion herself had dictated the plan. To every room
there was an open and secret passage; every square had a communication with the rest, either from
the upper stories by private galleries, or by subterranean passages from the lower apartments. Many of
the columns had unsuspected cavities, in which a long race of monarchs had reposited their treasures.
They then closed up the opening with marble, which was never to be removed but in the utmost exigencies
of the kingdom; and recorded their accumulations in a book, which was itself concealed in a tower, not
entered but by the emperor, attended by the prince who stood next in succession.