The Cour des Miracles is a maze of nameless alleys and courtyards in Paris where beggars, hired cripples and outlaws retire each night to remove their false sores and stage crutches. The “miracle” is that they enter lame and blind and recover step and sight in the dark; the rest of the city pretends not to know where it is.
In 1648, with the Fronde filling Paris with rumors and barricades, its beggars became indispensable informants. The King of the Beggars — a title earned, not inherited — trades this intelligence with those who negotiate outside the protocols of the Palais-Royal. Madeline Boulet and Jeanne Devossie, among others, have crossed into it more than once.