Louis left his bed after a month and was back on his horse three months later. He was not ashamed of his anal problem. The whole of France knew about it and had shared their monarch’s anxiety in the weeks of waiting. Fortunately, the king survived, proving that the operation had been a success. Wearing bandages in one’s trousers even became the fashion for a short time at the court in Versailles, in imitation of the brave king. The fistulotomy became known as La Grande Opération or La Royale. The story goes that Félix de Tassy was asked by at least thirty courtiers to perform the same
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