Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: Statue of Louis XIV, the Builder of Versailles.]

The Story of Versailles

BY

FRANCIS LORING PAYNE

NEW YORK

MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY

1919

COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY

MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY.

Press of

J.J. Little & Ives Co.

New York

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Chapter

I. THE BEGINNING OF VERSAILLES

II. THE MAKING OF VERSAILLES. THE LUXURIOUS CHATEAU AND PARKLAND OF LOUIS XIV

III. THE LUXURY OF VERSAILLES

IV. THE GARDENS, THE FOUNTAINS AND THE GRAND TRIANON

V. A DAY WITH THE SUN KING

VI. GOLDEN DAYS AND RED LETTER NIGHTS

VII. THE WOMEN OF VERSAILLES

VIII. THE VERSAILLES OF LOUIS XV

IX. THE TWILIGHT OF THE BOURBON KINGS

X. THE SHRINE OF ROYAL MEMORIES, THE
SCENE OF WORLD ADJUSTMENTS

FOREWORD

THE HALL OF MIRRORS

I

If you could speak what tales your tongues could tell,
You voiceless mirrors of the storied past!
Do you remember when the curtain fell
On him who learned he was not God at last?

II

Do you still see the shadows of the great?
On powdered wigs and velvets, silks and lace;
Or dream at night a feted queen, in state,
Accepts men's homage with a haughty face?

III

A thousand names come tumbling to the mind.
Of dead who gazed upon themselves through you.
And went their way, each one his end to find
In paths that glory or red terror knew.

IV

Voltaire and Rousseau and Ben Franklin here,
You've seen hobnobbing with the highly-born;
Seen Genius smile, while, with a hint of fear,
It gave to Birth not homage but its scorn.

V

Do you remember that Teutonic jaw
Of him who crowned an emperor, that you
Might know that Bismarck was above all law
And free to do what victor vandals do?

VI

Oh, Hall of Visions, now shall come anon
A grander sight than you have ever seen;
You've mirrored kings, but you shall look upon
The mighty men whose edicts freedom mean

VII

To races and to peoples sore oppressed;
The men who mould the future for a race
That breathes a wind that's blowing from the West--
And you'll forget the Bourbon's evil face!

--EDWARD S. VAN ZILE.
N. Y. Eve. Sun., Nov. 25

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Builder of Versailles . . . Frontispiece

Versailles

The Hall of Mirrors

The Fountain at Versailles

INTRODUCTION

A TRAVELER'S REFLECTIONS ON VERSAILLES

From the low heights of Satory we get a complete view of the plains of Versailles--the woods, the town and the sumptuous chateau. The palace on its dais rules the scene. The village and ornamental environment have been constructed to augment its majesty. Even the soil has been "molded into new forms" at a monarch's caprice. Versailles is the expression of monarchy, as conceived by Louis XIV. It is the only epic produced in his reign--a reign so fertile in the other forms of poetry, and in talent of all kinds. What epic ever chronicled the destiny of an epoch in a manner more brilliant and complete? In this poem of stone the manners of heroic and familiar life mingle at every step. Besides the halls and galleries, the theaters of royal estate, there are mysterious passages and sequestered nooks that whisper a thousand secret histories. The palace has two voices, one grave and one gay and trifling. It is full of truths and fictions, tears and smiles. The personages of its drama are as various as life itself; kings, poets, ministers, courtiers, confessors, courtesans, queens without power, and queens with too much power; ambassadors, generals, little abbes and great ladies; nobles, clergy, even the people. For two centuries did this crowd continue to pass and re-pass over these marble floors and under these gilded vaults; and every day its flood became more impetuous, every day it gave way more and more to the whims and passions. And the palace heard all, saw all, spied all--and has retained all, each action in its acted hour, each word in its place. During the two centuries of absolute monarchy, nothing took place that Versailles did not either originate or answer. Every shot that was fired in Flanders, Germany and Spain awakened here an echo. Richelieu was here, the first statesman of the monarchy, and Necker, the last. French literary history is inscribed on its walls, which received within them the great writers of France from Moliere to Beaumarchais. Art erected especially for Versailles the schools and systems whose influence has been felt through the succeeding centuries. For Versailles, Lebrun became a painter, Coysevox a sculptor, and Mansard an architect. But it was not France alone that depended on Versailles. Foreign nations sent their representatives to this famous center; the choice spirits of Europe came to visit it.

The history of Versailles was for two centuries the history of civilization. From Versailles may be seen the movement of manners, wars, diplomacy, literature, arts and energies that agitated Europe.

On entering Versailles by the Paris avenue, we see the palace on the summit of the horizon. The houses, scattered here and there and concealed among the trees, appear less to form a town than to accompany the monument raised beyond and above them. Approaching the Place d'Armes, we distinguish the different parts of which the imposing mass of buildings is composed. In the center is a singular bit of architecture. In vain the neighboring masses extend their circle around it: their great arms are unable to stifle it; but it possesses a seriousness of character that attracts the eye more strongly than their high white walls. This is the remains of the chateau built by Louis XIII at Versailles. Louis XIV did not wish to bury his father's dwelling.

THE STORY OF VERSAILLES

CHAPTER I

THE BEGINNINGS OF VERSAILLES

A dreary expanse of low-lying marsh-land, dismal, gloomy and full of quicksands, where the only objects that relieved the eye were the crumbling walls of old farm buildings, and a lonely windmill, standing on a roll of higher ground and stretching its gaunt arms toward the sky as if in mute appeal against its desolate surroundings--such was Versailles in 1624. This uninviting spot was situated eleven miles southwest of Paris, the capital city of France, the royal city, the seat, during a century before, of the splendid court of the brilliant Francis I and of the stout-hearted Henry II, the scene of the masterful rule of Catherine de Medici, of the career of the engaging and beautiful Marguerite de Valois and of the exploits of the gallant Henry of Navarre.

The desolate stretch of marshland, with its lonely windmill, meant nothing then to the court nor to the busy fortune-hunting and pleasure-seeking inhabitants of Paris. No one had reason to go to Versailles, except perhaps the poor farmers and the owner of the isolated mill--least of all the nobility and fashionable folk of the glittering capital. No exercise of the imagination could then have conjured up the picture of the splendor in store for the barren waste of Versailles. The mention of the name in 1600 would have brought nothing more from the lips of royalty and nobility than an indifferent inquiry: "And what, pray, is Versailles and where may it be?" You, my lord, who raise your eyebrows interrogatingly, and you, my lady, who flick your fan so carelessly, will some day behold your grandchildren paying humble and obsequious court to the reigning favorites at Versailles--yes, out there on this very moorland where you see nothing but marshy hollows and ruined walls, there will your lord and master, your glorious Sun King, the Grand Monarch, Louis the Fourteenth, build a palace home that Belshazzar might justly have envied: there will he hold high court and set the whole world agape at his prodigal outlay and magnificent festivities. And well may we inquire to-day: how came this dreary waste to be the wondrous Versailles, the seat and scene of so much in the making and the making-over of the world?

Ancient records of France indicate that in 1065 the priory of St. Julien was established on the estates of the house of Versaliis--a grant under royal protection. A poor farm community grew up about the ecclesiastical retreat. Here, also, on the estates of the barony of Versailles, was a repair of lepers, destroyed in the sixteenth century.

The origin of the name is said by some to be derived from the fact that the plains thereabouts were exposed to such high winds that the grain in the poor land was frequently overturned (verses). The lord of these acres first named in history is Hugues (Hugo) de Versaliis, who lived early in the eleventh century and was a contemporary of the first kings of the Capet dynasty. A long line of nobles of this family succeeded him. In 1561 Martial de Leomenie, Secretary of Finance under Charles IX, became master of Versailles. The farming village being on the route between Paris and Brittany, he obtained from the king permission to establish here four annual fairs and a weekly market on Thursdays. Martial perished in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572. Henry IV, as a prince, when hunting the stag with Martial often swept across the low plains of Versailles. The rights to the lands of the barony were acquired by Marechal de Retz from the children of Martial de Leomenie, and inherited from the noble duke by his son, Jean-Francois de Gondi, first archbishop of France. It was this prelate that sold to Louis XIII in 1632, for 66,000 pounds (about $27,400), the land and barony of Versailles, consisting, in the phrase of the original deed, "of an old house in ruins and a farm with several buildings."

In 1624, Louis XIII, who had hunted in the vicinity of Versailles since childhood and in later life had sought relief there from ennui and melancholy, often slept in a low inn or in the hill-top windmill after long hunts in the forest of St. Leger. It occurred to him that it would be convenient for him to have a pavilion or hunting-lodge in this unattractive place, and accordingly he ordered one erected at Versailles, on the road that led to the forest of St. Leger. In 1627, concluding that in no other domain of its limited acreage could he find so great variety of land over which to hunt on foot and horse-back, he bought a small piece of property at Versailles. Immediately afterwards he caused to be erected what Saint-Simon called "a little house of cards" on the isolated hill that rolled up in the heart of the valley, where the windmill had stood.

Louis' architect was Philbert Le Roy, and the new villa was about two hundred feet from the lodge first constructed. Its form was a complete square, each corner being terminated by a tower. The building was of brick, ornamented with columns and gilded balustrades; it was surrounded by a park adorned with statues sculptured after designs by the artist Poussin. Ambitious addition! A villa on the old mill site, decorated by the favorite court artist of the day, Nicolas Poussin! The court resented the enterprise, the nobility despised it. It was the King's fancy; nothing else excused it. A noble of the court, Bassompierre, exclaimed that "it was a wretched chateau in the construction of which no private gentleman could be vain."

Scarcely was his new chateau finished (1630) when the King took up his residence there for the hunt. In this place were terminated in November, 1630, the autocratic services of Cardinal Richelieu to the King--the first of many significant historical events to take place there.

The King's sojourns at Versailles during the hunting season, however, had their effect. Many of the royal intimates were influenced to build on land given to them by the sovereign. So before Louis XIII died his chateau was surrounded by many charming country houses. On April 8, 1632, Louis came into possession of the feudal dwelling of Jean-Francois de Gondi and its lands. Versailles then began to acquire distinction. It was the King's resort. Could any one afford to question its character, or location, or the standing of those that, at the King's behest, took up their residence there? Not we surely, who can now view Versailles in the light of history. All aside from its splendid court life and its magnificent festivities, we know it as the scene of three epoch-making events in the world's history. During and shortly after the American Revolution, Versailles was the scene of treaty negotiations in which France, England and America were the active parties. About a century later, in 1871, the treaty was consummated there that ended the Franco-Prussian War, by which France lost Alsace and Lorraine and was forced to pay to Germany $1,000,000,000. And now, in our day, the most superb irony of history has brought about a treaty in the same Hall of Mirrors by which Germany repays, and the map of Europe undergoes radical changes.

CHAPTER II

THE MAKING OF VERSAILLES

The Luxurious Chateau and Parkland of Louis XIV

At the death of Louis XIII, in 1643, the little chateau of Versailles was abandoned as a dwelling. Then followed a fall in values at Versailles and a great flutter of uncertainty among those that had followed the King there. This feeling of doubt lasted for seven years. The faces of the court favorites were turned back toward Paris, and individual fortunes were speculatively weighed in the balance with the possibilities of the new King's whims and fancies. But when the twelve-year-old Louis XIV came to hunt in the vicinity of Versailles for the first time, he found the suburban dwelling of his father attractive from the start. The Gazette noted this visit, in 1651, and described the supper that the royal boy shared with the officials of the chateau. Two months later the King supped again at Versailles, and was so delighted with the estate and the hunting to be had thereabouts that, thereafter, he made it a yearly custom to visit Versailles once or twice in the hunting season, sometimes with his brother, sometimes with his prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin.

Returning in 1652 from an interview at Corbeil with Charles II of England, then seeking refuge in France, Louis XIV dined at Versailles with his mother, Anne of Austria. In October, 1660, four months after his marriage to Maria Theresa of Spain, he brought his young queen there. The future of Versailles was assured. The King had decided to set his star and make his palace home where his father had established a hunting lodge.

The year 1661 was one of the most important in the history of the monarch. On March fifteenth, eight days after the death of Mazarin, the great Colbert was named Superintendent of Finances. It was he who was to give to the reign of Louis XIV its definite direction; his name was to be lastingly associated with the founding of the greater Versailles, and with the construction of the Louvre, the Tuileries, Fontainebleau and Saint-Germain. But Colbert's task in the enlargement of Versailles was no easy one, nor did he approve of it. He opposed the young King's purpose obstinately and expressed himself on the subject without reserve. "Your majesty knows," he wrote to the King, "that, apart from brilliant actions in war, nothing marks better the grandeur and genius of princes than their buildings, and that posterity measures them by the standard of the superb edifices that they erect during their lives. Oh, what a pity that the greatest king, and the most virtuous, should be measured by the standard of Versailles! And there is always this misfortune to fear."

But the King, like many another great monarch, had dreamed a dream. He was not satisfied with Paris as a residence. So he told Colbert to make his dream of Versailles come true--and Colbert had to find some way to pay the cost.

An irritating cause of the King's purpose lay in the fact that he was incited by the splendors of the chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, built by his ill-fated minister, Fouquet. Louis determined to surpass that mansion by one so much more elaborate as to crush it into insignificance. Nicholas Fouquet had employed the most renowned masters of this period--among them Louis Le Vau, the architect, Andre Le Notre, the landscape gardener, and Charles Lebrun, the decorator. These were the men the King summoned to transform the modest hunting villa of his father. At the truly gorgeous chateau of his minister, he had witnessed the full measure of their genius. On August 17, 1661, Fouquet gave an elaborate fete to celebrate the completion of the chateau, which the King attended. Within three weeks the host was a prisoner of State, accused of peculation in office. Acting immediately upon his resolution to out-do the glories of Vaux-le-Vicomte, Louis engaged Le Notre to plan gardens and Le Vau to submit proposals for the enlargement and decoration of the chateau. One of the first apartments completed was the chamber of the infant Dauphin--heir to the throne, who was born in November, 1661. Colbert reported in September, 1663, that in two years he had spent 1,500,000 pounds, and a good part of this sum was for the construction of the gardens. Builders and decorators suggested one elaborate project after another, without regard to the cost, despite the protest of Colbert to the King that they were exceeding all estimates and provisions. It was a paradise period for profiteers.

Versailles became a favorite retreat of the extravagant young sovereign. He frequently drove out from Paris, and on sundry occasions gave splendid balls and dinners.

For periods of increasing frequency the King was in residence at Versailles. He urged on the builders who had in hand the construction of the living-rooms, kitchens, stables; he supervised the placing of pictures and other decorative works in various parts of the expanded chateau; impatiently he chided the superintendents for delay and feverishly they strove to meet his demands for greater haste. And though every hour of haste cost the King of France a substantial sum, he cared for nothing but the fulfillment of his luxurious plans. Hundreds of laborers were engaged in laying out the orangery, the grand terrace, the fruit and vegetable gardens. The original entrance court was greatly enlarged. Long wings terminated by pavilions bordered it. On the right were the kitchens, with quarters for the domestics; on the left, the stables, where there were stalls for fifty-four horses. At the main entrance to the court were pavilions used by the musketeers as guard-houses. Those were bustling times at Versailles, and every day disclosed a new development and opened the way to new miracles of construction.

And the miracles were wrought, one after another--all by order of the King. On the site of the park a great terrace was bordered by a parterre in the shape of a half-moon, where a waterfall was later installed. A long promenade, now called the Allee Royale, extended to a vast basin named the Lake of Apollo. Streamlets were diverted to feed fountains. Twelve hundred and fifty orange trees were transported from the fallen estate of Vaux to fill the long arcades of the orangery.

In the midst of the activities of masons, carpenters, gardeners, the King was dominant, directing minute details--the laying of floors, the hanging of draperies, the installation of art works in the chapel. The restive master of the estate was impatient to enjoy his creation, and to invite his Court there to celebrate its completion with fetes both brilliant and costly. Colbert wrote in a letter dated September, 1663, of the beauty of the chateau's adornments--its Chinese filigree of gold and silver.

"Never," he swore, "had China itself seen so many examples of this work together--nor had all Italy seen so many flowers." Colbert suffered, but the King found royal satisfaction. The splendid scene of the Sun King must be set--the people had to pay. It was Colbert's affair to finance it.

The King commanded a series of fetes to be arranged. For eight days every diversion appropriate to the autumn season was enjoyed by the royal family and all the Court. Every day there were balls, ballets, comedies, concerts, promenades, hunts. Moliere and his troupe were commanded to appear in a new piece called "Impromptu de Versailles."

Colbert regretted the absorption of his sovereign in Versailles, "to the neglect of the Louvre--assuredly the most superb palace in the world." Louis tolerantly gave ear and inspected the Louvre, but to the building of Versailles he devoted all his enthusiasm.

The appearance of the villa erected by Louis XIII had been vastly altered as to its roofs, chimneys, facades. In 1665 the court was ornamented by the placing of the pedestals and busts that still surround it. In addition to the main edifice, the King gave orders for the building of small dwellings to be occupied by favorites of his entourage, and by musicians, actors and cooks. Three broad tree-lined avenues were laid out and the highway to Paris--the Cours-la-Reine--commenced. Already Versailles took on a more imposing aspect than ancient Fontainebleau. Workmen were constantly busy with the building of reservoirs, the laying of sod, the planting of labyrinths, hedges, secret paths and bosky retreats, with the setting out of hundreds of trees brought from Normandy, and the seeding of flower gardens of surpassing beauty. Ponds, fountains, grottoes, waterfalls and straying brooks came into being at the command of the ambitious young ruler. At some distance from the chateau courts and cages were constructed to shelter rare birds and animals. It was designed that this should be "the most splendid palace of animals in the world." The King decided the details of building and decoration and supervised the installation of the furred and feathered tenants of the palatial menagerie. This was the enclosure so greatly admired by La Fontaine, Racine and Boileau, during a visit to Versailles in 1668.

The first epoch of the construction of Louis XIV coincided with the first sculptural decoration of Versailles. A great number of works of art were ordered for the adornment of the walks and gardens. Many statues and busts of mythological subjects that were made at Rome to the order of Fouquet, after models by Nicolas Poussin, were removed from Vaux to Versailles. That was a thriving period for sculptors of France and adjacent countries. Records faithfully kept by Colbert detail expenditures of thousands of pounds of the nation's money for bronze vases, stone figures of nymphs and dryads and dancing fauns that were placed among the trees and fountains of Versailles. Much of the ornamental sculpture ordered at this time disappeared from the royal domain, as Louis XIV constantly demanded the work of the newest artists and all the novelties of the moment.

By the year 1668 Versailles apparently approached completion. It had then been seven years in building. But in 1669 the general character of the chateau was again changed. In the embellishments proposed by Le Vau, the architect, the royal domain became the scene of renewed activity, engendered by the King, then just turned thirty years of age, and eager to achieve still greater improvements at Versailles to mark the increasing prosperity of his reign. Half-finished buildings were demolished and begun anew. Immense structures arose, and once again artists flocked to Versailles. Inside the palace and in the park they wrought an elaborate scheme of decoration that made this the most sumptuous dwelling of the monarchy. In the words of Madame Scudery, an annalist of that epoch, Versailles, under the new orders of the King, became "incomparably more beautiful." Another Versailles was born; at the same time there was created a town on the vast acres purchased by the King, in the midst of which three great avenues were built, converging toward the chateau. In addition to the enlargement and improvement of the palace, the King ordered the erection of houses for the use of Colbert, now superintendent of the royal buildings, and for the officers of the Chancellery. From this time he interested himself particularly in the advancement of the infant town; he bought the village of "Old Versailles" and made liberal grants of land to individuals who agreed to build houses there. Opposite the chateau arose the mansions of illustrious nobles of the Court.

As the King remained obstinate in his determination that the "little chateau" of his father should not be removed to make room for a structure more in harmony with the surrounding ostentation, Le Vau covered over the moats and built around the lodge of Louis XIII with imposing effect. The new buildings containing the state apartments of the King and Queen and public salons were separated by great courts from the insignificant beginning of all this mounting splendor. Le Vau did not live to see the completion of the palace. He died in 1670. The work of reconstruction, in which the King maintained a lively interest whether at home or abroad, was continued by the architect's pupils at a cost of thousands of pounds. Eagerly Louis read plans and listened to reports. With still greater interest he attended the proposals of the great Mansard--nephew of the designer and builder who in 1650 revived the use of the "Mansard roof." When he succeeded as "first architect," Jules Mansard (or Mansart) first undertook the erection of quarters for the Bourbon princes. In the same year (1679) that he began the immense south wing for their use, he gave instructions for the building of the now historic Hall of Mirrors between two pavilions named--most appropriately in the light of after events--the Salon of Peace and the Salon of War. From the high arched windows of this glittering Grand Gallery great personages of past and present epochs have surveyed the gardens, fountains and broad walks that are the crowning glory of Versailles.

In the time of the Grand Monarque more than a thousand jets of water cast their silver spray against the greenery of hedge and grove. "Nothing is more surprising," said a chronicler of Louis the Fourteenth's reign, "than the immense quantity of water thrown up by the fountains when they all play together at the promenades of the King. These jets are capable of using up a river." A writer of our day bids us pause for a moment at the viewpoint in the gardens most admired by the King--at the end of the Allee of Latona. "To the east, beyond the brilliant parterre of Latona, with its fountains, its flowers, and its orange-trees, rise the vine-covered walls of the terraces, with their spacious flights of steps and their vividly green clipped yews. Turn to the west and survey the Royal Allee, the Basin of Apollo, and the Grand Canal, or look to the north to the Allee of Ceres, or to the south to that of Bacchus, and you realize the harmony that existed between Mansard and Le Notre in the decoration of the chateau and in the plan of the gardens." Beyond the palace and the surrounding gardens lay the park in which the Grand Trianon was built, of marble, near the bank of the Grand Canal. Madame de Maintenon, who became the King's second wife, was housed within these sumptuous walls, which were completed in 1688.

And so the construction of this miracle work of the Great Monarch went on. In Versailles, Louis was bent on realizing himself, and nothing but himself. The Pharaoh of Egypt built his pyramids with as little consideration of what it meant in tribute from his subjects. Each year took its toll in money and men to make this home of Louis the Magnificent. "The King," wrote Madame de Sevigne on the twelfth of October, 1678, "wishes to go on Saturday to Versailles, but it seems that God does not wish it, by the impossibility of putting the buildings in a state to receive him, and by the great mortality among the workmen." But the work had continued, as the King commanded, and when he finally entered into possession of his new palace in 1682 with all his Court, thirty-six thousand men and six thousand horses were still engaged in making matters comfortable and satisfactory for His Glorious Majesty. "The State," exclaimed the Sun King, "it is I!" and in the same mood he might have added, "Versailles--it is the State!"

CHAPTER III

THE LUXURY OF VERSAILLES

The Splendors of the Chateau--its Apartments and Gardens, the Hall of Mirrors

In planning the interior decorations at Versailles, the numerous company of artists employed by the sovereign devised a scheme of ornamentation inspired by the arts of ancient Rome. Mythological and historical subjects were utilized for the glorification of the Grand Monarch. A Description of the chateau, officially printed in 1674, gives us the key to the interpretation of the allegories. "As the Sun is the device of the King, and poets represent the Sun and Apollo as one, nothing exists in this superb dwelling that does not bear relation to the Sun divinity."

The emblem of Apollo was in evidence everywhere; signs of the month ornamented facades and walls; and inside the palace and out were symbols of the seasons and the hours of the day. The King's apartment bore on its ceiling and walls paintings depicting deeds of seven heroes of Antiquity, supported by Louis' planet emblem. All the interior decoration was Italian in style--marble wainscoting in window embrasures, floors of marble, panels of marble, doors of repousse bronze. The apartments of Anne of Austria and the Gallery of Apollo at the Louvre offered the first examples in France of this decorative style, and guided the artists at Versailles in making their plans.

Upon the Grand Apartments of the King and Queen alone, a dozen painters were engaged between the years 1671 and 1680. Charles Lebrun directed the artists, most of whom, be it said, were poor colorists. He himself worked on the vault above the Stairway of the Ambassadors and in the Hall of Mirrors. To imitate Italian works of art was at that time the avowed ideal of French decorators. At Rome the King's purse paid the expenses of a group of young artists who were allotted the task of copying designs that were later evolved at Versailles. To some was assigned the copying of ornaments made of metal, mosaic and inlay. Others specialized on bronze and wood-carving designs. There were painters who made only sketches of battle scenes and sieges. There were sculptors on the King's staff of copyists, and goldsmiths, and enamel workers. Flemish, Dutch, French, but principally Italian, craftsmen were recruited from the art centers of Europe, "for the glory of the King." At the Gobelin Tapestry Factory--a royal establishment--the workers were directed by Charles Lebrun, who for many years had been head of the "Royal Manufactory of Crown Furniture."

It was in the year 1677 that Louis XIV formally proclaimed Versailles his residence and the seat of Government. It was for the purpose of providing quarters for the Court and its attendants that Mansard was commanded to enlarge the chateau. Versailles now became, in truth, the temple of royalty. The newly appointed architect gave to the chateau its final aspect; the stamp of his genius rests upon the exterior design and interior embellishment of the most remarkable dwelling in the history of French architecture.

Versailles

When the Court came to live at Versailles in May, 1682, Mansard and his builders were still feverishly occupied in the work of construction and reconstruction. The year 1684 saw the end of the ornamentation of the interior in the completion of the Hall of Mirrors. Mansard's style is particularly impressed upon the Marble Stairway, and the adjacent Hall of the Queen's Guards, and, above all, on the Grand Gallery of the Mirrors and the Salons (Peace and War) that flank it--works truly impressive in their proportions, adornment and arrangement.

Disposed about three sides of the main court, the red chateau was set low on a slight rise of land. The main entrance was flanked by the North Wing and the South Wing, interrupted throughout their length by lesser courts. The domed chapel upreared to the right of the gate was the fourth one to serve the palace. After a period of building lasting ten years it was consecrated in the year 1710. The exquisite white stone edifice is still regarded as an architectural gem. Its interior embellishments were carried out by some of the best artists of the Sun King's epoch. Here during the last years of his long and spectacular reign, Louis the Great worshiped. Here Marie Antoinette was married to the Sixteenth Louis.

Arrivals at the palace were admitted from the Place d'Armes to the court designated for their reception. Only the King and his family might enter by the central gate. Nobles passed through the gates at the side. Privileged persons were permitted to alight in the Royal Court; those of inferior prestige in the Court of the Ministers, which gave entrance to the offices and living quarters of the palace executives and the hundreds of minions composing the King's retinue. On the left of the enclosure called the Marble Court was the vestibule to the Marble Stairway; opposite was the doorway leading to the renowned Stairway of the Ambassadors, later removed by command of Louis XV. The royal suites, except those of the Dauphin and his attendants, were on the second floor. These rooms beneath the ornate Mansard attic were the scene of all the potent events and ceremonies that have distinguished Versailles above the palaces of the world.

Grouped above the Marble Court at the far end of the main court of the chateau, were the State Apartments of the King. Though, in later times, the sequence of some of these salons was changed, in the years when the Sun King occupied them they comprised the Salon of Venus, opening upon the Ambassadors' Staircase, the Salon of Diana, the Salon of Mars, and the Salon of Mercury. These halls formed a magnificent prelude to the still greater magnificence of the Salon of Apollo,--the Throne Room where guests came into the presence of the King himself. The Salon of Venus was most admired for its marble mosaics and its ceiling painting representing Venus subduing all the other deities. In Louis' day, as now, the royal master of all this grandeur was here portrayed in white marble, garbed in the robes of a Roman emperor. Diana and her nymphs were depicted on the ceiling of the salon named for the Goddess of the Hunt. Here under candles glimmering in sconces of silver and crystal the courtiers engaged in games of billiards, while their ladies disposed themselves gracefully upon tapestried seats. And there were orange trees in silver tubs to add brilliance to the scene. In the Salon of Mars dancing parties and concerts were given. Silver punchbowls set on silver tables offered refreshment to the gay throng that coquetted and danced and applauded beneath the triumphant picture of Mars limned upon the ceiling. This room was a-glitter with silver, cut glass and gold embroidered draperies. In the crimson-hung Salon of Mercury was the King's bed of state, before which was a balustrade of silver. In all the Grand Apartments were hangings and furniture of extraordinary richness. There were tables of gilded wood and mosaic, Florentine marbles, pedestals of porphyry for vases of precious metal, ebony cabinets inlaid with copper, columns of jasper, agate and lapis lazuli, silver chandeliers, branched candle-sticks, baskets, vessels for liqueurs, silver perfuming pans. Windows were draped with silver brocade worked in gold thread, with Venetian silks and satins, or embroideries from the Gobelin studios. On the floors, originally of marble, were spread carpets woven in designs symbolical of kingly power.

The Throne Room known as the Salon of Apollo--the seat of the Sun King--was of the utmost richness. The throne itself was of silver and stood eight feet high. Tapestries represented scenes of splendor in the life of Louis the Great and on the walls were masterpieces by Italian artists of the first rank, which were later deemed worthy of a place in the Louvre. Much of the treasure vanished in the years 1689-1690 when the King was constrained to raise money for his depleted treasury. In December, 1682, the Mercure Galant, desirous of pleasing its readers, always avid of details about everything that concerned their King, published a long description of the furnishings of the State Apartments--the velvet hangings, the marble walls enriched with gold relief, the chimney-pieces bossed with silver.

Yet the glory of these apartments was outdone by the later achievements of architect and decorators in the Salons of War and Peace and the Hall of Mirrors that joins them. In the cupola of the Salon of War the great Lebrun painted an allegorical picture of France hurling thunderbolts and carrying a shield blazoned with the portrait of King Louis, while Bellona, Spain, Holland and Germany are shown crouching in awe. The colored marbles of the walls contrasted brilliantly with gilded copper bas-reliefs. Six portraits of Roman emperors contributed to the impressiveness of the Salon, and on the wall was a stucco relief of the King of France on horseback, clad like a Roman. The Salon of Peace was also decorated by Lebrun's adept brush. A ceiling piece portrays France and her conquered enemies rejoicing in the fruits of Peace. And, again, there are portraits of the ever-present Louis and the Caesars of Rome. Both these splendid halls remain to-day much as they were in the time of their creator.

Most lavish is the decoration of the Grand Hall of Mirrors--"the epitome of absolutism and divine right and the grandeur of the House of Bourbon." For two hundred and forty feet it extends along the terrace that surveys the gardens where Louis XIV and his successors delighted to ordain fetes of unimaginable gayety. Gorgeously costumed courtiers, women that dictated the fate of dynasties, diplomats of our day bent upon the solution of world-rocking problems, all have gazed from this resplendent gallery upon the fountains and allees that beautify the scene below. Seventeen lofty windows are matched by as many Venetian framed mirrors. Between each window and each mirror are pilasters designed by Coyzevox, Tubi and Caffieri--reigning masters of their time. Walls are of marble embellished with bronze-gilt trophies; large niches contain statues in the antique style. The gilded cornice is by Coyzevox, the ceiling by Lebrun. The conception of the latter comprises more than a score of paintings representing events that had to do with wars waged by Louis the Great against Holland, Germany and Spain. In the period when Versailles was the residence of kings--not a museum, alone, and the assembly-place of international Councils--the tables in the Grand Gallery, the benches between the windows, the many-branched candelabra, the tubs in which orange trees grew, were all of heavy silver. Thousands of wax candles lighted the salon, some of them set in immense chandeliers, others in lusters of silver and crystal. But Louis the Fourteenth's reign was not yet over when he was compelled to send many hundred pieces of his precious furniture to the mint, and the superb appointments of the Hall of Mirrors were partially substituted by furnishings of wood and damask.

The Hall of Mirrors

Visitors to Versailles view the private or "little" apartments of King Louis the Great, Louis XV and Louis XVI. The superb bedchamber of Louis XIV contains the bed in which the French Monarch died on September 1, 1715. In an ante-chamber, later called the Bull's Eye by reason of its unique oval window, courtiers were wont to gossip and intrigue while they awaited the King's rising. A quaint painting by a French artist presents Louis XIV and his family in the character of pagan deities. Next to the Bull's Eye was the room in which the King dined on occasion. The Hall of the King's Guards was near of approach to the Marble Staircase and to the ample and ornate apartments of Madame de Maintenon. The wonders of this Hall are also departed. In a group of small rooms were rich stores of objects of art, medals, cameos, onyx, bronzes, and gems of great value.

The State Apartments of the Queens of France were entirely altered in their decoration as one queen succeeded another. Marie Therese was the first to occupy them. We are told that before her bed there stood a railing of silver, that later gave way, for economical reasons, to one carved in wood. In the Grand Cabinet the wife of Louis the Great received in audience those that the King commanded. Here, at the end of a short and insignificant period as mistress of Versailles, Marie Therese died, July 30, 1683.

One of the few apartments that still retains the aspect it bore in King Louis the Fourteenth's reign is the Hall of the Queen's Guards, which had a door on the landing of the marble stair, also called the Queen's Staircase. This was the flight of steps most used in the time of Louis, since it led to the apartments of the sovereign, the Queen Madame de Maintenon.

The Ambassadors' Staircase, across the court, was of the richest possible decoration, but like the glory of the Kings of France, it has passed into oblivion. Louis commanded that it be paved and walled in marble from the choicest quarries, vaulted with bronze, graced by fountains. Amazing frescoes representing a brilliant assemblage of people of all nations adorned the walls. Of this staircase a reporter of the epoch wrote, "When full of light it vies in magnificence with the richest apartments of the most beautiful palace in the world." Which palace was, of course, Versailles.

The Grand Hall of the Guards, the apartments of the Children of France and their governess, the ten rooms that composed the suite of the Dauphin, the Grand Hall of Battles--each had its special decoration. "At the house of Monseigneur," wrote an old chronicler of the Court, "one sees in the cabinets an exquisite collection of all that is most rare and precious, not only in respect to the necessary furniture, tables, porcelains, mirrors, chandeliers, but also paintings by the most famous masters, bronzes, vases of agate, jewels and cameos." For one dazzling table of carved silver in the apartment of the King's son, the silversmith that fashioned it was paid thirty thousand dollars.

Beneath the state apartments of the King was the Hall of the Baths lined with marble and adorned with beautiful paintings. Upon the marble tubs, the tessellated floors, the gilded columns and mirrors of this apartment a great sum was expended.

* * * * *

Versailles at last was finished--and what a spectacle and monument to selfish exaltation it was! "There is an intimate relation between the King and his chateau," wrote Imbert de Saint-Amand. "The idol is worthy of the temple, the temple of the idol. There is always something immaterial, something moral so to speak, in monuments, and they derive their poesy from the thought connected with them. For a cathedral, it is the idea of God. For Versailles, it is the idea of the King. Its mythology is but a magnificent allegory of which Louis XIV is the reality. It is he always and everywhere. Fabulous heroes and divinities impart their attributes to him or mingle with his courtiers. In honor of him, Neptune sheds broadcast the waters that cross in air in sparkling arches. Apollo, his favorite symbol, presides over this enchanted world as the god of light, the inspirer of the muses; the sun of the god seems to pale before that of the great King. Nature and art combine to celebrate the glory of the sovereign by a perpetual hosannah. All that generations of kings have amassed in pictures, statues and precious movables is distributed as mere furniture in the glittering apartments of the chateau. The intoxicating perfumes of luxury and power throw one into a sort of ecstasy that makes comprehensible the exaltation of this monarch, enthusiastic over himself, who, in chanting the hymns composed in his praise, shed tears of admiration."

CHAPTER IV

THE GARDENS, THE FOUNTAINS AND THE GRAND TRIANON

The first gardens of Versailles--those
that gave a modest setting to the villa
constructed for Louis XIII, comprised a few
parterres of flowers and shrubs bounded by
well trimmed box hedges, and two groves
planted on each side of the Allee Royale.
To Jacques Boyceau is accredited the first
plan of the gardens of Versailles, but Andre
Le Notre greatly amplified and improved
the original scheme. Le Notre's
achievements at Versailles gave him rank as the
most distinguished landscape gardener of
his time, and of all time.

Besides the luxurious and symmetrical
gardens at Versailles, he originated the
designs of those at the royal houses at Trianon,
Saint-Cloud, Merly, Clagny, Chantilly and
the Tuileries. The Parterre of the Tiber
at Fontainebleau also added to his high
reputation. For a long period the style of
garden perfected by Le Notre was taken as a
model and imitated throughout Europe. In
1678 he went to Italy on a mission for the
King, who desired him to make researches
there. While at Rome the eminent artist
from France was commissioned to plan the
gardens of the Quirinal, the Vatican and
the villas Ludovisi and Albani. The
Elector of Brandenburg summoned him to
design the garden at Oranienburg; Kensington
Park in London is still another example of
Le Notre's skill. In his genius were
reflected the qualities that distinguished the
art of his century: regularity of design,
harmony, dignity and richness of materials.
Louis XIV had an enduring admiration for
the work and character of the Chief
Gardener--a man at all times honest, retiring,
and inspired by enthusiasm for his calling.

We are told by a French chronicler that
"when Le Notre had traced out his ideas, he
brought Louis XIV to the spot to judge the
distribution of the principal parts of their
ornamentation. He began with two grand
basins which are on the terrace in front
of the chateau, with their magnificent
decorations. He explained next his idea of
the double flight of stairs, which is opposite
the center of the palace, adorned with
yew-trees and with statues, and gave in detail
all the pieces that were to enrich the space
that it included. He passed then to the
Allee du Tapis Vert, and to that grand place
where we see the head of the canal, of which
he described the size and shape, and at the
extremities of whose arms he placed the
Trianon and the Menagerie. At each of
the grand pieces whose position Le Notre
marked, and whose future beauties he
described, Louis XIV interrupted him, saying,
'Le Notre, I give you twenty thousand
francs.' This magnificent approbation was
so frequently repeated that it annoyed Le
Notre, whose soul was as noble and
disinterested as that of his master was
generous. At the fourth interruption he stopped,
and said brusquely to the King, 'Sire, Your
Majesty shall hear no more. I shall ruin you.'"

In 1695 the King ennobled Le Notre and
bestowed upon him the Order of St. Michael.
Later, Le Notre presented to his sovereign
his collection of pictures and bronzes, for
which he had previously received an offer
of 80,000 francs, or about $16,000. This
collection was placed in one of the King's
intimate rooms among the rarest objects in
his possession. On occasion, when about to
make a tour of the gardens, Louis liked to
command a rolling chair similar to his own
for the aged Le Notre. Discussing new
projects, appraising those that were finished,
they made the promenade together.

One of the first garden decorations
undertaken was the Grotto of Thetis, a green
alcove beautified by exquisite marbles and a
fountain that stirred the muse of La
Fontaine to sing. This graceful conceit,
dominated by Apollo seated among the nymphs
of Venus, was destroyed when Mansard
built the north wing of the palace; the
groups were removed to adorn other sites.
While the vast pleasure-house was in course
of construction, each year marked the
creation of new fountains and woods. In 1664,
the Parterre du Nord was laid out below the
windows of the north wing; in 1667 and
1668 the Theatre d'Eau, the Maze, the Star,
the Grand Canal, the Avenue of Waters,
the Cascade of Diana and the Pyramid on
the North Parterre, and the Green Carpet
(Tapis-Vert) spread out in view of the
windows of the rear facade of the palace. In
1670 and the three succeeding years the
low-lying Marais (fen) was constructed next to
the Parterre of the Fountain of Latona, to
meet the wishes of the King's favorite,
Madame de Montespan. While she was in
power "people spoke of the Marais as one
of the marvels of the gardens, but it was
undoubtedly considered less wonderful after
her fall," a writer comments. "In the
center stood a large oak surounded by an
artificial marsh, bordered with reeds and grasses,
and containing plants and a number of white
swans. From the swans, from the reeds and
grasses, and from the leaves and branches of
the oak, thousands of little jets of water
leaped forth, falling like fine rain upon the
masses of natural vegetation that flourished
amid the artificial. At the sides of the
bosquet there were two tables of marble, on
which a collation was served when the
marquise came to her grove to see the waters
play. In 1704 the King ordered Mansard
to destroy the Marais and transform the
bosquet into the Baths of Apollo."

In 1674 the Royal Isle came into being;
and the next year the Arch of Triumph and
the Three Fountains, between the Avenue
of Waters and the chateau. In the thicket
of the Three Fountains were "an immense
number of small jets of water, leaping from
basins at the sides and forming an arch of
water overhead, beneath which one could
walk without being wet. . . . The Arch of
Triumph filled the end of the bosquet; it
was placed on an estrade with marble steps,
and was preceded by four lofty obelisks of
gilded iron in which the water leaped and
fell in sheets of crystal. The fountain
itself was composed of three porticos of gilded
iron, with large jets in the center of each,
while seven jets leaped up from the basins
above the porticos, and all the waters rushed
down over the steps of marble. In addition,
twenty-two vases at the sides of the bosquet
threw jets into the air. 'Without having
seen it,' says Blondel, 'it is impossible to
imagine the wonderful effect produced by this
decoration.'"

The Orangery was the chief work begun
in 1678, and in the following year the superb
Basin of Neptune and the Lake of the Swiss
Guards were commenced. In the years
1680-1685 workmen were busy digging, laying
pipes, planting and decorating the _Salle de
Bal_, or outdoor salon of festivities, the
Parterre of Fountains, and the Colonnade,
where amid marble columns and balustrades
the Court often came to sup and make merry.

In all, fourteen hundred gushing fountain
jets animated the gardens. Le Notre, the
author of these amazing water-works, died
in the year 1700, when almost ninety years
of age. Saint-Simon declared him justly
renowned in that he had given to France
gardens of so unique and ravishing a design
that they completely outran in beauty the
famous gardens of Italy. European
landscape decorators counted it part of their
education to journey to France for the
purpose of studying the handiwork of the supreme craftsman.

An illustrated guide, printed at
Amsterdam in 1682, contains the following quaint
description of the Labyrinth, or Maze:
"Courteous Reader," it begins, "it is
sufficiently known how eminently France and
especially the Royal Court doth excel above
other places with all manner of delights.
The admirable faire Buildings and Gardens
with all imaginable ornaments and
delightful spectacles represent to the eye of the
beholder such abundant and rich objects as
verily to ravish the spectator. Amongst all
these works there is nothing more admirable
and praiseworthy than the Royal Garden at
Versailles, and, in it, the Labyrinth. Other
representations are commonly esteemed
because they please the eye, but this because it
not only delights the ear and eye, but also
instructs and edifies. This Labyrinth is
situated in a wood so pleasant that Daedalus
himself would have stood amazed to behold
it. The Turnings and Windings, edged on
both sides with green cropt hedges, are not
at all tedious, by reason that at every hand
there are figures and water-works
representing the mysterious and instructive fables
of Aesop, with an explanation of what Fable
each Fountain representeth carved on each
in black marble. Among all the Groves in
the Park at Versailles the Labyrinth is the
most to be recommended, as well for the
novelty of the design as the number and
diversity of the fountains that with
ingenuity and naivete express the philosophies, of
the sage Aesop. The animals of colored
bronze are so modeled that they seem truly
to be in action. And the streams of water
that come from their mouths may be
imagined as bearing the words of the fable they
represent. There are a great number of
fountains, forty in all, each different in
subject, and of a style of decoration that blends
with the surrounding verdure. At the
entrance to the Maze is a bronze statue of
Aesop himself--the famous Mythologist of Phrygia."

The Fountain of Versailles

To appreciate the engineering skill of the
directors of fountain construction at
Versailles it must be remembered that it was
from an arid plateau that hundreds of
streams were made to spring from the earth.
Thousands of laborers were employed to lay
beneath the surface of the ground a net-work
of canals and aqueducts to receive the tribute
of water-courses directed hither from distant
sources. The waters were finally pumped
into immense reservoirs adroitly dissembled
on the roofs of buildings overlooking the
park. From these tanks a maze of pipes
carried the water to thickets, grottoes,
basins, fountains and canals. Nothing could
surpass the ingenuity with which all this was
contrived. The play of water directed to
the Basin of the Mirrors reappeared later
in the Baths of Apollo and the Fountain of
the Dragon. Flowing in turn among
successive pools and ornamental groups--branching
hither and yon in the gardens, the
stream attained its full display in the most
majestic effect of all, the Basin of Neptune.

"Here again is the hand of Le Notre,"
remarks James Farmer, author of
"Versailles and the Court Under Louis XIV." "The
basin of Neptune, called at first the
Grand Cascades, was constructed from 1679
to 1684, in accordance with his designs. This
immense basin, surrounded on the side
toward the chateau by a handsome wall of
stone, and on the other by an amphitheater
of turf and trees,--a vast half-circle, in the
center of which stands a marble statue of
Renown, is simple in conception and imposing
from its size. The richly carved lead vases
which adorn the wall were gilded under the
Grand Monarch, and each throws a jet of
water to a great height. Dangeau tells us
that His Majesty saw the waters play here
for the first time on the 17th of May, 1685,
and that he was quite content. However,
Neptune had not then appeared in the basin
that now bears his name; for the large
groups of Neptune, the Ocean, and the
Tritons, which ornament the base of the wall at
present, were not put in place until 1739, in
the reign of Louis XV. This majestic basin
at the foot of the Allee d'Eau is a striking
contrast to Perrault's ugly Pyramid at the
head of it. Le Notre knew what was fitting
for the gardens of a Sun King."

A vast avenue, interrupted by many fair
reaches of water, stretched its level length
before the windows of the Grand Gallery.
It was prolonged to the outer bounds of the
gardens by the Grand Canal, on whose
gleaming surface the sky was mirrored in
the dusk of dawn, the golden glow of noon,
or the sunset of declining day. This has ever
been the supreme view from the palace of
Versailles. Standing at one of the great
windows of the Hall of Mirrors, the _Galerie
des Glaces_, it often pleased the ruler of
France to admire the Fountain of Latona,
casting its fifty jets of water from the
circular pool below the twin terraces. Beyond,
the Green Carpet glowed in its emerald
beauty among the clear waters of Versailles.
The furthest fountain that met the eye was
the Basin of Apollo, with its plunging
bronze horses. In the outer park, that held
the Trianon and the Menagerie, the royal
gaze beheld the cross-shaped Canal which so
often, in the revels that marked the first part
of this reign, bore gay Venetian barges
between the scintillating lights and fireworks
that illumined the shore. At the right side,
still looking from the rear of the chateau, the
King's beauty-loving eyes dwelt upon the
North Terrace, with its rich growth of
greenery, on the graceful Fountains of the
Pyramid and the Dragon, and above all on
the magnificently soaring fountains of
Neptune's Basin. At his left were the Terrace
of Flowers, the two stairways that flanked
the Orangery, chief work of Mansard and
especial pride of Louis, and the lake in the
small park named for the Swiss Guards.
Nowhere, it is safe to say, could a place be
found that embraced so many beautiful
garden views at one time.

Bordering the avenue that Le Notre
opened through the primitive groves where
Louis XIII once came to hunt--on either
side the broad lane of trees and leaping
waters--groves were laid out, varied in
design and decoration--delectable retreats
where lovers, traitors, diplomats might vow
and plot, beneath the discreet ears of marble
nymphs and goddesses.

Many of the groups and marble figures
that beautified the walks and bowers of
Versailles were conceived by the gifted
Lebrun. Among his designs were the Four
Seasons, the Four Quarters of the Globe,
the Four Kinds of Poetry (Heroic, Satiric,
Lyric and Pastoral), the Four Periods of
the Day (Morning, Noon, Twilight,
Night), the Four Elements (Earth, Air,
Fire, Water), the Four Temperaments
(Phlegmatic, Melancholy, Coleric and
Sanguine). Mythological figures, vases
ornamented with bas-reliefs of Louis XIV and
great men of his reign, fountain groups
representing the chief rivers of France,
water nymphs, sportive babies, beasts in
combat--sculpture massive, graceful,
grotesque--all added their individual lure to
the dells, the walks and the terraces of the
magic palace.

Tile-workers from Flanders, marble-cutters
from the Pyrenees, Italy and Greece,
masons, sculptors, castmen, metal-workers,
bronze colorists--innumerable artisans
trained to meet the exacting tastes of that
Silver Age of Art--lent their skill to the
construction of fountains whose ingenuity and
variety have set a standard for all time for
the makers of kingly estates. A hundred
sculptors of highest reputation were engaged
to model groups, statues, busts and low
reliefs for the Versailles park, under the
supervision of Lebrun and Mignard.

Ladies of the Court sometimes claimed
the ear of the compliant Andre Le Notre
to suggest fancies that he graciously evolved
with greenery and marbles, with tinkling
streams and bright-winged birds.