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The restoration was commenced, but Trepsat, committing one fault after another, and finally juggling with the accounts, was obliged to take on a collaborator by the name of Famin, a young pensionnaire of the Academie des Beaux Arts, recently returned from Rome. It was he who saved Rambouillet from utter destruction.
The apartments of Napoleon, which were those given over to public functions in the time of the Comte de Toulouse, had been, and were, most luxuriously appointed. That which shows most clearly the imprint of the imperial regime is the curious Salle de Bains which was in direct communication with the study, or Cabinet de Travail.
It might have been a room in a Pompeian house so classic were its lines and decorations. There was a series of medallions painted on the wall representing portraits of members of the imperial family. These were chiefly portraits of the female sex, and Napoleon, the first time he entered his bath, in an excess of modesty and fury cried out: "Who is the ass that did this thing?" Immediately they were painted out, and, for the sum of nine hundred and fifty francs, another artist was found who filled the frames of the medallions with sights and scenes associated less intimately with Napoleonic history.
Under the Empire the architect Famin was commissioned to furnish a series of architectural embellishments to the gardens of Rambouillet. Various stone statues were added and an octagon pavilion on the Ile des Roches was restored and redecorated. Two great avenues were cut through the parterre, and, as if fearing indiscretions on the part of his entourage, the emperor caused to be planted long rows of lindens and tulip trees, which were again masked by two rows of poplars. The peloux of the Jardin Francais were reestablished and the curves and sweeps of the paths of the Jardin Anglais laid out anew.
This ancient government property, arisen anew from its ruins, now bore the name of the Pavillon du Roi de Rome, after the son of Napoleon. The Ecuries, or stables, which had been built by Louis XVI, were transformed into kennels, and various "posts," or miniature shooting-boxes, were distributed here and there through the park.
Under the Restoration the transformation of the chateau, which had been projected ever since the time of Louis XVI, undertaken and then abandoned by Napoleon, was again commenced, but on a less ambitious scale than formerly. Chiefly this transformation consisted of opening up windows, thus making practically a new facade. It was not wholly a happy thought, and the spirit of economy of Louis XVIII, no less, perhaps, than other motives, arrested this mutilation and the architect was discharged from his functions.
Again the hand of fate fell hard upon Rambouillet and its definite eclipse as a royal abode came with the abdication of Charles X. The abdication was actually signed at Rambouillet, and here, in the same Salle du Conseil, the dauphin renounced the throne in favour of the young Duc de Bordeaux.
It was at Rambouillet that Charles X passed those solemn last days before the abdication. He had been unmercifully harassed at Paris and sought a quiet retreat, "not too far from the Tuileries," where he might repose a moment and take counsel. In view of later events this was significant; perhaps it was significant at the time, for the king speedily repented his abdication. It was too late, for he had classed as rebels all the royalists who would have accepted the "infant king" as their monarch, even though the following Revolution prevented this.
It was on the third of August that the commissioners, deputies of the Provisionary Government, were brought before the king at Rambouillet. They announced that twenty-five thousand armed Parisians were marching on the chateau to compel him to quit his kingdom. It was not a matter for debate, and at nine o'clock on the same night the monarch gave assent to being conducted to Cherbourg, where he embarked upon his fatal exile.
After 1830, with a business-like instinct, the authorities rented the property for twelve years to the Baron Schickler, and, at the end of the Revolution of 1848, its career became more plebeian still; it was rented to a man who converted the palace into an elaborately appointed road-house, and the lawns and groves into open-air restaurants and dancing places.
Under the Gouvernement du Juillet the chateau, the park and the forest were removed from the Civil List, and entered upon the inventory of the Administration des Domaines.
Under the Second Empire Rambouillet appeared again on the monarchial Civil List. Napoleon III came here at times to hunt, but not to live, and of his rare appearances at the chateau but little record exists. Since 1870 Rambouillet has belonged to the Republican Government, and, since royalties no longer exist in France, Republican chiefs of state now take the lead in Rambouillet's national hunts.
The property, as it stands to-day, is divided readily into four distinct parts, the palace, the parterre, the Jardin Anglais and the park. The grove of lindens is remarkable in every respect, the ornamental waters are gracious and of vast extent, and the Laiterie and the Ferme are decidedly models of their kind; but the Chaumiere des Coquillages, a rustic summer-house of rocks and shells and questionable debris of all sorts, is hideous and unworthy.
Not the least of the charming features of the park is the great alley of Louisiana cypresses, one of the real sights, indeed, perfecting the charm of the great body of water to the left of the chateau.
Of the structure which existed in the fourteenth century, the chateau of Rambouillet retains to-day only a great battlemented tower, and some low-lying buildings attached to it. Successive enlargements, restorations and mutilations have changed much of the original aspect of the edifice, and modern structures flank and half envelop that which, to all eyes, is manifestly ancient. The debris of the old fortress, which was the foundation of all, adds its bit to the conglomerate mass of which the chief and most imposing elements are the two tall corps de logis in the centre.
Within, a rather banal Salle de Bal is shown as the chief feature, but it is conventionally unlovely enough to be passed without emotion, save that its easterly portion takes in the cabinet, or private apartment, where Charles X signed his abdication. Adjoining this is the bedroom occupied by that monarch, and a dining-room which also served His Majesty, and which is still used by the head of the government on ceremonious occasions. Its decorative scheme is of the period of Louis XV.
The Salle de Conseil is of the period of Charles X, and has some fairly imposing carved wainscotings showing in places the monograms of Marie Sophie and the Comtesse de Toulouse.
A great map, or plan, of the Forest of Rambouillet covers the end wall, and, if not esthetically beautiful, is at least useful and very interesting.
It was executed under Louis XVI and doubtless served its purpose well when the hunters gathered after a day afield and recounted anecdotes of their adventures.
There is another apartment on the ground floor which is known as the Salle a Manger des Rendezvous de Chasse, whose very name explains well its functions.
The Cabinet de Travail of Marie Antoinette and the Salle de Bain of Napoleon have something more than a mere sentimental interest; they were decidedly practical adjuncts to the royal palace.
Napoleon's bath took the form of a rather short, deep pool. Its fresco decorations, as seen to-day—replacing that family portrait gallery which Napoleon caused to be painted out—are after the pseudo-antique manner and represent bird's-eye views of various French cities and towns, while a series of painted armorial trophies decorates the ceiling.
On the second floor are the apartments occupied by the Duchesse de Berry and those of the Duchesse d'Angouleme.
In the great round tower is the circular apartment where Francis I breathed his last. It is this great truss-vaulted room that most interests the visitor to Rambouillet.
On the ground floor is another Salle de Bain, quite as theatrically disposed as that of Napoleon. Its construction was due to the Comte de Toulouse whose taste ran to Delft tiles and polychrome panels, framing two imposing marines, also worked out in tiles.
The parterre, extending before the main building, is of an ampleness scarcely conceivable until once viewed. It is purely French in design and is of the epoch of the tenancy of the Comte de Toulouse. Before the admirably grouped lindens was a boathouse, and off in every direction ran alleys of acacias, while here and there tulip beds, rose gardens and hedges of rhododendrons flanked the very considerable ornamental waters. This body of water, in the form of a trapezoid, is divided by four grass-grown islets and separates the Jardin Anglais from the Jardin Francais. One of the islets is known as the Ile des Roches and contains the Grotte de Rabelais, so named in honour of the Cure of Meudon, when he was presented at Rambouillet by the Cardinal du Bellay. It was on this isle that were given those famous fetes in honour of the "beaux esprits" who formed the assiduous cortege of Catherine de Vivonne, mythological, pagan and outre.
The Jardin Anglais at Rambouillet is the final expression of the species in France. Designed under the Duc de Penthievre, it was restored and considerably enlarged by Napoleon and, following the contours of an artificial rivulet, it fulfils the description that its name implies.
More remote, and half hidden from the precincts of the chateau, are the Chaumiere and the Ermitage and they recall the background of a Fragonard or a Watteau. It is all very "stagy"—but, since it exists, can hardly be called unreal.
The park proper, containing more than twelve hundred hectares, is one of the largest and most thickly wooded in France. Between the parterre and the French and English garden and the park lie the Farm and the Laiterie de la Reine, the caprice of Louis XVI when he would content Marie Antoinette and give her something to think about besides her troubles. Napoleon stripped it of its furnishings to install them, for a great part, at Malmaison, for that other unhappy woman—Josephine. Later, to give pleasure to Marie Louise, he ordered them brought back again to Rambouillet, but it was to Napoleon III that the restoration of this charming conceit was due.
In the neighbourhood of Rambouillet was the famous Chateau de Chasse, or royal shooting-box, which Louis XV was fond of making a place of rendezvous.
On the banks of the Etang de Pourras stood this Chateau de Saint Hubert, named for the patron saint of huntsmen, and within its walls was passed many a happy evening by king and courtiers after a busy day with stag and hound.
The hunt in France was perhaps at the most picturesque phase of its existence at this time. The hunt of to-day is but a pale, though bloody, imitation of the real sport of the days when monarchs and their seigneurs in slashed doublet and hose and velvet cloaks pursued the deer of the forest to his death, and knew not the maitre d'equipage of to-day.
CHAPTER XX
CHANTILLY
Chantilly, because of its royal associations, properly finds its place in every traveller's French itinerary. Not only did Chantilly come to its great glory through royal favour, but in later years the French government has taken it under its wing, the chateau, the stables and the vast park and forest, until the ensemble is to-day as much of a national show place as Versailles or Saint Germain. It is here in the marble halls, where once dwelt the Condes and the Montmorencys, that are held each year the examinations of the French Academie des Beaux Arts. And besides this it is a place of pilgrimage for thousands of tourists who, as a class, for a couple of generations previously, never got farther away from the capital than Saint Cloud.
Many charters of the tenth century make mention of the estates of Chantilly, which at that time belonged to the Seigneurs of Senlis. The chateau was an evolution from a block-house, or fortress, erected by Catulus in Gallo-Roman times and four centuries later it remained practically of the same rank. In the fourteenth century the chateau was chiefly a vast fortress surrounded by a water defence in the form of an enlarged moat by means of which it was able to resist the Bourguignons and never actually fell until after the taking of Meaux by the English king, Henry V.
Jean II de Montmorency, by his marriage with Marguerite d'Orgemont, came to be the possessor of the domain, their son, in turn, becoming the heir. It was this son, Guillaume, who became one of the most brilliant servitors of the monarchs Louis XI, Louis XII, and Francis I, and it was through these friends at court that Chantilly first took on its regal aspect.
In turn the celebrated Anne de Montmorency, Connetable de France, came into the succession and finding the old fortress, albeit somewhat enlarged and furbished up by his predecessor, less of a palatial residence than he would have, separated the ancient chateau-fort from an added structure by an ornamental moat, or canal, and laid out the pelouse, parterres and the alleys of greensward leading to the forest which make one of the great charms of Chantilly to-day.
Here resided, as visitors to be sure, but for more or less extended periods, and at various times, Charles V, Charles IX and Henri IV, each of them guests of the hospitable and ambitious Montmorencys.
Chantilly passed in 1632 to Charlotte, the sister of the last Marechal de Montmorency, the wife of Henri II, Prince de Conde, the mother of the Grand Conde, the Prince de Conti and the Duchesse de Longueville.
With the Grand Conde came the greatest fame, the apotheosis, of Chantilly. This noble was so enamoured of this admirable residence that he never left it from his thoughts and decorated it throughout in the most lavish taste of his time, destroying at this epoch the chateau of the moyen-age and the fortress. These were the days of gallant warriors with a taste for pretty things in art, not mere bloodthirsty slaughterers.
On the foundations of the older structures there now rose an admirable pile (not that which one sees to-day, however), embellished by the surroundings which were evolved from the brain of the landscape gardener, Le Notre. The Revolution made way with this lavish structure and with the exception of the Chatelet, or the Petit Chateau (designed by Jean Bullant in 1560, and remodelled within by Mansart) the present-day work is a creation of the Duc d'Aumale, the heir to the Condes' name and fame, to whom the National Assembly gave back his ancestral estates which had in the meantime come into the inventory of royal belongings through the claims established by the might of the Second Empire.
Back to the days of the Grand Conde one reads of an extended visit made by Louis XIV to his principal courtier. It was at an expense of two hundred thousand ecus that the welcoming fete was accomplished. Madame de Sevigne has recounted the event more graphically than any other chronicler, and it would be presumption to review it here at length. The incident of Vatel alone has become classic.
To the coterie of poets at Rambouillet must be added those of Chantilly; their sojourn here added much of moment to the careers and reputations of Boileau, Racine, Bourdaloue and Bossuet. It was the latter, who, in the funeral oration which he delivered on the death of the Prince de Conde, said:
"Here under his own roof one saw the Grand Conde as if he were at the head of his armies, a noble always great, as well in action as in repose. Here you have seen him surrounded by his friends in this magnificent dwelling, in the shady alleys of the forest or beside the purling waters of the brooks which are silent neither day nor night."
The Grand Conde died, however, at Fontainebleau. The heir, Henri-Jules de Bourbon, did his share towards keeping up and embellishing the property, and to him was due that charming wildwood retreat known as the Parc de Sylvie.
Louis-Henri de Bourbon, Minister of Louis XV at the commencement of his reign, had gained a fabulous sum of money in the notorious "Law's Bank" affair, and, with a profligate and prodigal taste in spending, lived a life of the grandest of grand seigneurs at Chantilly, to which, as his donation to its architectural importance, he contributed the famous Ecuries, or stables. To show that he was persona grata at court he gave a great fete here for Louis XV and the Duchesse du Barry.
The last Prince de Conde but one before the Revolution built the Chateau d'Enghien in the neighbourhood, and sought to people the Parc de Sylvie with a rustic colony of thatched maisonettes and install his favourites therein in a weak imitation of what had been done in the Petit Trianon. The note was manifestly a false one and did not endure, not even is its echo plainly audible for all is hearsay to-day and no very definite record of the circumstance exists.
Chantilly in later times has been a favourite abode with modern monarchs. The King of Denmark, the Emperor Joseph II and the King of Sweden were given hospitality here, and much money was spent for their entertainment, and much red and green fire burned for their amusement and that of their suites.
The Revolution's fell blow carried off the principal parts of the Conde's admirable constructions and it is fortunate that the Petit Chateau escaped the talons of the "Bande Noire." Immediately afterwards the Chateau d'Enghien and the Ecuries were turned over to the uses of the Minister of War, and the authorities of the Jardin des Plantes were given permission to transplant and transport anything which pleased their fancy among the exotics which had been set out by Le Notre in Chantilly's famous parterres.
Under the imperial regime the Foret de Chantilly was given in fee simple to Queen Hortense, though all was ultimately returned to the Conde heirs after the Restoration. It was at this period that Chantilly received the visit of Alexander, Emperor of Russia, and the historian's account of that visit makes prominent the fact that during the periods of rain it was necessary that an umbrella be carried over the imperial head as he passed through the corridors of the palace from one apartment to another.
The host of the emperor died here in 1818 and his son, spending perhaps half of his time here, cared little for restoration and spent all his waking hours hunting in the forest, returning to the Petit Chateau only to eat and sleep.
The Duc de Bourbon added to the flanking wings of the Petit Chateau and cleaned up the debris which was fast becoming moss-grown, weed encumbered and altogether disgraceful. The moats were cleaned out of their miasmatic growth and certain of the grass-carpeted parterres resown and given a semblance of their former selves.
Some days after the Revolution of 1830 the Prince de Conde died in a most dramatic fashion, and his son, the Duc d'Enghien, having been shot at Vincennes under the Empire, he willed the Duc d'Aumale and his issue his legal descendants forever.
Towards 1840 the Duc d'Aumale sought to reconstruct the splendours of Chantilly, but a decree of January 22, 1852, banished the entire Orleans family and interrupted the work when the property was sold to the English bankers, Coutts and Company, for the good round sum of eleven million francs, not by any means an extravagant price for this estate of royal aspect and proportions. The National Assembly of 1872 did the only thing it could do in justice to tradition—bought the property in and decreed that it be restored to its legitimate proprietor.
It was as late as 1876 that the Duc d'Aumale undertook the restoration of the Chatelet and the rebuilding of the new chateau which is seen to-day. The latter is from the designs of Henri Daumet, member of the Institut de France.
In general the structure of to-day occupies the site of the moyen-age chateau but is of quite a different aspect.
The Duc d'Aumale made a present of the chateau and all that was contained therein to the Institut de France. From a purely sordid point of view it was a gift valued at something like thirty-five million francs, not so great as many new-world public legacies of to-day, but in certain respects of a great deal more artistic worth.
The mass is manifestly imposing, made up as it is, of four distinct parts, the Eglise, dating from 1692, the Ecuries, the Chatelet—or Petit Chateau, and the Chateau proper—the modern edifice.
Before the celebrated Ecuries is a green, velvety pelouse which gives an admirable approach. The architecture of the Ecuries is of a heavy order and the sculptured decorations actually of little esthetic worth, representing as they do hunting trophies and the like. Before the great fountain one deciphers a graven plaque which reads as follows:
Louis Henri de Bourbon Prince de Conde Fut Construire Cette Ecurie 1701-1784.
Within the two wings may be stabled nearly two hundred horses. The Grand Ecuries at Chantilly are assuredly one of the finest examples extant of that luxuriant art of the eighteenth century French builder. Luxurious, excessively ornate and overpowering it is, and, for that reason, open to question. The work of the period knew not the discreet middle road. It was of Chantilly that it was said that the live stock was better lodged than its masters. The architect of this portion of the chateau was Jean Aubert, one of the collaborators of Jules Hardouin Mansart.
The characteristics of Chantilly, take it as a whole, the chateau, the park and the forest, are chiefly theatrical, but with an all-abiding regard for the proprieties, for beyond a certain heaviness of architectural style in parts of the chateau everything is of the finely focussed relative order of which the French architect and landscape gardener have for ages been past masters.
The real French garden is here to be seen almost at its best, its squares and ovals of grassy green apportioned off from the mass by gravelled walks and ornamented waters. The "tapis d'orient" effect, so frequently quoted by the French in writing of such works, is hardly excelled elsewhere.
All this shocked the mid-eighteenth century English traveller, but it was because he did not, perhaps could not, understand. Rigby, "the Norwich alderman" as the French rather contemptuously referred to this fine old English gentleman, said frankly of Chantilly: "All this has cost dear and produced a result far from pleasing." He would have been better pleased doubtless with a privet or box hedge and an imitation plaster rockery, things which have never agreed with French taste, but which were the rule in pretentious English gardens of the same period. Rigby must indeed have been a "grincheau," as the French called him, for this same up-country gentleman said of Versailles: "Lovely surrounding country but palace and park badly designed." Versailles is not that, whatever else its faults may be.
Chantilly is more than a palace, it is a museum of nature, a hermitage of art and of history. The fantasy of its tourelles, its lucarnes and its pignons are something one may hardly see elsewhere in such profusion, and the fact that they are modern is forgotten in the impression of the general silhouette.
The adventurer who first built a donjon on the Rocher de Chantilly little knew with what seigneurial splendour the site was ultimately to be graced. From a bare outpost it was transformed, as if by magic, into a Renaissance palace of a supreme beauty. The Duc d'Aumale said in his "Acte de Donation de Chantilly": "It stands complete and varied, a monument of French art in all its branches, a history of the best epochs of our glory."
Among all the palatial riches neighbouring upon Paris, not forgetting Versailles, Compiegne, Fontainebleau, Pierrefonds and Rambouillet, Chantilly, by the remarkable splendour of its surroundings, its situation and the artistic treasures which it possesses, is in a class by itself. It is a class more clearly defined by the historic souvenirs which surround it than any other contemporary structure of this part of France.
Its corridors and gravelled walks and the long alleys of the park and forest may not take on the fete-like aspect which they knew in the eighteenth century, but they are not solitary like those of Fontainebleau and Rambouillet, nor noisily overrun like those of Versailles or Saint Germain.
The ornamental waters which surround the Chateau de Chantilly are of a grand and nearly unique beauty. It is a question if they are not finer than the waters of Versailles, indeed they preceded them and may even have inspired them.
The Chatelet, the chateau proper and the chapel form a group quite distinct from the Ecuries. The Cour d'Honneur is really splendid and one hardly realizes the juxtaposition of modernity. The pavilion attributed to Jean Bullant, the western facade, the ancient Petit Chateau, the Grand Vestibule, the Grand Escalier and the Gallerie des Cerfs and a dozen other apartments are of a rare and imposing beauty, though losing somewhat their distinctive aspect by reason of the objets de musee distributed about their walls and floors.
One of the landscape gems of Chantilly is the Pelouse, a vast esplanade of greensward now forming, in part, the celebrated race track of Chantilly. Sport ever formed a part of the outdoor program at Chantilly, but that of to-day is just a bit more horsey than that of old, a good deal less picturesque and assuredly more vulgarly banal as to its cachet than the hunts, the tourneys and courses of the romantic age.
Thousands come to Chantilly to wager their coin on scrubs and dark horses ridden by third-rate "warned-off" jockeys from other lands, but probably not ten in ten thousand of the lookers on at the Grand Prix du Jockey Club in May ever make the occasion of the spring meeting an opportunity for visiting the fine old historic monument of the Condes.
The "Races" of Chantilly may be given a further word in that they are an outgrowth of a foundation by the Duc d'Orleans in 1832. The track forms a circuit of two thousand metres, and occupies quite the best half of the Pelouse, closed in on one side by the thick-grown Foret de Chantilly and flanked, in part, on the other by the historic Ecuries, with the Tribune, or grand stand, just to the south.
Many tourists arrive at Chantilly by auto, stop brusquely before the Grande Grille, rush through the galleries of the chateau, do "cent pas" in the park, give a cursory glance at the stables and are off; but more, many more, with slower steps and saner minds, drink in the charms which are offered on all sides and consider the time well spent even if they have paid "Boulevard Prices" at the Restaurant du Grand Conde for their dejeuner.
It has been said that a museum is a reunion of objets d'art brought about by a methodical grouping, either chronologically or categorically. The Duc d'Aumale's Musee de Chantilly is more an expression of personal taste. He collected what he wished and he arranged his collections as suited his fancy.
The famous Musee de Chantilly, which is the lodestone which draws most folk thither, so admirably housed, was a gift of the Duc d'Aumale who, for the glory of his ancestors, and the admiration of the world, to say nothing of his own personal satisfaction, here gathered together an eclectic collection of curious and artistic treasures, certainly not the least interesting or valuable among the great public collections in France. The effect produced is sometimes startling, a Messonier is cheek by jowl with a Baron Gros, a Decamps vis a vis to a Veronese, and a Lancret is bolstered on either hand by a Poussin and a Nattier. Amid all this disorder there is, however, an undeniable, inexplicable charm.
There are three distinct apartments worth, more than all the others, the glance of the hurried visitor to the Musee Conde at Chantilly. In the first, the Santuario, is the Livre d'Heures of Etienne Chevalier, by Jean Fouquet, considered as the most important relic of primitive French art extant.
The Cabinet des Gemmes comes second, and here is the celebrated "Diamant Rose," called the Grand Conde.
Finally there is the Galerie de Psyche, with forty-four coloured glass windows, executed for the Connetable de Montmorency in 1541-1542.
The great collection of historical and artistic treasures stowed away within the walls of Chantilly the Duc d'Aumale selected himself in order to associate his own name with the glorious memory of the Condes, who were so intimately connected with the chateau.
The Duc sought to recover such of the former furnishings of the chateau as had been dissipated during the Revolution whenever they could be heard of and could be had at public or private sale.
In this connection a word on Chantilly lace may not be found inapropos. The Chantilly lace of to-day, it is well to recall, is a mechanically produced article of commerce, turned out by the running mile from Nottingham, England, though in the days when Chantilly's porcelains rivalled those of Sevres it was purely a local product. One may well argue therefore that the bulk of the Chantilly lace sold in the shops of Chantilly to-day is not on a par with the admirable examples to be seen in the glass cases of the museum.
A wooded alley leading to the great park runs between the main edifice and the Chateau d'Enghien, a gentle incline descending again to the sunken gardens in a monumental stairway of easy slope, the whole a quintessence of much that is best of the art of the landscape gardener of the time.
To the left extends the vast Jardin Anglais—a veritable French Jardin Anglais. Let not one overlook the distinction: On conventional lines it is pretty, dainty and pleasing, but the species lacks the dignified formality of the Italian garden or the ingenious arrangement of the French. Its curves and ovals and circles are annoying after the lignes droites and the right angles and the broderies of the French variety.
The Foret de Chantilly covers two thousand four hundred and forty-nine hectares and extends from the Bois de Herivaux on one side to the Foret de Senlis on the other. The rendezvous-de-chasse was, in the old days, and is to-day on rare occasions, at the Rond Point, to which a dozen magnificent forest roads lead from all directions, that from the town being paved with Belgian blocks, the dread of automobilists, but delightful to ride over in muddy weather. The Route de Connetable, so called, is well-nigh ideal of its kind. It launches forth opposite the chateau and at its entrance are two flanking stone lions. It is of a soft soil suitable for horseback riding, but entirely unsuited for wheeled traffic of any kind.
Another of the great forest roads leads to the Chateau de la Reine Blanche, a diminutive edifice in the pointed style, with a pair of svelte towers coiffed candle-snuffer fashion. Tradition, and very ancient and somewhat dubious tradition, attributes the edifice as having belonged to Blanche de Navarre, the wife of Philippe de Valois. Again it is thought to have been a sort of royal attachment to the Abbaye de Royaumont, built near by, by Saint Louis. This quaintly charming manor of minute dimensions was a tangible, habitable abode in 1333, but for generations after appears to have fallen into desuetude. A mill grew up on the site, and again the walls of a chateau obliterated the more mundane, work-a-day mill. The Duc de Bourbon restored the whole place in 1826 that it might serve him and his noble friends as a hunting-lodge.
CHAPTER XXI
COMPIEGNE AND ITS FOREST
One of the most talked of and the least visited of the minor French palaces is that of Compiegne. The archeologists coming to Compiegne first notice that all its churches are "malorientees." It is a minor point with most folk, but when one notes that its five churches have their high altars turned to all points of the compass, instead of to the east, it is assuredly a fact to be noticed, even if one is more romantically inclined than devout.
Through and through, Compiegne, its palace, its hotel-de-ville, its forest, is delightful. Old and new huddle close together, and the art nouveau decorations of a branch of a great Parisian department store flank a butcher's stall which looks as though it might have come down from the times when all trading was done in the open air.
Compiegne's origin goes back to the antique. It was originally Compendium, a Roman station situated on the highway between Soissons and Beauvais. A square tower, Caesar's Tower, gave a military aspect to the walled and fortified station, and evidences are not wanting to-day to suggest with what strength its fortifications were endowed.
It was here that the first Frankish kings built their dwelling, and here that Pepin-le-Bref received the gracious gift of an organ from the Emperor Constantine, and here, in 833, that an assembly of bishops and nobles deposed Louis-le-Debonnaire.
Charles-le-Chauve received Pope Jean VIII in great pomp in the palace at Compiegne, and it was this Pope who gave absolution to Louis-le-Begue, who died here but a year after, 879. The last of the Carlovingians, Louis V (le-Faineant), died also at Compiegne in 987.
The city is thus shown to have been a favourite place of sojourn for the kings of the Franks, and those of the first and second races. As was but obvious many churchly councils were held here, fourteen were recorded in five centuries, but none of great ecclesiastical or civil purport.
The city first got its charter in 1153, but the Merovingian city having fallen into a sort of galloping decay Saint Louis gave it to the Dominicans in 1260, who here founded, by the orders of the king, a Hotel Dieu which, in part, is the same edifice which performs its original functions to-day.
The first great love of Compiegne was expressed by Charles V, who rebuilt the palace of Charles-le-Chauve in a manner which was far from making it a monumental or artistically disposed edifice. It was originally called the Louvre, from the Latin word opus (l'oeuvre), a word which was applied to all the chateaux-forts of these parts. The same monarch did better with the country-houses which he afterwards built at Saint Germain and Vincennes; perhaps by this time he had grown wise in his dealings with architects.
Like all the little towns of the Valois, Compiegne abounds in souvenirs of the Guerre de Cent Ans, Jeanne d'Arc, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Napoleon I and Napoleon III, and as its monuments attest this glory, so its forest, one of the finest in France, awakens almost as many historical memories.
Wars and rumors of war kept Compiegne in a turmoil for centuries, but the most theatrical episode was the famous "sortie" made by Jeanne d'Arc when she was attempting to defend the city against the combined English and Burgundian troops. It was an episode in which faint heart, perhaps treason, played an unwelcome part, for while the gallant maid was taking all manner of chances outside the gates the military governor, Guillaume de Flavy, ordered the barriers of the great portal closed behind her and her men.
Near the end of the Pont de Saint Louis Jeanne d'Arc fell into the hands of the besiegers. An archer from Picardy captured her single handed, and, for a round sum in silver or in kind, turned her over to her torturer, Jean de Luxembourg. A statue of the maid is found on the public "Place," and the Tour Jeanne d'Arc, a great circular donjon of the thirteenth century, is near by. Another souvenir is to be found in the ancient Hotel de Boeuf, at No. 9 Rue de Paris, where the maid lodged from the eighteenth to the twenty-third of August, 1429, awaiting the entry of Charles VII.
With the era of Francis I that gallant and fastidious monarch came to take up his residence at Compiegne. He here received his "friend and enemy," Charles V, but strangely enough there is no monument in Compiegne to-day which is intimately associated with the stay here of the art-loving Francis. He preferred, after all, his royal manor at Villers-Cotterets near by. There was more privacy there, and it formed an admirable retreat for such moments when the king did not wish to bask in publicity, and these moments were many, though one might not at first think so when reading of his affairs of state. There were also affairs of the heart which, to him, in many instances, were quite as important. This should not be forgotten.
In 1624 a treaty was signed at Compiegne which assured the alliance of Louis XIII with the United Provinces, and during this reign the court was frequently in residence here. In 1631 Marie de Medici, then a prisoner in the palace, made a notable escape and fled, doomed ever afterwards to a vagabond existence, a terrible fall for her once proud glory, to her death in a Cologne garret ten years later.
In 1635 the Grand Chancellor of Sweden signed a treaty here which enabled France to mingle in the affairs of the Thirty Years' War.
During the Fronde, that "Woman's War," which was so entirely unnecessary, Anne d'Autriche held her court in the Palace of Compiegne and received Christine de Suede on certain occasions when that royal lady's costume was of such a grotesque nature, and her speech so chevaleresque, that she caused even a scandal in a profligate court. Anne d'Autriche, too, left Compiegne practically a prisoner; another menage a trois had been broken up.
The most imposing event in the history of Compiegne of which the chronicles tell was the assembling of sixty thousand men beneath the walls by Louis XIV, in order to give Madame de Maintenon a realistic exhibition of "playing soldiers." At all events the demonstration was a bloodless one, and an immortal page in Saint-Simon's "Memoires" consecrates this gallantry of a king in a most subtle manner.
Another fair lady, a royal favourite, too, came on the scene at Compiegne in 1769 when Madame du Barry was the principal artiste in the great fete given in her honour by Louis XV. She was lodged in a tiny chateau (built originally for Madame de Pompadour) a short way out of town on the Soissons road.
Du Barry must have been a good fairy to Compiegne for Louis XV lavished an abounding care on the chateau and, rather than allow the architect, Jacques Ange Gabriel, have the free hand that his counsellors advised, sought to have the ancient outlines of the former structure on the site preserved and thus present to posterity through the newer work the two monumental facades which are to be seen to-day. The effort was not wholly successful, for the architect actually did carry out his fancy with respect to the decoration in the same manner in which he had designed the Ecole Militaire at Paris and the two colonnaded edifices facing upon the Place de la Concorde.
This work was entirely achieved when Louis XVI took possession. This monarch, in 1780, caused to be fitted up a most elaborate apartment for the queen (his marriage with Marie Antoinette was consecrated here), but that indeed was all the hand he had in the work of building at Compiegne, which has practically endured as his predecessor left it. The Revolution and Consulate used the chateau as their fancy willed, and rather harshly, but in 1806 its restoration was begun and Charles IV of Spain, upon his dethronement by Napoleon, was installed therein a couple of years later.
The palace, the park and the forest now became a sort of royal appanage of this Spanish monarch, which Napoleon, in a generous spirit, could well afford to will him. He lived here some months and then left precipitately for Marseilles.
Napoleon affected a certain regard for this palatial property, though only occupying it at odd moments. He embellished its surroundings, above all its gardens, in a most lavish manner. Virtually, all things considered, Compiegne is a Palais Napoleonien, and if one would study the style of the Empire at its best the thing may be done at Compiegne.
On July 30, 1814, Louis XVIII and Alexander of Russia met at Compiegne amid a throng of Paris notabilities who had come thither for the occasion.
Charles X loved to hunt in the forest of Compiegne. In 1832, one of the daughters of Louis-Philippe, the Princesse Louise, was married to the King of the Belgians in this palace.
From 1852 to 1870 the palace and its grounds were the scenes of many imperial fetes.
Napoleon III had for Compiegne a particular predilection. The prince-president, in 1852, installed himself here for the autumn season, and among his guests was that exquisite blond beauty, Eugenie Montijo, who, the year after, was to become the empress of the French. Faithful to the memory of his uncle, by reason of a romantic sentiment, the Third Napoleon came frequently to Compiegne; or perhaps it was because of the near-by hunt, for he was a passionate disciple of Saint Hubert. It was his Versailles!
The palace of Compiegne as seen to-day presents all the classic coldness of construction of the reign of Louis XV. Its lines were severe and that the building was inspired by a genius is hard to believe, though in general it is undeniably impressive. Frankly, it is a mocking, decadent eighteenth century architecture that presents itself, but of such vast proportions that one sets it down as something grand if not actually of surpassing good taste.
In general the architecture of the palace presents at first glance a coherent unit, though in reality it is of several epochs. Its furnishings within are of different styles and periods, not all of them of the best. Slender gold chairs, false reproductions of those of the time of Louis XV, and some deplorable tapestries huddle close upon elegant "bergeres" of Louis XVI, and sofas, tables and bronzes of master artists and craftsmen are mingled with cheap castings unworthy of a stage setting in a music hall. A process of adroit eviction will some day be necessary to bring these furnishings up to a consistent plane of excellence.
One of the facades is nearly six hundred feet in length, with forty-nine windows stretching out in a single range. It might be the front of an automobile factory if it were less ornate, or that of an exposition building were it more beautiful. In some respects it is reminiscent of the Palais Royal at Paris, particularly as to the entrance colonnade and gallery facing the Louvre.
The chief beauty within is undoubtedly the magnificent stairway, with its balustrade of wrought iron of the period of Louis XVI. The Salle de Spectacle is of a certain Third Empire-Louis Napoleon distinction, which is saying that it is neither very lovely nor particularly plain, simply ordinary, or, to give it a French turn of phrase, vulgar.
One of the most remarkable apartments is the Salle des Cartes, the old salon of the Aides de Camp, whose walls are ornamented with three great plans showing the roads and by-paths of the forest, and other decorative panels representing the hunt of the time of Louis XV.
The Chambre a Coucher of the great Napoleon is perhaps the most interesting of all the smaller apartments, with its strange bed, which in form more nearly resembles an oriental divan than anything European. Doubtless it is not uncomfortable as a bed, but it looks more like a tent, or camp, in the open, than anything essentially intended for domestic use within doors. After the great Napoleon, his nephew Napoleon III was its most notable occupant, though it was last slept in by the Tzar Nicholas II, when he visited France in 1901.
The sleeping-room of the Empress Eugenie is fitted up after the style of the early Empire with certain interpolations of the mid-nineteenth century. The most distinct feature here is the battery of linen coffers which Marie Louise had had especially designed and built. The Salon des Dames d'Honneur, with its double rank of nine "scissors chairs," the famous tabourets de cour, lined up rigidly before the canape on which the empress rested, is certainly a remarkable apartment. This was the decor of convention that Madame Sans Gene rendered classic.
Like all the French national palaces Compiegne has a too abundant collection of Sevres vases set about in awkward corners which could not otherwise be filled, and, beginning with the vestibule, this thing is painfully apparent.
The apartments showing best the Napoleonic style in decorations and furnishings are the Salon des Huissiers, the Salle des Gardes, the Escalier d'Apollon, the Salle de Don Quichotte—which contains a series of designs destined to have served for a series of tapestries intended to depict scenes in the life of the windmill knight—the Galerie des Fetes, the Galerie des Cerfs, the Salle Coypel, the Salle des Stucs and the Salon des Fleurs, through which latter one approaches the royal apartments.
In the sixteenth century, or, more exactly, between 1502 and 1510, was constructed Compiegne's handsome Hotel de Ville, one of the most delightful architectural mixtures of Gothic and Renaissance extant. It is an architectural monument of the same class as the Palais de Justice at Rouen or the Hotel Cluny at Paris. Its frontispiece is marvellous, the rez-de-chaussee less gracious than the rest perhaps, but with the first story blooming forth as a gem of magnificent proportions and setting. Between the four windows of this first story are posed statuesque effigies of Charles VII, Jeanne d'Arc, Saint Remy and Louis IX. In the centre, in a niche, is an equestrian statue of Louis XII, who reigned when this monument was being built. A balustrade a jour finishes off this story, which, in turn, is overhung with a high, peaked gable, and above rise the belfry and its spire, of which the great clock dates from 1303, though only put into place in 1536. The only false note is sounded by the two insignificant, cold and unlovely wings which flank the main structure on either side.
It is a sixteenth century construction unrivalled of its kind in all France, more like a Belgian town-hall belfry than anything elsewhere to be seen outside Flanders, but it is not of the low Spanish-Renaissance order as are so many of the imposing edifices of occidental and oriental Flanders. It is a blend of Gothic and Renaissance, and, what is still more rare, the best of Gothic and the best of Renaissance. Above its facade is a civic belfry, flanked by two slender towers. Within the portal-vestibule rises a monumental stairway which must have been the inspiration of many a builder of modern opera-houses.
Opposite the Hotel Dieu is the poor, rent relic of the Tour de Jeanne d'Arc, originally a cylindrical donjon of the twelfth century, wherein "La Pucelle" was imprisoned in 1430.
Between the palace and the river are to be seen many vestiges of the mediaeval ramparts of the town, and here and there a well-defined base of a gateway or tower. Mediaevalism is rampant throughout Compiegne.
The park surrounding the palace is quite distinct from the wider radius of the Foret de Compiegne. It is of the secular, conventional order, and its perspectives, looking towards the forest from the terrace and vice versa, are in all ways satisfying to the eye.
One of the most striking of these alleyed vistas was laid out under the orders of the first Napoleon in 1810. It loses itself in infinity, almost, its horizon blending with that of the far distant Beaux Monts in the heart of the forest.
In the immediate neighbourhood of the palace are innumerable statues, none of great beauty, value or distinction. On the south side runs a Cours, or Prado, as it would be called in Catalonia. The word Cours is of Provencal origin, and how it ever came to be transplanted here is a mystery. Still here it is, a great tree-shaded promenade running to the river. The climate of Compiegne is never so blazing hot as to make this Cours so highly appreciated as its namesakes in the Midi, but as an exotic accessory to the park it is quite a unique delight.
Within the park may still be traced the outlines of the moat which surrounded the palace of Charles V, as well as some scanty remains of the same period.
Another distinctive feature is the famous Berceau en Fer, an iron trellis several thousands of feet in length, which was built by Napoleon I as a reminder to Marie Louise of a similar, but smaller, garden accessory which she had known at Schoenbrunn. It was a caprice, if you like, and rather a futile one since it was before the time when artistically worthless things were the rage just because of their gigantic proportions. Napoleon III cut it down in part, and pruned it to more esthetic proportions, and what there is left, vine and flower grown, is really charming.
The Foret de Compiegne as a historic wildwood goes back to the Druids who practiced their mysterious rites under its antique shade centuries before the coming of the kings, who later called it their own special hunting preserve. Stone hatchets, not unlike the tomahawks of the red man, have been found and traced back—well, definitely to the Stone Age, and supposedly to the time when they served the Druids for their sacrifices.
The soldiers of Caesar came later and their axes were of iron or copper, and though on the warpath, too, their way was one which was supposed to lead civilization into the wilderness. Innumerable traces of the Roman occupation are to be found in the forest by those who know how to read the signs; twenty-five different localities have been marked down by the archeologists as having been stations on the path blazed by the Legions of Rome.
After the Romans came the first of the kings as proprietors of the forest, and in the moyen-age the monks, the barons and the crown itself shared equally the rights of the forest.
Legends of most weird purport are connected with various points scattered here and there throughout the forest, as at the Fosse Dupuis and the Table Ronde, where a sort of "trial by fire" was held by the barons whenever a seigneur among them had conspired against another. Ariosto, gathering many of his legends from the works of the old French chroniclers, did not disdain to make use of the Foret de Compiegne as a stage setting.
During the reign of Clothaire the forest was known as the Foret de Cuise, because of a royal palace hidden away among the Druid oaks which bore the name of Cotia, or Cusia. Until 1346 the palace existed in some form or other, though shorn of royal dignities. It was at this period that Philippe VI divided the forests of the Valois into three distinct parts in order to better regulate their exploitation.
The Frankish kings being, it would seem, inordinately fond of la chasse the Foret de Compiegne, in the spring and autumn, became their favorite rendezvous. Alcuin, the historian, noted this fact in the eighth century, and described this earliest of royal hunts in some detail. In 715 the forest was the witness of a great battle between the Austrasians and the Neustrians.
Before Francis I with his habitual initiative had pierced the eight great forest roads which come together at the octagon called the Puits du Roi, the forest was not crossed by any thoroughfare; the nearest thing thereto was the Chaussee de Brunhaut, a Roman way which bounded it on the south and east.
Louis XIV and Louis XV, in turn, cut numerous roads and paths, and to the latter were due the crossroads known as the Grand Octagone and the Petit Octagone.
It was over one of these great forest roads, that leading to Soissons, that Marie Louise, accompanied by a cortege of three hundred persons, eighty conveyances and four hundred and fifty horses, journeyed in a torrential rain, in March 1807, when she came to France to found a dynasty.
A marriage had been consummated by procuration at Vienna, and she set out to actually meet her future spouse for the first time at Soissons. At the little village of Courcelles, on the edge of the forest between Soissons and Compiegne, two men enveloped in great protecting cloaks had arrived post-haste from Compiegne. At the parish church they stopped a moment and took shelter under the porch, impatiently scanning the horizon. Finally a lumbering berlin de voyage lurched into view, drawn by eight white horses. In its depths were ensconced two women richly dressed, one a beautiful woman of mature years, the other a young girl scarce eighteen years.
The most agitated of the men, he who was clad in a gray redingote, sprang hastily to the carriage door. He was introduced by the older woman as "Sa Majeste l'Empereur des Francaises, mon frere." The speaker was one of the sisters of Napoleon, Caroline, Queen of Naples; the other was the Archduchess Marie Louise, daughter of Franz II, Emperor of Austria.
An imposing ceremonial had been planned for Soissons and the court had been ordered to set out from Compiegne with the emperor, in order to arrive at Soissons in due time. When the actual signal for the departure was given the emperor was nowhere to be found. As usual he had anticipated things.
For weeks before the arrival of the empress to be Napoleon had passed the majority of his waking hours at Paris in the apartments which he had caused to be prepared for Marie Louise. He selected the colour of the furnishings, and superintended the very placing of the furniture. Among other things he had planned a boudoir which alone represented an expenditure of nearly half a million francs.
Lejeune, who had accompanied Marechal Berthier to Vienna to arrange the marriage, had returned and given his imperial master a glowing description of the charms of the young archduchess who was to be his bride. The emperor compared his ideal with her effigy on medals and miniatures and then worked even more ardently than before that her apartments should be worthy of her when she arrived.
It was just following upon this fever of excitement that Napoleon and the court had repaired to Compiegne. So restless was the emperor that he could hardly bide the time when the archduchess should arrive, and it was thus that he set out with Murat to meet the approaching cortege.
The pavilion which had been erected for the meeting was left to the citizens of the neighbourhood, and the marvellous banquet which had been prepared by Bausset was likewise abandoned. Napoleon had no time to think of dining.
All the roadside villages between Soissons and Compiegne were hung with banners, and the populace appeared to be as highly excited as the contracting parties. It still rained a deluge, but this made no difference. Two couriers at full gallop came first to Compiegne, crying: "Place": "Place": The eight white horses and the berlin de voyage followed. Before one had hardly time to realize what was passing, Napoleon and his bride whisked by in a twinkling.
At nine o'clock an outpost in the park at Compiegne announced the arrival of the emperor and his train. At ten o'clock a cannon shot rang out over the park and the emperor and empress passed into the chateau to proceed with certain indispensable presentations; then to souper, a petite souper intime, we are assured.
On the morrow all the world of the assembled court met the empress and avowed that she had that specious beaute du diable which has ever pleased the French connoisseur of beautiful women. They went further, however, and stated that in spite of this ravishing beauty she lacked the elegance which should be the possession of an empress of the French. The faithful Berthier silenced them with the obvious statement that since she pleased the emperor there was nothing more to be said, or thought.
Flying northward on the great highroad leading out from Paris to Chantilly and Compiegne gadabout travellers have never a thought that just beyond Pont Saint Maxence, almost in plain view from the doorway of the Inn of the Lion d'Argent of that sleepy little town, is a gabled wall which represents all that remains of the "Maison de Philippe de Beaumanoir," called the Cour Basse.
THE END
INDEX
Aiguillon, Duchesse d', 217
Alcuin, 358
Alexander, Emperor, 221, 330, 349
Alphonse XIII of Spain, 7
Amboise, 26, 28, 86
Amboise, Bussy d', 72
Ancre, Marechal d', 67
Andelot, Coligny d', 72-73
Andilly, Arnauld d', 267
Anet, Chateau d', 29, 111
Angennes, Jacques d', 44, 299, 311
Angers, Chateau d', 22
Anglas, Boissy d', 114
Angouleme, Duchesse d', 321
Anjou, Ducs d', 22, 136, 212
Anne of Austria, 96-97, 136-137, 284-287, 289, 347
Arc, Jeanne d', 345-346, 354
Ardennes, 54
Arlors, 25
Artois, Comtesse d', 176
Aubert, Jean, 333
Aubigne, D', 299
Aumale, Duc d', 29, 327, 331-332, 335, 338, 339
Auvergne, Louis d', 162-163
Ayen, Duc d', 299
Bagatelle, Chateau de, 163, 203-206
Bailly, Sylvain, 104
Barbes, 173
Barbison, 200-201
Baril, Jean, 25
Barry, Mme. du, 211, 242-243, 245, 250, 275, 329, 348
Bassompierre, 195, 262
Bastille, 71, 145, 173
Bausset, 361
Baviere, Isabeau de, 69, 151, 182
Beauharnais, Eugene, 220, 222
Beauharnais, Hortense, 215, 220, 221
Beaujon, 164
Beaumont, Cardinal de, 179
Beauvais, Hotel de, 11
Becker, General, 221
Becket, Thomas a, 182
Bedford, Duke of, 69
Belleveu, 241-242
Berquin, Louis de, 67
Berry, Duc de, 165
Berry, Duchesse de, 50, 321
Berthier, Marechal (see Wagram, Prince de)
Blanchard, 130
Blanqui, 173
Blois, 21, 26, 305
Blondel, 37
Blucher, 173, 209
Boileau, 328
Boissy, Forest of, 49
Bonaparte, Caroline, 359
Bonaparte, Jerome, 147
Bonaparte, Louis, 235
Bonaparte, Lucien, 145
Bonheur, Rosa, 202
Bordeaux, Duc de, 166
Borghese, Princesse, 208
Bossuet, 328
Boulanger, 200
Boullee, 164
Boulogne, Bois de, 168, 174, 175, 203, 206, 209
Bourbon Family, 164-165, 329, 331, 341
Bourbon, Palais, 120, 159-161
Bourdaloue, 328
Bourg-la-Reine, 3
Boyceau, 30, 262, 270
Breton, Mme. de, 121-122
Brunet, 223
Brunswick, Duchesse de, 154
Bullant, Jean, 109, 327, 336
Cadoudal, 173
Cambaceres, Consul, 115-116
Cardinal, Palais (see Royal, Palais)
Carpeaux, 118
Carrier-Belleuse, 202
Cartouche, 67
Cellini, 182, 192
Chabanne, Comte de, 73
Chabrol, 147
Chalgrin, 154
Chambiges, Pierre, 91, 281-282
Chamblay, 54-56
Chambord, 71, 86, 310
Chamillard, Michael, 252-253
Champaigne, Philippe de, 135
Champollion-Figeac, 184
Chantilly, Chateau and Forest of, 324-340, 362
Chappell, Comte des, 72
Charenton, 152
Charlemagne, 18, 116, 281
Charles II, 344
Charles V, 22, 23, 25, 62-63, 66, 68, 77, 82-84, 170, 190, 247, 281, 327, 344, 356
Charles VI, 63, 66, 69, 176-177, 229
Charles VII, 69, 182, 190, 346, 354
Charles VIII, 21, 299
Charles IX, 89, 91-94, 106, 108-110, 171, 209, 291, 312, 327
Charles X, 57, 108, 118, 146, 173, 192, 204, 212, 237-238, 303, 317, 319-320, 349
Charles IV, Emperor, 63
Charles V, Emperor, 85, 88, 346
Charles I, of England, 104, 137, 289
Charles the Bold of Burgundy (see Charolais, Comte de)
Charolais, Comte de, 177-178
Chartres, Ducs de (see Orleans, Ducs de)
Chateauroux, Mme. de, 250
Chatou, 210
Chenonceaux, 26, 32, 71
Chevalier, Etienne, 339
Childerbert I, 216
Christina, Queen, 222
Cinq-Mars, 73, 134
Clagny, Chateau de, 228, 277
Clement, Jacques, 93, 230-232
Clothaire, 357
Clotilde, 61
Clovis, 61, 76, 216
Coictier, Jacques, 66, 152
Colbert, 3, 87, 98, 100, 269
Coligny, Admiral, 93
Collo, Jean, 27
Commynes, 177
Compiegne, Palace and Forest of, 52-53, 165, 232, 335, 342-362
Conciergerie, 61, 65-68
Conde Family, 73, 269, 324, 327-331, 333, 337, 339
Conflans, Chateau de, 2, 175-179
Constantine, Emperor, 344
Consulat, Palais du (see Luxembourg, Palais du)
Conti Family, 211, 242, 327
Corneille, 73, 133, 151
Corot, 200
Cottereau, Jean, 299, 300-305, 307
Courcelles, 359
Cousin, Jean, 170
Coypel, 137
Cromwell, 137
Crozat, 162
Dagobert, 54
Damiens, 67, 263-264
Dante, 24
Dardelle, 123
Daru, 100
Daubigny, 200
Daumesnil, Baron, 173
Daumet, Henri, 332
Debanes, 22
Debrosse, Jacques, 64, 154, 158
Decamps, 202, 338
Delille, Abbe, 143
Delorme, Marion, 73
Delorme, Philibert, 34, 108-111, 189
Denecourt, 198-199, 201
Deputes, Chambre des (see Bourbon, Palais)
Desmoulins, Camille, 145
Diaz, 200
Directoire, Palais du (see Luxembourg, Palais du)
Donon, 100
Dorbay, 110
Drouais, 211
Ducamp, Maxine, 126
Ducerceau, 92, 94, 110, 112
Ducrot, General, 222
Dugastz, 232
Dupaira, 95
Duperac, 110
Dupre, 200
Durfort, Madame, 49
Egalite, Palais (see Royal, Palais)
Enghien, Chateau d', 340
Enghien, Duc d', 169, 172-174, 331
Epernon, Ducs d', 103, 232
Erard, Sebastian, 210
Este, Maria d', 290
Estival, Convent of, 49
Estrees, Gabrielle d', 102, 210
Etampes, Duchesse d', 86, 185, 192, 294
Etoiles, Normand d', 204
Eugenie, Empress, 120-122, 125-126, 238, 350, 352
Evans, Dr., 122
Fallieres, President, 166-167
Famin, 314-315
Faure, Felix, 56, 58-59
Feraud, 114
Ferrare, Duc de, 70
Flandre, Comte de, 82
Flavy, Guillaume de, 345
Fleury, Chateau de, 195
Fontaine, 99, 127
Fontainebleau, Forest of, 6, 50, 52, 181, 183, 196-202, 279, 294
Fontainebleau, Palais de, 2, 26, 28, 33, 34, 87, 91, 111, 180-196, 329, 335, 336
Fouche, 221
Fould, 53
Fouquet, Jean, 339
Fouquet, Nicolas, 269
Fragonard, 211
Francine, Thomas and Alexandre, 196
Francis I, 8, 10, 12, 16, 21, 32, 44-45, 62, 64, 67, 77, 79, 81, 84-89, 108, 110, 170, 181, 183-187, 189-191, 194, 209, 229, 281-282, 290, 292, 299, 306, 310-311, 321, 326, 346, 358
Franz II, 359
Gabriel, 276, 348
Gaillon, Chateau de, 33
Ganne, Pere, 200
Girardini, 160
Gisors, Castle of, 82
Gondi, 230, 232
Goujon, Jean, 89, 90
Grand Trianon, 39, 248, 258, 259, 260, 263, 264, 274-276
Gregory of Tours, 215
Grevy, Jules, 58
Gros, Baron, 338
Grosbois, Chateau de, 51
Guilbert, Abbe, 184
Guillain, Guillaume, 282
Guise, Ducs de, 70, 72-73, 103
Hamon, 200
Harlay-Crauvallon, Archbishop De, 178-179
Haussmann, Baron, 3, 13, 152
Hebert, 201
Hennequin, Dame Gillette, 178
Henri II, 26, 32, 44, 69-70, 78, 85, 87, 89, 90, 91, 108, 110, 170, 193, 229, 230, 282, 294-295, 311, 327
Henri III, 29, 92-93, 101, 109, 230-232, 312
Henri IV, 16, 26, 27, 29, 45-46, 71-72, 87, 89, 92, 94-95, 102-103, 111-112, 118, 172, 186, 190, 191, 194-197, 206, 209, 210, 231, 232, 238, 282-283, 306, 327
Henrietta of England, 233, 289
Henriette de France, 104, 137
Henry V of England, 63, 326
Henry VI of England, 63, 69
Henry VIII of England, 311
Herivaux, Bois de, 340
Hohenzollern, Prince de, 53
Hortense, Queen, 330
Hugo, Victor, 73
Hugues Capet, 62
Institut, Palais de l', 159-160
Isabey (Pere), 40
Jacob of Cologne, 87
Jacque, 200
James II of England, 290
Jarnac, Gui Chabot de, 294
Joachim, Prince, 52, 56
John II of France, 83, 170
John VIII, Pope, 344
Joinville, Forest of, 169
Josephine, Empress, 174, 215, 217-222, 323
Justice, Palais de (see La Cite, Palais de)
Karr, Alphonse, 149
La Barauderie, De, 30
Labaudy, 50
La Brosse, 102
La Cite, Palais de, 12, 61-68, 75, 81, 82, 93, 152, 153, 170
La Chataigneraie, 294
Laffitte, Pierre, 212, 213, 243
Lambesc, Prince de, 144
La Muette, Chateau de, 111, 203, 209-210
Lancret, 338
Langeais, 33
Lannes, Marechal, 213
Laporte, 284
La Quintinye, 267-269
La Reine Blanche, Chateau de, 341
Laschant, 232
Latini, Brunetto, 24
Lauzan, 178, 289
La Valliere, Louise de, 289
Lebrun, Charles, 97, 255, 256
Lebrun, Consul, 115
Le Calabrese, Henri, 27
Lecouteux de Canteleu, 217, 222
Ledoux, 211, 243
Lefuel, 100
Lejeune, 360
Leloir, 239
L'Elysee, Palais de, 153, 162-167
Lemercier, Jacques, 96, 100, 135, 262
Le Moyne, 239
Le Notre, 16, 22, 25, 26, 28, 30, 31, 35, 39, 40, 104, 128, 129-130, 179, 233, 248, 264-266, 270, 277, 288, 292, 307-308, 327, 330
Lepaute, 240
Le Roy, 262
Les Bruyeres, 222
Lescot, Pierre, 88-90, 109
Lesdiguieres, Duchesse de, 179
Levau, 97-98, 110, 247, 249
Lomenci, Martial de, 247
Longueil, Rene de, 212
Longueville, Mme. de, 73, 327
Loret, 11
Lorraine, Cardinal de, 111
Lorraine, Chevalier de, 233
Louis I, 344
Louis V, 344
Louis VI, 281
Louis VII, 169, 181, 182
Louis IX, 23, 62, 77, 169, 176, 182, 190, 281, 295, 341, 344, 354
Louis XI, 21, 66, 69, 152, 172, 177-178, 299, 326
Louis XII, 26, 69, 299, 305, 306, 326, 354
Louis XIII, 16, 48, 87, 96, 112, 132, 134, 136, 171, 189, 190, 194, 209, 247, 249, 262, 266, 283-284, 306, 347
Louis XIV, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 29, 33, 38, 39, 46, 48, 49, 50, 85, 87, 97-99, 104, 112, 118, 127, 136-137, 152, 158, 170, 178, 186, 189, 190, 206, 217, 223-224, 226, 233, 240, 245, 247, 249, 251-253, 255-257, 261, 264, 268, 270, 273, 274, 277, 283, 284, 288-290, 291, 293, 296, 297, 299, 303-307, 312, 328, 345, 347, 358
Louis XV, 4, 14, 16, 17, 38, 48, 112, 152, 162, 163, 174, 185, 186, 189, 190, 192, 205, 207, 209, 211, 227, 241, 243, 246, 250, 253, 263-264, 275-276, 284, 290, 312, 320, 323, 329, 345, 348, 350-352, 358
Louis XVI, 37, 39, 41, 43, 57, 108, 113, 118, 143, 144, 152, 154, 210, 213, 227, 250, 261, 235-236, 352, 356, 358-362, 290, 312-313, 316, 320, 322, 348, 351
Louis XVIII, 118, 161, 174, 237, 250, 316, 349
Louis Philippe, 105, 108, 117-118, 146, 149, 154, 162, 166, 186, 194, 199, 207, 238, 254-255, 350 (see also Orleans Family)
Louveciennes, Chateau de, 210-212, 242, 288
Louvre, 4, 12, 13, 22, 25, 32, 44, 62, 68, 75-105, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 118, 124, 131, 132, 152, 233, 351
Lude, Comtesse de, 49
Luxembourg, Jean de, 346
Luxembourg, Palais de, 28, 40, 115, 136, 144, 153-158
Machine de Marly, 223-224
Madrid, Chateau de, 111
Magnan, Marechal, 242
Maine, Duc de, 159
Maintenon, Chateau de, 242, 296-308, 312
Maintenon, Mme. de, 158-159, 194, 227, 249, 274, 296-299, 302-303, 305-308, 312, 347
Maisons-Laffitte, Chateau de, 203, 212-214, 288
Malmaison, Chateau de, 215-223, 323
Mandrin, 67
Mansart, Francois, 212-213
Mansart, Jules Hardouin, 35, 137, 179, 226, 233, 241, 249, 274, 276, 291, 327, 333
Mantes, 55
Mantes, Mlle. de, 159
Marat, 116
Marceliano, Pucello and Edme, 26
Marie Antoinette, 49, 115, 194, 204, 210, 237, 245, 256, 276-277, 320, 322, 349
Marie Louise, 6, 117, 208
Marie Sophie, 320
Marie Therese, 11
Marigny, Enguerrand de, 62, 172
Marigny, Marquis de, 99
Marlotte, 201
Marly-le-Roi (or -le-Bourg or -le-Chatel), 2, 224-228, 283, 288
Mary Tudor, of England, 69
Marseilles, 91
Massena, Duc de, 217
Masson, Frederic, 236
Matignon, Marechal de, 70
Mayenne, Duc de, 101
Mazarin, Cardinal, 87, 104, 136, 159, 169, 283-285
Mazarin, Palais (see Institut, Palais de l')
Medici, Catherine de, 26, 31, 33, 44, 48, 68, 69-71, 90-91, 93-94, 97, 107, 108, 110, 111, 171, 195, 230, 247, 311
Medici, Marie de, 72, 103, 154, 155, 158, 206, 347
Menars et de Marigny, Marquis de, 163
Menours, Jacques de, 30, 262-263
Mercogliano, 18
Messonier, 338
Metezeau, Thibaut, 92, 94
Metternich, Prince de, 121
Meudon, Bois de, 240
Meudon, Chateau de, 34, 111
Michelet, 192
Mignard, 233, 239, 306
Millet, Eugene, 290, 291
Millet, Jean Francois, 200, 201
Mirabeau, 172
Moliere, 73, 104, 178, 249
Molineaux, Chateau de, 278
Mollet, Claude, 29, 30
Mollien, 100
Monconseil, Marquise de, 204
Mongomere, Comte de, 67
Montansier, Duc de, 269
Montargis, 28
Montebello, Marechal de, 213
Montespan, Marquise de, 159, 249, 275, 312
Montesson, Marquise de, 234
Montgaillard, 50
Montgolfier, 130
Montgomeri, Sieur de, 70
Montmartre, 288
Montmorency Family, 178, 324, 326-327, 339
Montmorency, Forest of, 49, 288
Montpensier, Mlle. de, 136
Moreau, Architect, 138
Moreau, Hegesippe, 123-124
Moskowa, Prince de la, 53
Muette, Chateau de la, 111
Murat, Princes de, 52-56, 165, 235, 361
Murillo, 164
Musee de Cluny, 12
Musset, De, 274
Nacret, 239
Nanterre, 281
Nanteuil, Celestin, 200
Napoleon I, 6, 13, 40, 51-52, 57, 79, 88, 100, 108, 115-118, 127, 129, 145, 154, 155, 160, 165, 171, 173-174, 180, 186, 187-188, 190, 194, 208, 213, 217-222, 235-237, 250, 254, 274, 296, 298, 313-316, 320, 321, 322, 345, 349, 352, 355-356, 359-362
Napoleon III, 13, 58, 92, 100, 105, 118-122, 147, 152, 166, 195, 197, 222, 238, 290, 313, 318, 323, 345, 350-352, 356
Nattier, 338
Neckar, 144
Nemours, Duc de, 70
Neufforge, De, 37
Neuilly and its Chateau, 206-209, 238
Nicholas II, 352
Nicolo dell' abbate, 193
Nigra, Chevalier, 121
Noailles, Ducs de, 298-300, 306
Noisy, Chateau de, 278
Nolhac, M. de, 274
Olivier, Emile, 125
Oppenard, 137
Orgemont, Marguerite d', 326
Orleans, Ducs d', 137-140, 143, 144-149, 161, 209, 233, 234, 286-287, 337
Orleans, Palais d' (see Royal, Palais)
Ormesson, D', 73
Osman, 230-231
Oursins, Juvenal des, 66
Palatine, Princesse, 233
Palissy, Bernard, 31-32
Panseron, 37
Pare, Ambroise, 171
Paul, Saint Vincent de, 73
Penthievre, Duc de, 306, 312, 322
Pepin-le-Bref, 343
Percier, 100, 127
Perrault, Charles, 98-99
Petit Luxembourg, Palais du, 155, 157
Petit Trianon, 39, 260, 264, 274, 276-277, 329
Pfnor, 184
Philippe Auguste, 12, 62, 77, 80-82, 169, 182, 190
Philippe III, 62, 177
Philippe IV, 62, 170, 176, 182, 190, 295
Philippe VI, 170, 358
Philippe II, of Spain, 69
Philippe-Egalite, 138-139
Picard, Achille, 125
Pichegreu, 173
Pierrefonds, 290, 335
Pisan, Christine de, 23
Pius VII, 6, 115, 194, 235
Poirson, 184
Poissin, 164
Poissy, 23, 232, 292, 293
Poitiers, Diane de, 29, 44, 70-71, 193
Pompadour, Mme. de, 163, 204-205, 241-242, 246, 250, 275, 348
Potter, Paul, 164
Poussin, 338
Prieur, Barthelemy, 196
Primaticcio, 87, 188, 192, 193
Provence, Comte de, 154
Quatre Nations, Palais des (see Institut, Palais de l')
Rabelais, 322
Racine, 297, 303, 308, 328
Rambouillet, Chateau and Forest of, 44-45, 50, 55-59, 242, 296, 298, 309-323, 328, 335, 336
Rambouillet, Seigneur de, 299
Raphael, 87, 170
Raspail, 173
Ravaillac, 67, 102
Redon, 128
Regnier, Henri de, 244
Remusat, Mme. de, 174, 219
Retz, Marechal de, 247
Revolution, Palais de la (see Royal, Palais)
Richelieu, Cardinal, 72, 73, 95, 100, 131-139, 151, 178, 179, 216-217
Rigaud, 307
Rigby, 334
Robert II, 62, 190, 281
Rochefort, Henri, 120-121
Romain, Mme., 141
Ronsard, 34, 90, 109, 111
Roosevelt, Theodore, 166-167
Rosier, De, 210
Rosny, 55
Rosso, 182, 192
Rousseau, Theodore, 200, 201
Rousselle, 123
Rouvray, Forest of, 229
Rovigo, Duc de, 221
Royal, Palais, 131-150, 284, 351
Royale, Place (see Vosges, Place des)
Rubens, 164
Rueil (see Malmaison)
Sadi-Carnot, 58
Saint Cloud, Palais de, 13, 93, 228, 229-243
Saint Cyr, 296-298, 303
Saint Germain-en-Laye, 28, 91, 111, 136, 203, 206, 223, 232, 242, 256, 279-295, 311, 324, 336, 345
Saint Germain, Forest of, 212, 292-295
Saint James, Baudart de, 208
Saint Louis (see Louis IX)
Saint Maur, Chateau de, 111
Saint Ouen, 54
Saint-Simon, 179, 262, 348
Sarto, Del, 192
Savoie, Louise de, 108
Savoie, Philippe de, 66
Scarron, Mme. (see Maintenon, Mme. de)
Schickler, Baron, 318
Schopin, 195
Senat, Palais du (see Luxembourg, Palais du)
Senlis, 6
Senlis, Foret de, 340
Senlis, Seigneurs de, 324
Seran, Comtesse de, 275
Serlio, 88, 185
Serres, Olivier de, 33
Servandoni, 112
Sevigne, Mme. de, 179, 277, 328
Soissons, 359-361
Soyecourt, Marquis de, 212
Sualem, Rennequin, 223
Sully, Duc de, 102, 103
Talmon, Prince de, 73
Tesse, Marquis de, 73
Thermes, Palais des, 12, 62, 153
Thierry III, 224
Thiers, President, 122-123
Thomery, 202
Thou, De, 73
Temple, The, 144
Tiercelin, Jean, 108
Tillet, Maison du, 232
Toulouse, Comte de, 321
Toulouse, Comtesse de, 312, 320
Tournelles, Palais des, 66, 68-71, 81, 152
Trepsat, 313-314
Trianon (see Grand Trianon)
Triboulet, 186
Tribunat, Palais du (see Royal, Palais)
Trochu, General, 120
Tuileries, Palace and Gardens of the, 3, 13, 31, 33-34, 40, 76, 78, 82, 91, 92, 94, 106-130, 131, 155, 157, 166, 218, 227, 317
Turenne, 73
Turgot, 100
Valerian, Mont, 288
Vallet, Pierre, 27
Valois, Charles, Comte de, 170
Valois, Elizabeth de, 69
Valois, Marguerite de (1492-1549), 8, 10
Valois, Marguerite de (1553-1615), 10, 69, 111, 209
Van Loo, 164
Vasari, 181
Vauban, 252
Vaux-le-Vicomte, 36, 42
Vendome, Duc de, 102, 206
Vernet, Joseph, 164, 239
Verneuil, Marquis de, 207
Veronese, 338
Versailles, 2, 36, 42, 85, 88, 99, 112, 118, 145, 163, 180, 196, 205, 215, 223-224, 226, 228, 239, 240, 242, 244-278, 279, 283, 296, 305, 324, 334, 335, 336, 350
Vesinet, Bois de, 288
Vexin, Comte de, 159
Vignole, 188
Vignon, 113
Villa Normande, 54
Villeray, Marquis de, 299
Villeroy, Marquis Neuville de, 108
Villeroy, Marechal de, 178
Villers-Cotterets, 28, 165, 346
Vincennes, Chateau de, 168-175, 331, 345
Vincennes, Bois de, 168, 174-175, 177
Vinci, Leonardo da, 87, 192
Visconti, 100
Vivonne, Francois de, 294
Voltaire, 263
Von Ostade, 164
Vosges, Place des, 71-74, 152.
Wagram, Prince de, 51, 52, 360, 362
Wallace, Sir Richard, 205
Wellington, 208-209
William I, Emperor, 255
Wolsey, 132
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