TREE OF ST. LOUIS /.V rifE FOREST OF FONTAINEBLEAU 307 



peculiar interest ami cover a- large ami im- 

 portant part of French history. The forest 

 has been used from very early times as a 

 royal hunting ground. Importance was first 

 given to it by Louis VII, who, after return- 

 ing from a disastrous crusade, erected upon 

 the spot which the present palace occupies a 

 fortified castle in which he held his court. 

 He also dedicated there a chapel to Saint 

 Saturnin, which was consecrated by Thomas 

 Ti Becket, then a refugee in Franc(>. 



While the earliest settlements were being 

 established in America, Louis XIII at Fon- 

 tainebleau was entering upon a career which, 

 with Richelieu 's help, was to lay the founda- 

 tion of the most glorious period in the his- 

 tory of France. Hither Henry IV had come 

 with Gabrielle d 'Estrees and later with 

 Queen Marie de Medicis, and here young 

 Louis was born and baptized, and from 

 Fontainebleau went forth to the early strug- 

 gles and successes of his long and eventful 

 reign. 



Louis XIV. though born at Saint-Germain 

 and occupied with the construction of Ver- 

 sailles, still retained Fontainebleau as his 

 autunm residence, where he went to hunt and 

 to enjoy the exhibitions of new plays in- 

 tended for the French stage. It was here in 

 1085 that this tyrannical and bigoted mon- 

 arch signed away the rights of the Hugue- 

 nots granted to them nearly a century before 

 by Henry IV in the Edict of Nantes. 



The marriage of Louis XV to Marie Le- 

 sczinska, of Poland, was celebrated at Fon- 

 tainebleau ; but the names of De Chateau- 

 roux, De Pompadour, and Du Barry, who 

 succeeded one another in the favor of the 

 king, have attracted more attention than 

 that of his Polish queen. It was a period 

 of license and of petty jealousies during 

 which Fontainebleau was the scene of many 

 personal and political intrigues. Sentimental 

 and unorthodox literature was also much in 

 vogue. Hither came the brilliant and ver- 

 satile Voltaire to see his plays produced; 



and here Kousseau, after witnessing the 

 jihenomenal success of his "Le Devin du 

 Village," lost courage at the approach of his 

 presentation to the king and hurriedly left 

 the palace witho\it a farewell and without a 

 j)ensioii. 



Tlie time-honor(Nl custom of spending the 

 autumn at Fontainebleau was continued by 

 T^ouis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette. 

 During these visits the king gave himself 

 over to the jileasures of the chase or worked 

 with his locks and bolts. The queen espe- 

 cially lookcij forward with delight to the 

 freedom and quiet and native beauty of a 

 forest unrestricted by the narrow boundaries 

 of Versailles and beyond the reach of its 

 cares. 



The apartments of Napoleon I form an 

 attractive feature of the castle: a large part 

 of the garden, also, was laid out in the 

 English style under his direction. It was 

 during his residence at Fontainebleau that 

 N^apoleon willfully put away the Empress 

 Josephine for Maria Louisa; here he was 

 forced to sign his abdication of the throne 

 of France for the empire of Elba; and here, 

 in the Cour du Cheval-Blanc, he bade a 

 touching farewell to the soldiers of the Old 

 Guard, to greet them again on the same spot 

 upon his return from Elba the following 

 year. 



And the Tree of Saint Louis has lived 

 through it all, defying time and change as 

 kings and centuries have passed; and, with 

 ring after ring, has slowly recorded the 

 years. Some rings have been thick, others 

 scanty; some even, others uneven. As it is 

 with the tree, so it has been with France: 

 there have been years of plenty and want, 

 of peace and war, of prosperity and adver- 

 sity in her history. It is to be hoped that 

 the peasants of Fontainebleau will not cease 

 to hang wreaths upon the tree while it lives, 

 or the French people cease to remember 

 what they owe to the good and wise king 

 whose name it bears. 



■M2int> 



