THE STYLE OF LOUIS XIV. 269 



was beginning to turn. Great and imposing and, in many respects, 

 beneficent as was the structure so laboriously erected, its uniformity 

 was too artificial, its system too inelastic, its foundations too narrow 

 for permanence, and from this moment the fortunes of the reign fell 

 into relative decline. 



THIRD PERIOD OF THE REIGN. Colbert, who died in 1683, had 

 lived to see his policy compromised by the growing prestige and 

 reckless extravagance of Louvois, " the brutal minister whom all men 

 hated." The enforcement of unqualified obedience and uniformity 

 entailed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), and the 

 inhuman persecution of the Huguenots lost France untold numbers 

 of industrious citizens, whose skill and enterprise went to the enrich- 

 ment of her rivals. Louis' aggressive foreign policy drove Europe 

 into a hostile coalition, and involved France in disastrous wars and 

 humiliating treaties. The drain on her resources was enormous, but 

 though the chased silver furniture of Versailles was sent to the melting 

 pot, no serious attempt was made, amid industrial stagnation and 

 famine, to restrict expenditure on Court fetes and journeys, and Louis 

 could never rest from building or altering what he had built. 



His failure to understand the needs of his people, and to lighten or 

 equalise their burdens, brought his government into detestation, while 

 the scandals of his life had given a pernicious example, which the 

 bigotry of his later years could not efface. The beautiful and arrogant 

 Madame de Montespan, in whose honour the most brilliant festivities 

 had been organised, fell into disfavour, and the King's disillusioned 

 old age was saddened by repeated bereavements. After the Queen's 

 death he married Madame de Maintenon, the governess of his 

 illegitimate children, under whose influence the Court became more 

 decent, but lost its gaiety, and the multiplication of religious 

 observances and the stiffness of official entertainments became a 

 burden to the younger generation of courtiers. One by one the 

 great authors passed away, and the age of the masterpieces of classical 

 perfection was at an end. After 1685 few works of permanent value 

 appeared. And in the exceptions, such as those of Fenelon and 

 La Bruyere, the expression of accepted ideas in polished form has 

 ceased to be the dominant motive. They are no longer under the 

 glamour of the " grand siecle " ; they begin to see its seamy side ; they 

 criticise and condemn. 



THREE ARCHITECTURAL PERIODS. In architecture and decoration 

 the threefold division also holds good. The preparatory period is 

 marked by the growth of the classical spirit and the increase of 

 refinement and concentration, the decline of the Flemish barocco 

 influence and the formation out of conflicting tendencies of a new 

 style, assisted by the policy of the crown in regard to the arts. 



