— 447 — 



In days of yore, Baron Hugo, and later on, his des-. 

 cendants on returning from their expeditions to Spain 

 against the Moors, or from repelling the Northmen, 

 used to tarry for a while at his Manor ; and after 

 returning thanks to Saint Julien, for the success of 

 their arms, they would organize a hunt in the deep, 

 virgin forest of Versailles, where nature has had to dis- 

 appear before art. 



A few centuries back, when the seigniory of Ver- 

 sailles was owned by Martial de Leomenie, it is recorded 

 how the unsuspecting seignior, in order to escape the 

 St. Bartholemew massacre, had made a gift of his lands 

 to Gondi, Marechal de Retz, who had undertaken to 

 obtain protection for him ; and how the infamous Mar- 

 shal having had him murdered on the 28th August, the 

 feast of Saint Julien, he had himself proclaimed Seignior 

 and took under the dais, the honored place of his victim. 

 History in the past reeks with accounts of similar foul 

 deeds. 



It was Louis XIII, who, in 1634, caused his archi- 

 tect, Jacques Lemercier, to erect, on an eminence 

 crowned by a mill, where after the toilsome hunt he 

 was in the habit of finding a too modest place of rest, 

 the chateau of which his son Louis XIV, out of regard 

 to his royal parent, preserved a part, that included in 

 the Cour de Marbre (Marble Court), and which the 

 talented Mansart sat like a curious gem, in the splendid 

 casket, erected by his genius. 



Louis XIII, was in the habit of spending the sum- 

 mer at Versailles and the rest of the year at the Castle 

 of Saint-Germain, where he expired on the 14th March, 

 1643. 



Louis XIV, born at St. Germain, on the 5th Septem- 

 ber, 1638, came for the first time to visit his father's 

 Chateau, at Versailles, on the 18th April, 1651, since 

 which period he frequently returned to hunt there ; 

 he had also, 'tis said, taken a dislike to St. Germain, as 

 it commanded a view of the tower of St. Denis, the . 



