— 450 — 



on one occasion, in order to test the point whether it 

 was piety or vanity which brought the fair ones to 

 church in such numbers, rose, and brandishing his 

 baton, gave the word of command — " Guards, with- 

 draw, the King wont be here to-day ! " This caused a 

 murmur among the ladies ; the tapers were extinguished 

 and the owners left, all except some truly pious ones 

 who remained in church. The seats being vacated, 

 Brissac recalled the guards, on the entrance of Eoyalty. 

 On leaving, Louis XIV, enquired from Brissac the 

 reason why the chapel was so deserted that day, and 

 being told the practical joke practised on his admirers, 

 he joined the court in a hearty laugh ; but Saint Simon 

 adds, that Major Brissac, though an intrepid soldier, 

 scarcely dared to face alone his fair enemies, craignant, 

 he adds, d'etre e'trangU par elles, lest they should 

 strangle him. 



The Palace itself comprises more than one hundred 

 apartments ; had the Great Louis, like Pygmalion, 

 feared secret poisoning, he could, like him have diver- 

 sified ad infinitum his sleeping arrangements. 



Striking battle scenes, naval engagements on canvass, 

 life-size pictures of the French sovereigns, their great 

 generals, admirals, men of science, letters, fill the 

 salle des Croisades, salle des Spectacles, salle des 

 Bois de France, salle des Guerriers cdibres, gale- 

 ries des Batailles and a hundred others. We took 

 special interest in Marie Antoinette's boudoir, etc., with 

 the old furniture still there ; the secret staircase, through 

 which she escaped from the mob is shown. Louis XIV's 

 great dining-table, still stands in the centre of the 

 royal banquetting room, and a large marble wine cooler 

 remains, near the wall, to tell the tale of other days. 



" The town of Versailles, the capital of the Seine-et- 

 Oise department, with 49,850 inhabitants, owes its 

 origin to Louis XIV. The site was hardly favourable 

 for a town, and still less so for a park, as the water for 

 its ornamental ponds had to be conveyed to it from a 



