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great distance at a vast expense. The town was called 

 by Voltaire, Vabime des despenses, its palace and park 

 having cost the treasury of Louis XIV, the enormous 

 sum of 1,000 million francs. The accounts handed 

 down to us regarding the erection of this sumptuous 

 palace and the laying out of its grounds almost border 

 on the fabulous. Thus no fewer than 36,000 men and 

 6,000 horses are said to have been employed at one 

 time in forming the terraces of the garden, levelling the 

 park, and constructing a road to it from Paris and an 

 aqueduct from Maintenon, a distance of thirty-one miles 

 from Versailles. 



This aqueduct was intended to bring the water of the 

 river Eure to Versailles, but was discontinued owing 

 to the great mortality among the soldiers employed ; 

 and the breaking out of the war, in 1688, prevented the 

 resumption of the works. The waterworks of Marly 

 were afterwards constructed, and a further supply of 

 water obtained from the ponds on the plateau between 

 Versailles and Eambouillet. After 1682, Versailles 

 became the permanent headquarters of the court, and is 

 therefore intimately associated with the history of that 

 period. It witnessed the zenith and the decadence of 

 the prosperity of Louis XIV ; and under his successors 

 the magnificent pile of the " grand monarque " became 

 the scene of the disreputable Pompadour and Du Barry, 

 domination. It was at the meeting of the Estates held 

 here, in 1789 that the " Tiers Etat " took the memor- 

 able step, the first on the way to the Eevolution, of 

 forming itself into a separate body, the Assemblee 

 Rationale. A few months later the unfortunate Louis 

 XVI saw the Palace of Versailles sacked by a Parisian 

 mob, which included many thousand repulsive women 

 and since that period it has remained uninhabited. 

 During the Eevolution (1789) it narrowly escaped 

 being sold. Napoleon neglected it, owing to the great 

 expense which its repair would have entailed, and the 

 Bourbons on their restoration merely prevented it from 



