it 
 
The Century of Louis XIV 
 
 Its Arts-Its Ideas 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/centuryoflouisxiOObour 
 
LOUIS XIV. 
 
 Engraved on wood by Florian after the Marble Bust by Coysevox. 
 (Musee de Versailles.') 
 
THE CENTURY 
 
 OF 
 
 LOUIS XIV 
 
 ITS ARTS- ITS IDEAS 
 
 FROM THE FRENCH OF 
 
 EMI LE BOURGEOIS 
 
 LECTURER AT THE J-CO/.E NORM A I.E. SUpARIEURE, OF PARIS 
 BY 
 
 MRS. CASHEL HOEY 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SAMPSON LOW. MARSTON AND COMPANY 
 
 LIMITED 
 St. DunsUut's iSousc 
 Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. 
 
FRONTISPIECE FROM A DRAWING BY BKKAIN. 
 (Cabinet of IYinb.— Itildiotliique Natinnalc.) 
 
I.Ol l> XIV. (JIVES PLENTY TO FRANCE, 
 ^l'nmi an i-ngraviiij; in t In- Cabinet of l'vinl*.) 
 
 PR E V A CE 
 
 ISTORY ok Louis XIV. is neither the title nor 
 the subject of this book, It is for a master 
 only to take up that history again, and to 
 write it from the documents which have been 
 discovered and elucidated since the days 
 of Voltaire. 
 
 Voltaire himself, when he conceived his 
 Essay on the century of Louis XIV., did not 
 propose to undertake the general and political 
 study of the reign. As a man of letters 
 rather than a writer of history, his project 
 was a picture, not a narrative, of the pre- 
 ceding epoch. He would gladly have left the politicians to their 
 negotiations and the heroes to their battles so that he might observe 
 and portray the men and the manners of that century — " the most 
 enlightened that has ever been." He did not do this ; but of the whole 
 of his life-work he rated most highly the portion w T hich is now before us 
 in the form of an appendix to history properly so-called : his anecdotes 
 of the King and the Court ; the effect of the government on conduct 
 and conditions ; the picture of ideas, arts, and creeds. 
 
 I regarded the removal of this picture of the Great Century from the 
 frame in which it was afterwards placed by Voltaire, so as to restore its 
 
 A>" ORNAMENTED LETTER OF THE 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 (Frc.m the Collection of Frontispieces 
 in tbe Bibliotueque Xatiouale.) 
 
XII 
 
 PEEFACE 
 
 value and its perspective, as all the more legitimate, because it supplies a 
 certain means of serving, by his aid, the same cause that he served ; the 
 cause of the Frenchmen who made France so great two hundred years ago. 
 This volume has no other pretension, claim, or reason for existence. 
 
 The age we live in delights in inquiry into the private lives of great 
 men, and into the spirit of society in the past. It loves to interrogate 
 them directly, so that it may get at the secrets of their passions and find 
 out their state of mind at different periods. It neglects the " boards " for 
 
 " behind the scenes," and would 
 fain mingle familiarly with 
 those who are usually seen 
 only as actors playing their 
 parts. This curiosity is not 
 culpable. " It almost ceases 
 to be curiosity," said Voltaire, 
 " when it has epochs and 
 men who attract the gaze of 
 posterity for its object." 
 
 This commendable instinct 
 moreover ought not to be ex- 
 clusive, it should apply itself 
 to the epoch of Louis XIV. as 
 well as to the periods of the 
 Revolution, Napoleon, and the 
 Restoration. 
 
 LOUIS XIV. AT THE PERIOD OK HIS MARRIAGE. 
 (.From the original portrait by Mignanl, engraved by I'oilly.) 
 
 The Great Century pre- 
 sents an object of general 
 curiosity which yields to no 
 other in interest. Because it is classic, because our forefathers of that 
 date wore wigs, we must not come— like the combatants of the Romantic 
 school in the thick of the fight— to the conclusion that the French of 
 the period, trammelled by rigid social rules, stifled under the scenery, 
 decoration and costume of Versailles, had no free, intelligent and merry 
 life of their own, at Court, in their homes — nay, even in the street. 
 The Loves, the Graces, and the Muses had their place in the order 
 which Louis XIV. imposed upon himself and enjoined upon all around 
 him. The King himself set the example; he enjoyed perfect health, 
 
r R E F \ C E 
 
 Mil 
 
 was eager for pleasure, delighted in sports and fetes ; never was there a 
 more powerful ruler or a more ardent lover. To know the men whom 
 he associated with his work and with his Court, we nerd only look into 
 their private lives. 
 
 \ olta ire is one of the l»est miides to such intimacy. He was young in 
 the reign of Louis XIV. "I am. he said, "almost an eye-witness." 
 That which he had not seen he had learned from older men whose 
 reminiscences he collected in 
 time to understand them. 
 W hen he fails us. we can 
 
 still complete and verify the 
 living image of the Great 
 Century by contemporary 
 memoirs. This I have done, 
 with the help of Saint-Simon. 
 Dangeau. Madame de Sevigne. 
 Labruyere, Ormesson, C'hoisy, 
 Aiesdames de Motteville, La- 
 fayette, Lavalliere, Spanheim 
 (the German), or less distin- 
 guished individuals, such as 
 Laporte (the King's valet), ami 
 the editor of the Mercure. But 
 I have always been careful to 
 indicate the exact point at 
 which we part with Voltaire, 
 and resort to fresh witnesses, 
 so that his picture may be 
 left intact. 
 
 Moreover, the secret of an epoch is almost always to he read in the 
 art which it has bequeathed to us. The art of the seventeenth century 
 is not sufficiently interrogated. It is judged by Versailles, its ceilings and 
 its panels, its garden "baths" and formal cut yew-trees. The whole 
 is ascribed to Lebrun and Le Notre, and the perpetual decoration is 
 fatiguing, although the great ability of the decorators is everywhere 
 evident, and frequently compels admiration. Nevertheless, the ease is 
 the same with the art as with the literature and the society of thai 
 
 MAHIK-Tlll 111 M.. 
 Kli.in a ilra«iii(t liy Naiilciiil. 
 
 (Cabinet of Prints.) 
 
XIV 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 time. Closely examined, it is living, bright, highly finished, full of the 
 grace and charm of the purely French genius which produced it. It 
 does not speak, when it is heard aright, the eternally conventional 
 language ascribed to it. The portraits by Foilly, those by anonymous 
 painters preserved at the Louvre and at Versailles, the busts by 
 Coysevox and Warin, the medals by Warin, Manger, Loir, Molart and 
 Bertinetti, the famous wax medallion by Antoine Benoist, show us a 
 very different Louis XIV. at every age from the King in Court costume 
 
 VERSAILLES. — PRINCIPAL FRONT, LOOKING ON THE GARDENS. 
 (From a print by Israel Silvestre.) 
 
 whom H. Rigaud painted. And how true and natural his Ministers and 
 his whole following appear in the works of CI. Lefebvre, Chauveau, 
 Nanteuil, S. Bourdon, Coysevox and Desjardins. French sculpture, with 
 Van Cleve, Tuby and Ballin, was so rich, even at Versailles, in genius, 
 spirit and elegance, that the eighteenth century might well have been 
 envious of its predecessor. 
 
 The engravers are, of all artists, the most valuable to students of the 
 reign of Louis XIV. Their art, which reaches its height in Mellan, Morin, 
 Nanteuil, Chauveau, S. Leclerc, Edelinck, and Gr. Audran, is not limited to 
 
P 1; E FA r E 
 
 xv 
 
 Till. < 1 1 A I 11. Ol' Till' INVA1.ID1.S. 
 
 groat compositions ami portraits, it lends itsoli In 
 subjects of ever}' kind, scenes of life and manners, 
 views of cities and buildings, fashion prints, 
 designs for furniture, almanacs and caricatures. 
 
 Each page of the calendar which hears tin 
 names of such masters as Chauvoau, Leclerc, 0] 
 <le Poilly, is either an eloquenl translation o 
 tin 1 complaint of the people ruined by war, 
 suffering from cold and hunger, or a 
 presentment of the Court in its splendour, 
 that royal circle of lords and ladies 
 over which Louis XIV, majestically 
 presides. The famous caricature by 
 Guerard, " I'aysan ne pour la peine 
 (Peasant horn for toil), forms a com- 
 mentary on the fine phrase which 
 the compassion of La Bruyerc for 
 the humble folk su Quested. Certain 
 
 engravers are bitter against the luxury of the bourgeoisie, others take 
 pleasure in describing it. Saint-Jean, who has the entree to boudoirs 
 
 and dressing-rooms: Bonnart, 
 who is up to the very latest 
 date of fashion, illustrate the 
 progress and the influence of 
 the middle class by the wealth 
 and luxury which its members 
 display. The work of the 
 engravers is therefore a vera- 
 Hons and complete chronicle 
 of the Great Century, which 
 does not lessen, hut explains it. 
 
 Time would have failed me 
 for the formal ion of tha t gallery 
 of seventeenth century pictures 
 which I purposed to add. as a 
 new and necessary explanation, 
 to the Essay of Voltaire, 
 
 FRANCE TRIUMPHANT. 
 
 A group by Tnby an<l Coysevox, recently resV>re<l. 
 (Gardens of Versailles.) 
 
xvi PREFACE 
 
 but for the advice and encouragement that I have received. My 
 task being ended, I now have the pleasure of recording my 
 indebtedness to the kindness of M. Henry Roujon, Director of the 
 Beaux Arts; to the learning of M. P. de Nolhac, Conservator of 
 the Museum of Versailles, which is being transfomed under his rule, to 
 the advantage of history and art; to MM. Taphanel and H. Leonardon, 
 Curators of the Versailles Library. I also desire to thank MM. Duplessis 
 and Bouchot, of the Cabinet of Prints at the Bibliotheque Nationale. 
 And I shall always gratefully remember the reception accorded me at the 
 Gobelins, the Mint, the Garde-Meuble, and the Chateau de Fontainebleau. 
 I have been aided in my desire to make my readers like and understand 
 the art of the seventeenth century by the fine and correct taste of Baron 
 Jerome Pichon, and the accomplished art-lovers who have given me free 
 access to their private collections. I beg to express my profound gratitude 
 to them. 
 
 If, as I hope, the Great Century, being made more intimately known, 
 shall recover in ours the favour it deserves, that reversion to truth and 
 justice will be largely due to those who have thus aided me. 
 
 Emile Bourgeois. 
 
 Versailles, November 24, 1895. 
 
 TIME SHIELDS TRUTH FROM THE ATTACKS OF 
 ENVY AND DISCORD. 
 By Nicolas Ponssiu. — Musee du Louvre. 
 {From the plate by Braun, Clement & Co.) 
 
Tin: i.ovis LAYING nv mini mims. 
 'A lica<ltuc by Irancvi- lluuivcau fur llic Collection of Uie Cvtutct tic teles el ,lc I*i<ihc* in tlir Inipiliniilf lioyalr.l 
 
 TABLE OF COM I NTS 
 
 Preface ............. ix-xvi 
 
 LOUIS XIV. AND HIS COURT. 
 I. Tin: Preface of the Reign; tin: Sooth am> Eddcatioh of ihh Kiv;. 
 
 ""PHE interest that attaches i<> the detaila «»t' a 
 great reign. — The King's first loves made die 
 subject of a malicious hook. — How Louis .XIV. 
 funned his own mind and taste. His education 
 under the Man'ehal de Villeroy. — Testimony 
 of Laporte. Saint Simon, and Spanheim to Un- 
 systematic neglect of him by Mazarin. 
 Opposing testimony hy .Mazarin and Louis XIV. 
 — The birth and childhood of Louis XIV. 
 according to Laporte. .Madame de Montpensicr 
 and Madame de Motteville. His first speech 
 to the parliament of Paris. The early years 
 of the reign, fetes, plays, ballets.- A cure 
 wants to abolish these. The marriage of the 
 Kinir. The Court at thai epoch. The opera 
 in France. The man with ihe iron mask. A 
 sketch of the Court in 1660, according to 
 Madame de Lafayette. — Fouquet.- The fetes at Vaux.— The trial of Fouquet ; a fine 
 but useless act of his; the dissimulation of Louis XIV.; Colbert the persecutor 
 of Fouquet. — Le Tellier and Seguier bitterly antagonistic to him. Mazarin and 
 Fouquet. Sentence on the superintendent. Saint Kvremond. 0]iinion of contem- 
 poraries : that of d'Ormesson on the trial ........ 1 -.'{(» 
 
 t a 2 
 
 ORXAMKNTKD t.KTTKIl BY 
 FRAXCOI8 CHACVKAC. 
 
 ( Krr<m the Collection of tbe Omtki <U trie/ et <U bagutt 
 (t the ImprimFrie 
 
TAliLK <)F CONTEXTS 
 
 II. Tjik "Birth of the Great Century. 
 
 Splendour of the Court. — The royal personality, according to Mesdames de Lafayette 
 and de Sevigne, Bossuet, Massi the Italian, and Spanheim. — The Court: the 
 King's relations with .Madame. -Gallantries, magnificent fetes, the Tournament 
 ■ it' 1662.- -The motto : Ncr pluribus impar. -Court Fools. — The King's Day, 
 from the Memoirs of Louis XT\ r ., Saint-Simon, Spanheim, and Madame 
 
 de Sevigne. — Louvois and Col- 
 bert, according to Spanheim. — 
 Audiences of the King : satis- 
 faction made by the Pope's 
 legate. — Reception of the 
 Doge of Venice, from Le 
 Mercure de France. — The royal 
 pomp at Versailles, according 
 to Le Mercure and Madame 
 de Sevigne. — The Princess 
 Palatine. — Fetes and Play at 
 Court, according to Saint- 
 Simon, the Princess Palatine, 
 Dangeau, and Bourdaloue. — ■ 
 The courtiers, according to 
 La Bruyere. — Privileged coats, 
 costumes. — Magnificence and 
 order of the royal household. 
 — Entertainment of the 
 " seigneurs," the King's gifts, 
 according to Spanheim. — 
 Presents and pensions to 
 men of letters in Europe. — 
 Banishment of the Comte de 
 Bussy ..... 
 
 cmlc t& *.4>uss 
 
 ROGEB DE BUSSY-EABUTIN. A COLONEL (MAItBE DE CAMP) 
 IN THE EOYAL AEMY. 
 
 (From a print in the Hennin Collection.) 
 
 III. — The Apogee op the 
 Reign. — Morals of the 
 King and the Court. 
 Royal Friendships. — Louis 
 XIV. no longer dances on 
 the stage. — Mademoiselle de 
 la Valliere, her retirement. — 
 Her portrait, by Spanheim, 
 d'Ormesson, the Princess Pala- 
 tine, the Abbe de Choisy, and 
 by herself. — Madame de Montespan. — The Court of the Mortemart ladies, 
 according to Saint-Simon. — Favour of Madame de Montespan. — The journey 
 to Dover. Henrietta of England and Mademoiselle de la Querouaille go to 
 negotiate with Charles II. — Madame believed to be poisoned. — The indiscretion 
 of Turenne causes the unhappiness of Madame and all the odious rumours of 
 the time. Origin of the frequent poisonings complained of at that period. — 
 The Marquise de Brinvilliers. — Voisin, the sorceress.— Alleged witchcraft. — The 
 Mar'echal de Luxembourg in the Bastille. — Three rivals for the heart of 
 
 37-98 
 
 ii 
 
TABLE OF CO NT K NTS 
 
 Louis XIV. Mademoiselle do 
 Fontanges. Tho last triumph of 
 tho Marquise do Montospan. 
 Madame do Maintonon in favour. 
 — Her marriage. Saint -Cyr. — 
 Tho Kings illness. Poath of 
 tho bavarian Pauphino. Est Inl- 
 and Alh'ilir. Tho Childron of 
 Franco. Tho Puohesso do Hour 
 gogne ( Pauphino) arts in comedy. 
 
 1 .« -n i- XIV. is horoft of almost 
 tho wholo of his family. Fort rait > 
 of tho Puohesso do Hourgogno 
 hy Louis XIV. and Saint Simon. 
 
 Hor death. Suspicion of poisot 
 
 iv. The Decline of the Reign. The Kim 's <»i.i> A.as. 
 
 Louis XIV. in the hands of l.e Tellier. Frincos legitimized. Tho last 
 illness of the King. Ho dies with unostentatious courage. His last words 
 t<> the Dauphin (Louis XV.). The King is less regretted than he ought to 
 have been. His character, his conduct, and his sayings. His good taste. 
 Memorahlo words. Writings from his own hand in which lie gives an 
 account of his conduct, and indicates his character. His advice to his 
 grandson. King of Spain. His politeness. His wisdom, circumspection, and 
 kindness. — His love of praise, but also his desire t<> lie deserving of it. — The 
 statue of the Mareohal do la Feu i Hade. The children of Louis XIV. . 165-194 
 
 i.ons siv. iy 1600. 
 
 [Fna s -llvir m.wn willi oi^lit "I.'-" ClUWUtd.) 
 
 L<»r is XIV. A.ND Ills MINISTERS. 
 
 I. — Internal Government. .Tistke. Commerce, POLICE, LaW8, Military 
 
 Disciplhtb, the Navy. 
 
 The assiduity of Louis XIV. in affairs. Finance. His liherality to the 
 people. — Hospitals. — Commerce. Porta — Commercial and colonial companies 
 formed. - Encouragements in the merchant marine. Injustice done to 
 
TABLE <»F f'ONTKNTS 
 
 Colbert. Manufactures. — Lea Gobelins, La Savonnerie. glass 
 factories. — Sedan, Aubusson, Arc. Industrial arts. The adorn- 
 ment <>f Paris. The Police. Buildings at Saint-Germain and 
 Versailles, also in Paris. -Bernini and Perrault.- Foundations 
 at Saint-C'yr, the Invalides, Are. Judgments given by 
 Louis XIV. — Legislation. — Duels abolished. — Military regula- 
 tions. — Artillery, fortresses. — Praise by Spanheim of the 
 organisation of the French forces by Louis XI V. and 
 Louvois. — Criticism by Saint-Simon.- The Navy. — The 
 haughty attitude of Louis XIV. towards England. — New 
 military ports. Shipping-yards and docks : naval battles. 
 Colonies. -The personal achievements of Louis XIV. — 
 Memorials drawn up by intendants for the instruction of 
 the Dauphin. What Louis XIV. did, and what remained to be done. — 
 Fortunate changes in the country.- -Hardly any conspiracy. — The Frenc h 
 bourgeoisie : increase of politeness and accomplishments. — People in general 
 well-to-do. — Paris the centre of the Arts. -A picture of Paris and the 
 Parisian, by La Bruyere. — Saint-Simon : eulogy and regret 
 
 UIUTABT DISCIPLINE. 
 
 (A medal by Mauser, struck fur 
 the establishment of the Com- 
 panies of Cadets, 1665.) 
 
 195 
 
 L' EVXSQUE DIE, MEAUX . 
 
 Seeretazr e du GgdSU Je £i SX c J-,j&u£ . 
 
 Ttcttarrru/i . Ju Perron, iettsc /cur ee/z/rej'ersa . ■ 
 Cenfre fes /rrjtestem tioftt/Htsi5u£jfirt yrandjrjiut ; 
 
 Zes &travc teas a la resrjvrse . 
 
 LCH7V0IS.. 
 
 Cx-ccMteur Its ardriJ 4» la. iff Lisus . 
 
 
 '. et tn-l'CaliJe. 
 
 T"exei(te pur taut 
 
 
 
 
 
 en, amamsfA . 
 
 HOSSUET, PERSECUTOR Or PROTESTANTS. 
 (A caricature in mezzotint.) 
 
 I.OUVOIS, PERSECUTOR OF PROTESTANTS 
 (A caricature in mezzotint.) 
 
 II. Finance and Reflations. 
 
 Colbert : his merits. Little understanding among the people in matters of 
 finance. The parliament of Paris is forbidden to make remonstrance previous 
 to registration. — The administration of Colbert. — Edict of 1G66 in favour of 
 numerous families. — Colbert cannot do all the good he desires to do. — The 
 peasants and the question of corn. — Loans. — Revenue-farmers. — Le Pclletier, 
 Comptroller-General. —Silver furniture proscribed. — General reform of the 
 
 if 
 
rABLE OF 0ONTENT8 
 
 currency. Tin* cost of the reign: war always iih|h.\ ertshes Capitation (ax. 
 
 The tithe. Chamillart. minister. I> uiirts, minister. The money ami 
 
 the coiling i •!* the country. Wealth ami |M>\erty. IndUHtrj and culture. 
 
 Kasv circumstances nf the middle elass, condition of the peasants. 
 
 Testimony <«f I«a Hruyerv. (!\iv 1'atin. Madame <le S« \ i^n< . Vadium, ami 
 
 Saint -Simon to the lot of the |>easa'itr\ in the seventeenth century . . S53 880 
 
 Tin; kijhj, A hkxkfickxt WV, 
 v Kivto a ro»l»l l.v l/4r. 
 
 ARTS, L1TKH ATI* 11 K. AND SCI KN0E8. 
 
 1. SCIKXCKS. 
 
 The philosophic ami critical spirit i:: Fran..- at the thinning of the century.— 
 Iieseartes. Th.- Hoyal Soeien of I/..H.I..H. Ldiis XIV. and Collier! . n. m . a-.- 
 the science and give |M-nsio<is t.. foreign narattU. The Academy of Scienees, 
 the Hoyal ('arden (Jardin d.-s Phmtc). the < mservatoiic. the journal <.f the 
 
 HUM ill*, the Academy of Inscrip- 
 tions. Superstitions. Sorcerers 
 op|M>sed. Philosophy a necessity, 
 w iiv \ oltaire nwigni the tirst 
 
 place to the sciences . . 'JHl 290 
 
 □L LmtKATURB. 
 
 Eloquence. — The writings, ami also 
 the Kreneh (language), of tin- 
 sixteenth century. — Jean de Lin- 
 gendes. — Balzac. -- Voilurc. 
 Vatigelas. Pat in. -The I Mm de 
 la H<«li< foiHauld. Pascal. The 
 " Lettres Provincialoi." — Bnur- 
 
 rlaloue. Itossijet. Kenelon. 
 
 " T6lcmaque." - — La Bruyere. — 
 
 Pelliwion. Saint H • a 1 . The 
 great Curneille. Marine. Moli 
 ere, — BoileiL — -La Fontaine. 
 Qalnmlti l>a Motto, Hou*- 
 
 wau. ImpoKHihle to make new 
 
 ma*t«TT»iec«S. - " I/> I '.ample 
 
 Krancawe Universale'' . . 2»I-3I0 
 
 c 
 
 •--■at/:. 
 
 t **M>>: ItmnHHi 
 A wVMn la awwtivl 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 III.— The Fine Arts. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Music. — Lulli. — Architecture. — Painting ; the Academy of the Fine Arts and 
 Painting at Rome. — Sculpture. — Medals. — Engravings. — Surgery. — Medicine. 
 —Why Voltaire places surgery and medicine among the Fine Arts. — Catalogue 
 of French artists, by Voltaire. — Musicians. — Painters. — Sculptors. — Architects. 
 —Engravers 311-334 
 
 IV. — The Fine Arts in Europe in the time of Louis XIV. 
 
 What history ought to retain. — The English in the seventeenth century. — 
 Milton. — Dryden. — Pope. — Addison. — Swift. — Motives of Voltaire's admiration 
 of the English ; letters on England. — Bacon, Newton, Halley. — Locke and 
 Plato. — Hevelius ; singular generosity of Louis XIV. to him. — Leibnitz. — 
 Golden age of geometry. — Physics since Galileo. — Why the seventeenth ought 
 to be called the Century of Louis XIV 335-346 
 
 IDEAS.— THE CHURCH AND RELIGION. 
 
 I. — Ecclesiastical Affairs. — Memorable Disputes. 
 
 The Church and the Clergy of France, first Order of the State. — Immunities 
 of the Church. — Comparative wealth of the Church in France and in Europe. 
 — " Free Gift." — Former rules of the Clergy of France. — The King's conduct 
 
 with the Clergy. — The Liber- 
 ties of the Gallican Church. 
 — Formerly the kings pre- 
 sented to all livings. — Re- 
 sistance to the Bishop of 
 Pamiers. — A grand- vicaire 
 dragged on a hurdle in effigy. 
 — Famous Assembly of the 
 Clergy. — France ready to 
 separate from Rome. — The 
 four propositions.' — Innocent 
 XL inimical to Louis XIV. 
 — Reform of the Clergy. — 
 Superstitions partially sup- 
 pressed .... 347-364 
 
 II. — Calvinism in the 
 time of Louis XIV. 
 
 AVhy have theological quar- 
 rels always existed? — Origin 
 of the sects of the seven- 
 teenth century : Catholics 
 and protestants. — The 
 protestants of France. — The 
 Edict of Nantes. — Sedition 
 and civil war of "the 
 Reform." — Richelieu at last 
 desires to re-unite the two 
 
 vi 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 religions. Tin* reformed sect is protected hy I \»11mmI . L'liis XIV. is made 
 angry with them. Little children converted. Mr.iMins taken hy the 
 (Jovernment Pellisson purchases converts. The works of c« inversion. 
 Preachers broken on the wheel. Huguenots fly from France. — The dragon- 
 nades. An inhuman letter written hy Ijouvois. The Kdiet of Nantes is 
 revoked. -Population, money, nnd manufactures taken out of France. 
 Prisons and galleys. Hcltcls and prophets. Sleeping prophets. Hrousiton, 
 a Huguenot minister, is broken on the wheel. Assassin prophets. The 
 
 Abbe de la ltourlie. War of the fanatic*. — Cavalier, ■ journeyman baker, 
 
 makes war on Louis XI V. Be mats with Villars. His history. The 
 conspiracy of the prophets. Prophet -refugees in Ixmdou. Saint Simon more 
 just t>> the |HMple of tleneva and the Camisards (White Shirts) ; his test ituoiiv 
 upon pMiville and the severe treatment of the protestant s of the south 865 308 
 
 111. I \\M XISM. 
 
 Jansenism less turbulent than t'alvinism. Ilaius unintelligihle. Home derides 
 him. Molinos. a visionary. A trial in Pome for his visions. Neither the 
 pleaders nor the judges know what is meant, .lansen condemned hy the 
 Sorltonne. Arnauld. The five jirop.oiti.nis are condemned hy Innocent X. 
 Mazarin causes the hull to 1h> received. Disputes in the Chun h of 
 France. Arnauld is persecuted hy the SirUuinc. and susj»ectcd of Calvinism. 
 
 Formulary hn]>oscd upon the nuns of Port Poyal. The miracle of Made 
 moiselle Perrier. — The " Let ties Provinciales " a masterpiece. That 
 masterpiece is hurned. The nuns of Port-Poyal are carried away from their 
 convent— The " Peace of Clement XL" -The Jansenist Society.— Jansenist 
 assemblies. Port Hoval. — Quesnel ; imprisoned. Set tree IVre (Jucsnel and 
 the P..pc. IVre L- Tellier. confessor to the Kin-. Madame de Maintenon. 
 Royal authority employed hy the Jesuits. A hull is drawn up hy them 
 which throws everything into disorder. The Constitution; enmity against 
 re I>- Tellier. Acceptants and appellants. Laws system throws the hull 
 into oblivion. Apparent pacification. < loM u)>i..iii-ts. — The " Diacre Paris." 
 — Cardinal Dubon and Cardinal de Tencin ...... 307-430 
 
 thil MiMM at hi» tunuH. 
 
 \r m a «to in <-»r.m»-m *»tii. .4 Uio <»\«utr 
 of Caabtajr, !•?*.) 
 
 Ml 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 IV. — Quietism. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Causes of the quarrel. — Madame Ouyon and her extravagant notions. — - Pere 
 Lacombe, her director. — Madame Guyon shut up at Vincennes. — Fenelon 
 and Madame Guyon. — Fenelon persecuted on account of this matter. — Pere 
 de La Chaise and Bossuet against him. — The mystics judged at Rome. — Pope 
 Innocent XII. pronounces judgment in the dispute. — Louis XIV. is displeased 
 with the ideas of Fenelon uj3on government. — Fenelon condemned.— He 
 submits — His philosophic retirement. — The affair of Cardinal de Bouillon. — 
 The truth of that affair 431-446 
 
 Alphabetical List of the principal painters, sculptors, engravers, etc. . . 449 
 
 Index .............. 461 
 
 TAILPIECE ENGRAVED BY POn.LT. 
 (Cabinet of Prints, Bibliotheque Natiunale.) 
 
 viii 
 
FRONTISPIECE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTORT. 
 llleiinin Collection, Cabinet of l'ritits. — Bibllotheque Nttlouale.) 
 
 List of Illustrations 
 
 LIST oK PORTRAITS KXORAYED ON COPPER 
 
 fbclng 
 page 
 
 I. — Anne <>t' Austria (from the portrait by Philippe de Champaigne, engraved 
 
 by Morin) ........ t . . 4 
 
 II. — Louis XIV. in armour, holding the Sceptre (from the original portrait by 
 
 J. de la Haye) 24 
 
 III. -The Marquise de Sevignc (pastel by l>. Nanteuil, belonging to the Com te de 
 
 Laubespin) ........... 42 
 
 [V. — S. Arnauld de Pomponue, Secretary o£ State for Foreign A Hairs (from 
 
 the portrait by Nanteuil, ln7">) ....... (>2 
 
 V. Philippe de Courcillon, Marquis de Dangeau (from the portrait by BE. Rigaud, 
 
 engraved by P. Drevet) .... . ... 82 
 
 VI. Anne-Marie-IiOuise d'Orleans, Duchesse de Montpensier (from the portrait by 
 
 de Seve. engraved by Van Sehuppen) . . . . . .I'll 
 
 VII. -Henrietta of England (Madame). Duchesse d'Orleans (painting belonging to 
 
 the Earl of Home, in England) . . . . . . .120 
 
 VIII. Francois-Henri de Montmorency. Dm- et Man-thai de Luxembourg (from the 
 
 portrait by H. Rigaud. engraved by Edelinck) . . . . ,128 
 
 IX. Jeanne liaptiste d'Albert fie Luynes, Comtesse de Verrue (portrait belonging 
 
 to the Comte de Reiset) . . 136 
 
 X. — The Due de Boulogne visiting the Princess of Savoy at her toilet (from 
 
 a print by Arnoult) . . . . . . . .loo 
 
 XI. Philip V.. King of Spain (from II. Rigaud, Musee de Versailles) 
 
 XII. — Gabriel-Nicolas de la Heynie (from P. Mignard) 
 
 XIII. — Denis Talon. Lord Chief Justice (from Nanteuil) 
 
 XIV. - View of Saint-Cloud, by Ktienne Allegr.iin (Musee de Versailles) 
 
 . is | 
 
 . 206 
 
 . 210 
 
 . 2 IS 
 
 a 3 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 XV. Louis Phelipeaux de Pontchartrain, Chancellor of France (painting attributed 
 
 to Tourniere, belonging to the Comte de Mortemart) .... 272 
 XVI. -Jean de la Bruyere (painting on copper preserved at Versailles) . . 300 
 XVII. — Jean de la Fontaine, Member of the French Academy (from the portrait by 
 
 H. Rigaud, engraved by Edelinck) ....... 304 
 
 XVIII.— Pierre Mignard (from H. Rigaud) 324 
 
 XIX. — James II., King of England (from the portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 
 
 engraved by I. Smith) ......... 356 
 
 XX. — Jean Racine, Member of the French Academy (from the engraving by 
 
 Edelinck) 400 
 
 XXI. — Philippe of France, Due d'Orleans (from the portrait by Michel Corneille, 
 
 Musee de Versailles) . . . . . . . . .422 
 
 XXII. — Francois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambray (from 
 
 the portrait by J. Vivien, engraved by P. Drevet) .... 436 
 
 LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Marble bust of Louis XIV., attributed to Coysevox (Musee de Versailles) . Frontispiece 
 Preface, — Frontispiece from a drawing by Berain (Cabinet of Prints. — Bibliotheque 
 
 Nationale) ............. ix 
 
 Decoration by Lebrun, executed for the Ambassadors' staircase (Chateau de Versailles) 1 
 Anne of Austria and her children (from a picture in the Musee de Versailles, 
 
 presented by Anne of Austria to Le Pelletier, her house-steward) ... 9 
 Tapestry with the King's arms and motto (Garde-Meuble collection) . . .29 
 
 Louis XIV. — Equestrian statue by Girardon for the Place Vendome (from the reduction 
 
 in bronze at the Musee du Louvre) ........ 53 
 
 Composition by Lebrun, Bas-relief by Coysevox in honour of Louis XIV. as 
 
 conqueror. " History registers his victories — Fame publishes them " (Salon de la 
 
 Guerre. — Chateau de Versailles) ......... 67 
 
 The Queen's Guard's Hall (Chateau de Versailles) ....... 79 
 
 The Court of Louis XIV. assembled for the baptism of the Dauphin, 1668 (from a 
 
 print of the period) ........... 85 
 
 Former boudoir in the apartment of Lauzun, now a bedchamber (from the photo- 
 graph by Paul Robert. — Hotel de M. le Baron Jerome Pichon) . . .107 
 Small salon in the apartment of Lauzun, left side (from the photograph by Paul 
 
 Robert. — Hotel de M. le Baron Jerome Pichon) . . . . . .111 
 
 The requiem mass for Madame (from a print by Lepautre) . . . . .123 
 
 A ball "a la Francaise " in 1682 (from an almanac of the time) .... 141 
 
 A room in the Chateau de Fontainebleau, used by Louis XIV. and Madame de 
 
 Maintenon in 1685, decorated with the arms of the King -the Sun and the L.-L. 
 
 intertwined . . . . . . . - . . . . . 147 
 
 Madame de Maintenon and her niece, Mademoiselle d'Aubigne, with Saint-Cyr in the 
 
 distance (from the original j tainting by Ferdinand, . preserved at Saint-Cyr, at 
 
 present in the Musee de Versailles) . . . . . . . .153 
 
 Advertisement of the almanac for 1713. Reproduction of Demortain, the printseller's 
 
 advertisement (Hennin collection. —Bibliotheque Nationale) .... 164 
 Louis XV as a child (from the portrait by H. Rigaud, Musee de Versailles) . . 109 
 
 x 
 
LIST OK I LLCST I! A TION8 
 
 t tot 
 
 Enigmatic print to tho praise of lyouis XIV. (composition by Scltastion l<eclero, in 
 
 honour of tin- tirst twenty. four years of t In* Kind's reign). .... 17"> 
 EUgbl aide of tin- bedohsmber of Louis XIV. m I7«»l (Chateau do Versailles) . 17'.' 
 An entertainment in Paris in the seventeenth century (banquet given in Paris by <h<- 
 
 I Hike of Aha, AinbttBBsdor from Spain, on I ho hirth of tho Prime of the 
 
 Asturias. Print by tho ohlor Scot in. from Posmarets) . . Is7 
 
 Print commemorative of tho Annexation of Kranchc t\.mtc. |<i7'.i .... L95 
 tioU-lins tapestry executed from tho designs of .1. Pomain, in the POdo'b apart incut s. 
 
 Chateau de Fontainohloau . . . . . . . . . . 'JO.'l 
 
 Interior of a Parisian hotel in tlte sovontoouth century (from a photograph l>\ Paul 
 
 Robert) 209 
 
 Louis XIV. . painted by Charles licbrun (in tho tjuecns Antechamber. Musc'-e <lc 
 
 Versailles) 223 
 
 The Kind's procession on tho Pont Xouf : I^ouis XIV. in the midst of his subjects 
 
 in 1»>7<» (print Ivy Ilachtonhurgh, from Van dor Mculen) ..... 229 
 Tho Hotel do Ville. Paris, in 1 <>S7 (engraving executed by Krosnc, as a commission 
 
 from tho City Corps, to perpetuate tho remembrance of tho visit of Louis XIV. 
 
 to tho oapital after his illness) ......... 2M5 
 
 Portrait of .loan- Baptist Colbert, with his arms the Snake (engraving by Audrau, 
 
 from the portrait by Lefehvre) ......... 266 
 
 A fragment of a page of an almanac of the tim<' (Cabinet of Prints. BibliotheqUC 
 
 Rationale. Honnin collection) ......... 207 
 
 Composition and print by Seha,stien Loci ere in honour of l/mis XIV. (1677). 281 
 The liedchaniber of Louis XIV. (Chateau do Versailles) . . . . . .315 
 
 Tin- amphitheatre of Saint-Come, or the Parisian Surgeons' Mall (from a print by 
 
 Simonneau and Perollo). . . . . . . . . .619 
 
 Portrait of Louis XIV. supported by Wisdom and Religion (from a frontispiece taken 
 
 from the collection of Histories of Franco. Cabinet of Engravings. Bibliotheque 
 
 Xationale) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 
 
 The Salon of Madame rite Maintenon and I /mis XIV. at Kontainebleau, where the 
 
 Edict of lf>s."> against the protest ants was signed ...... .'is 7 
 
 Madame do Longuevillo urging her brothers, the Princes de Couch'- and de Conti, as 
 
 children, to cultivate Literature and Eloquence (from a composition by Greg. 
 
 Huret) . . . . Ill 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT 
 
 Louis XIV. p\es Plenty to France- (from an engra ving in the Cabinet of Prints) xi 
 An ornamented letter of the seventeenth century (from the collection of front ispjccc> 
 
 in the Hibliothc-c|uc Xationale) ......... xi 
 
 Louis XIV. at th<- period of his marriage (from the original portrait I y Mignaid. 
 
 engraved by Poilly) ........... xii 
 
 Marie-Th'T" (from a drawing by Xante-nil. Cabinet of Prints) .... xiii 
 
 Versailles. — Principal front, looking on the- Gardens (from a print by Israel Silvestre) xiv 
 
 The Chapel of the Invalides. .......... xv 
 
 France triumphant (a group by Tuby and Covsevox. recently restored. Cardoni of 
 
 Versailles) . . . . . . . . . . . . xv 
 
 Time shields Truth from the- attack- of Envy and Discoid dry Nicolas PoOSSUl. 
 
 Mus.'e dii Louvre. From the plate by P.raun. Cl.-ment .v Co.). . . xvi 
 
 art 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 LOUIS XIV. AND HIS COURT. 
 I. — The Preface to the Reign : The Youth and Education of the King. 
 
 Louis XIV. as conqueror : a tribute to the memory of Mazarin (print by Poilly, 
 
 1660) 3 
 
 Fame entrusts to Time the image of Louis XIV. (group by Lebrun .and Guidi. — 
 
 Gardens of Versailles) ........... 3 
 
 Fame proclaiming the glories of Louis XIV. (from an engraving by Sebastien 
 
 Leclerc, 1674) . . . . . . . . . . . . , 4 
 
 Louis XIV. in 1658. Statuette in colour from the Theirs collection (Musee du 
 
 Louvre) ............. 5 
 
 A noble and his wife (from Les plus illustres Proverbes, by Lagniet) ... 5 
 The royal hunt at Vincennes, during the youth of Louis XIV. (engraving by 
 
 Moncornet) ............. 6 
 
 Louis XIV. and his brother the Duke of Orleans with their governess, Madame de 
 
 Souvre, Marquise de Lansac (Musee de Versailles) ...... 7 
 
 The regency of Anne of Austria (medal of the 18th of May, 1643) ... 8 
 Louis XIV. when young, on horseback (School of Vouet. — Musee de Versailles) . 8 
 Louis XIV. in 1644 (from a gold coin) . . . . . . . .11 
 
 Louis XIV. in the arms of his nurse (Musee de Versailles. Recent acquisitions) . 11 
 Louis XIV. giving letters patent to the Benedictines, 1653 (print by Lahire) . . 12 
 Louis XIV. when five years old (from a medal by Mauger : May, 1643). . . 13 
 Louis XIV. when thirteen years old (from a medal by Mauger for his majority : 
 
 September, 1650) 13 
 
 The " Royal game of Goose," for the diversion of His Majesty (from the collection 
 
 of Baron Jerome Pichon) . . . . . . . . . .13 
 
 Comedy at Court in 1656. The theatre at Clermont (from a print in the Hennin 
 
 collection) . . . . . . . . . . . .14 
 
 " Les noces de Thetis." The first opera played in Paris in 1654 (engraving by 
 
 Silvestre) . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 
 
 Louis XIV. in costume as the Sun-King (in the ballet of La Nuit) . . .16 
 A <i'entleman of the Court in costume (in the ballet of La Nuit, 1653) . . .17 
 Entry of Louis XIV. and Marie-Therese into Paris after their marriage (from the 
 
 official account published in 1662 by the City of Paris) . . . . .18 
 Opera and ballet costume (from a MS. by Berain in the Versailles Library) . .18 
 Entry of Louis XIV. and Marie-Therese into Paris after their marriage (from the 
 
 official account published in 1662 by the City of Paris) . . . . .19 
 
 Opera and ballet costume (from a MS. by Berain in the Versailles Library) . .19 
 Grotesque faces for ballets and operas (MS. by Berain in the Versailles Library) . 20 
 Grotesque dancers for ballets and operas . . . . . . . 21, 22 
 
 The King assuming the government of the State ....... 23 
 
 Medal by Molart (1661) . , 23 
 
 The death of Cardinal Mazarin (from a contemporary print) . . . . .23 
 The Queen's entry into Paris, 1660 (medal by Molart) . . . . . .23 
 
 Louis XIV. in 1660 (medal by Loir) 23 
 
 Philippe, " Fils de France," brother of the King (from a portrait by Lely) . . 24 
 The Court at Fontainebleau in 1662, — "The Grandest Court in Europe" (print by 
 
 Lepautre) ............. 25 
 
 Councillor to the parliament (in Les conditions de la vie liumaine, by S. Leclerc) . 26 
 
 xii 
 
LIS T OF ILU'STH ATTONS 
 
 Tin* arms of Colltcrt with tin* adder in tin* centre (heading in honour of Colbert) 27 
 
 Fom'ut't protecting th«* .in- ami sciences, and rendering justice (print bj Ohanveau). 27 
 
 A chief justice (in /.<>" rmidilinus d< hi riV liumaiiir, by S. licelere) .... 28 
 
 Foti«|Ui*t (hy S. Bourdon Musee de Versailles) ....... 33 
 
 Composition in the form of a medal in honour of Chancellor Le Tellier (bj V.m 
 
 Sohuppen, 1679) . 88 
 
 Tin* revenue farmer, or tin* miser (engraving hy Landry) ..... 84 
 
 A satirical print, The revenue-farmers punished hy the royal just in* (1661) . 85 
 
 Jewels of the seventeenth century (from drawings hy (Jilles I'Kgare) . . 88 
 
 II Tin; BlRTH OP THE GrRBAT CiMt wv. 
 
 Frieze of the Salon de l'(F.il de lhcuf. (Bas-relief hy N an Clcve in gilded stucco. 
 
 Chateau de Versailles) ........... 87 
 
 Gallant France (print, eighteenth century touching the King's love affairs) . 
 
 Louis XI V. ;i> a young man (from an anonymous picture in the Louvre) . 38 
 
 Medallion of Louis XI V.. hy Hertinetti. (Collection of Baron Jerome Pichon) 38 
 
 Looia Xl\'.. medallion hy Pierre Pugel (Musee de Versailles) .... 39 
 
 Apollo presenting the image of Louis Xl\'. to Frame. (Bas-relief in marble by 
 
 Co us to u. — Musee du Louvre). . . . . . . . , 40 
 
 Cahinet hy Boulu. with a medallion <>f the King in the centre. (From the Collection 
 
 in the Mohilier National. — Chateau de Versailles. The Kind's chamher) . , 41 
 Bronze bust of Louis XIV. (Chateau de Versailles) . . . . . .42 
 
 IJust of Louis XIV.. hy Warin (Music de Versailles) . . . . . ,43 
 
 Louis XIV. and the Court ladies. I (>C>5 (from an almanac of the period) . 48 
 
 French gallantry in the middle of the seventeenth century (from a print of the 
 
 period) . 46 
 
 The Boyal Tournament in the courtyard of the Tuileries. l(iG2: a quadrille. (From 
 
 the illustrated collection by Fr. Chauveau, Cnurw* de t6t*s et <!<■ baqnoK. 
 
 Illuminated copy in the Versailles Library) . . . . . , 47 
 
 The King as Roman Emperor at the tournament of IfifiU. (Collection of (Jmirset </■ 
 
 trim ct dr hmjHr*. Illuminated copy in the Versailles Library) . . ,48 
 
 The Due de (iuise as King of the- Americans at the tournament in 1662. (From 
 
 tin- collection in the Imprimcric Hoyah- : f'tmrm-n d< i.'t , / Iuk/ii'h) . 49 
 
 The Due d'Knghiem as the King of India at the tournament of 1662. (From the 
 
 collection in the Imprimerie Hoyah-: ('<inr*r* <h t;:<x ,1 do baguet) . . . 49 
 
 The Prince de Cond<- as Kinperor of the Turks at the tournament of IGGif 49 
 
 " Xec Pluribus Impar '* (medal in honour of Louis XIV.. 1664) .... 50 
 
 .Screen for the Dauphin (with a device in honour of the King) .... 50 
 Large vase on the terrace at Versailles with the arms of the Sun-Kin); (the work 
 
 of Dugouhm and Drouilly) . . . . . , . , , ;, ] 
 Ballet of the giants and dwarfs at the Court of Louis XIV. (from a print, of the 
 
 period). . . . . . . . . ..... 52 
 
 The Court in the Arc de Triomphc Grove, Versailles Park (from a drawing <>f the 
 
 period. — Mus«'-e fie Versailles; ....... 55 
 
 The details of a courtiers attire /from a contemporary engraving La Garde ruin di* 
 
 hnmme*) ............ 56 
 
 The King's charity (medal by M auger. 16n'2). ....... 57 
 
 A writing-table of the seventeenth century /obtained from the Mohilier National. 
 
 Garde-Meuble collection) .......... 57 
 
 wffi 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The " Cadenas " or table dressing-case of Louis XIV. (from a drawing in the Cabinet 
 
 of Prints. — Cotte collection) .......... 58 
 
 Fragment of the clock in the King's cabinet at the Chateau de Versailles (the work 
 
 of Maraud de Pontdevaux .......... 58 
 
 Marble statue of Louis XIV., by Jean Warm. (In the Salon de Venus. — Musee 
 
 de Versailles) . . . . . . . . . . .59 
 
 Knife, spoon and fork used by Louis XIV. (from a drawing in the Cabinet of 
 
 Prints. — Cotte collection) .......... 60 
 
 Cold watch of the seventeenth century (from the collection of M. Charles Rossigneux) 60 
 Cold watch-case of the seventeenth century (from the collection of M. Charles 
 
 Rossigneux) . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 
 
 Clock of the seventeenth century (from the collection in the Mobilier National. — 
 
 Chateau de Fontainebleau) . ... . . . . . . .61 
 
 Top of a chest of drawers, by Boulle (from the collection at the Mobilier National. — 
 
 Chateau de Fontainebleau) .......... 62 
 
 Louis XIV. Marble bust by Coysevox. (Musee de Versailles) . . . .63 
 
 An arm-chair of the seventeenth century (from the collection of Baron Jerome Pichon) 63 
 Louvois (from the portrait by A. Lefebvre) ........ 64 
 
 A medal by Faltz in honour of the King's councils . . . . . .65 
 
 Pyramid erected in Rome in memory of the satisfaction made by the Pope to 
 
 Louis XIV. in the Corsican matter ........ 65 
 
 The Pre-eminence of France acknowledged by Spain. (Marble vase by Coysevox. — 
 
 Terrace, Versailles) . . . . . . . . . . .66 
 
 Vase and dishes of gold and silver for the decoration of the apartments (from the 
 
 picture of the baptism of the Dauphin by Christophe. — Musee de Versailles) . 69 
 Silver portable stand (brancard). (From the picture by Lebrun and Seve of 
 
 Louis XIV. aux Gobelins. — Musee de Versailles) . . . . . .69 
 
 Door giving access to the Ambassadors' staircase in the King's apartment (Chateau 
 
 de Versailles) ............ 70 
 
 A fixed stool (from a print in the Hennin collection) . . . . . .71 
 
 A folding stool (from the collection of Baron Jerome Pichon) . . . . .71 
 
 A golden ewer (cartoon by Lebrun, Chateau de Fontainebleau. — Musee de Versailles) 72 
 Silver vase (cai'toon by Lebrun, Chateau de Madrid. — Musee de Versailles) . . 72 
 Silver orange-tree casket embellished with gold .and precious stones . . . .72 
 
 The King's footmen carrying the collation on a portable stand (cartoon by Lebrun, 
 
 Chateau des Tuileries. Series of The Seasons. — Musee du Louvre) . . . 73 
 A boat of gold and lapis-lazuli, with the l.-l. interlaced (cartoon by Lebrun. — 
 
 Louvre) ............. 73 
 
 Onyx vase (Gallery of Mirrors. — Chateau de Versailles) . . . . . .74 
 
 Gold perfume-burner (after the picture by Halle, La Reception du Dorje de Genes. — 
 
 Musee de Versailles) ........... 75 
 
 The Princess Palatine, Duchesse d'Orleans, mother of the Regent (from the portrait 
 
 by Rigaud. — Musee de Versailles) ......... 75 
 
 Grotesque masks and costumes for the ballet of 1682 at Versailles (drawing and 
 
 plan of execution by Berain, from a MS. in the Versailles Library) . . .76 
 Costume for the ballet of 1682 at Versailles (drawing and plan of execution by 
 
 Berain, from a MS. in the Versailles Library) . . . . . .77 
 
 Small door of the Chapel in the Chateau de Versailles . . . . . .78 
 
 Mask by Berain (ballet of 1682.— Versailles Library) 81 
 
 Chair that belonged to the Marechale de Villars (one of six in the collection of 
 
 Baron Jerome Pichon) ........... 82 
 
 xiv 
 
I.I ST OK I liLTSTH AT TONS 
 
 PASS 
 
 A seventeenth century cand lost irk (tiuerin collection) ...... 88 
 
 QoldeD V886 (from a cartoon l>v Ijohrun, Palais Ro\al. Series OX Tkt SstMOHtf. 
 
 Musee de Versailles) ........... 87 
 
 A mantel Blab in the Salon d'Horoulo (Chateau do Versailles) . . . .87 
 
 Pragment of the woodwork ami the carved frame of (he panels of the King's room 
 
 in the Chateau tie Versailles .......... 88 
 
 The costume of a Lieutenant of the King's Guard (fashion print by Bonnart) 88 
 
 The toilet of a lady of quality (from an engraving by Saint .lean) . 89 
 
 A ladv of quality at her toilet : Mary Anne Stuart. Queen of l-'nidand (after a print 
 
 by Bonnart) . . . . . . . . ,90 
 
 A courtier in summer habil (from a pint of the time) ...... 90 
 
 Reception by the Kim; at Versailles of the Knights of the Order of Saint Louis 
 
 (Musee do Versailles. This sketch of the I beginning of the reign of Louis XIV. 
 
 exactly represents the Kind's chainher) . . . . . . it I 
 
 A i;old ewer (from the cartoon by Lobrun. Chateau de Madrid. Series of Tht 
 
 Scanon*.- Musee de Versailles) ......... 92 
 
 Cresset in bronze. I>y Lehonirre, in the " Bosquet (Gardens of Versailles) . !*- 
 
 Louis X± Y. receiving, With the Princess Palatine and Madame de Maintenon, the 
 Electoral Prime of Saxony at Koniuinchlcau (from a painting by Louis Sihestre 
 at Versailles. A replica is in the palace at Dresden) ..... !t.'5 
 
 New device in honour of the Sun-Kim; ........ 94 
 
 Louis XI V. converses with the Muses (allegorical print by S. Leclerc) . . 94 
 
 The most Christian Hercules (allegorical print in praise of Louis XIV.) . . 95 
 Louis XIV. teaches the Dauphin to patronise arts and letters. Allegorical concert 
 
 of the Muses to the Ib.yal family (from an almanac of the period, 1667) . . !t? 
 Medal struck on the occasion of the establishment of the Academy of Science, 
 
 1667 98 
 
 III. The Reign at its Apogee: the Manners \m> Hums <u tuk 
 
 Kim; ami THE Court. 
 
 The arms of the Kinj; borne by the Loves (heading by ChauveaU from the I! < n< il 
 
 Aet tonnet de ii'tc* <-t de bagum. from the Lmprimerie Etoyale. From the 
 
 illuminated copy in the Versailles Library) ....... 99 
 
 (troup of children in the Alice d'Kau (Cardens of Versailles) ..... '.)!) 
 
 The colonnade of the Louvre, elevation of the principal front (front and plans from 
 
 the designs of Claud Perrault, 1665 1 00 
 
 A nocturnal fete on the Grand Canal at Versailles in 1674 (from a print by Israel 
 
 Silvestre) -.4 ' 101 
 
 Madfinoi>elle de la Valliere (by Jean Nocret. Musee de Versailles) . . ]()2 
 
 Mademoiselle de la Valliere as Diana (from an anonymous painting in the MtlSOe 
 
 de Versailles) ............ 103 
 
 A reliquary said to have been put together by Madame de la Valliere (from the 
 
 collection of Baron Jerome Piohon). ........ 104 
 
 Madame de Montespan (by Netseher and V. Meurs) ...... 105 
 
 •• Alce.,te." by Moliere. acted before the Kinj; in the marble court of the ('hateau 
 
 de Versailles. 1674 (from a print by Lcpautre) ...... 106 
 
 Mademoiselle de Moiitjtf-nsier as Minerva (from a print by Poilly. long supposed to 
 
 be a [Kirtrait of Madame de LongUeville by the Same artist) .... 109 
 The funeral of Mademoiselle de Moutpensier . . . . . . .11" 
 
 XV 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Madame de Montespan as Iris (from an anonymous painting in the Musee de Versailles) 113 
 Louis XIV. in armour, with the ribbon of the Order of Saint-Louis (anonymous 
 
 portrait in the Musee de Versailles) ..... .115 
 
 Louis- Auguste de Bourbon, Due du Maine (from a print by Dieu and Lepautre) . 116 
 A state coach of the time of Louis XIV. (Hennin collection) . . . .117 
 
 Chest of drawers, time of Louis XIV. (Mobilier National. — Chateau de Fontainebleau) 119 
 A table of the time of Louis XIV. (Mobilier National.— Chateau de Fontainebleau) 120 
 Chimney back and dogs of the time of Louis XIV. (Chateau de Fontainebleau. 
 
 Salon Francois 1") ....... 121 
 
 The Vicomte de Turenne (portrait sketch by Lebrun. — Musee de Versailles) . .122 
 The Loves weeping around the coffin of Henrietta of England (composition by 
 
 Lepautre, June 30, 1665) ........ .125 
 
 The Civil Lieutenant dAubray, father of Madame de Brinvilliers (portrait from life 
 
 by Nanteuil) ............ 126 
 
 The portrait, the crimes, and the sorceries of La Voisin (a popular print, February 22, 
 
 1680) ' 127 
 
 The demon of money (popular satire on the needs of the time, 1680) . . .128 
 Voisin between Death and the Devil (composition by Coypel). . . . .129 
 A gipsy telling his fortune to a soldier (from a print by S. Leclerc, taken from Les 
 
 conditions de la vie humaine) . . . . . • . . . .130 
 
 A criminal going to execution (from a contemporary drawing) . . . .131 
 
 Marie Louise d'Orleans, daughter of Monsieur, Queen of Spain (from a print by 
 
 Vischer) 132 
 
 Composition by Berain for a funeral ceremony . . . . . . .133 
 
 The Royal Palace of Versailles in 1674 : principal front (from a print by Israel 
 
 Silvestre) 134 
 
 Fan representing a water fete on the Grand Canal at Versailles (in the time of the 
 
 favour of Madame de Maintenon) . . . . . . . . .135 
 
 Love at the Chateau (composition by Leclerc for the Lorraine series) . . . 135 
 Louis XIV. at the feet of Mademoiselle de Fontagnes (from a satirical print early 
 
 in the eighteenth century) . . . . . . . . . .136 
 
 Jean Baptiste de Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay, Minister Secretary of State (portrait 
 
 by CI. Lefebvre. — Musee de Versailles) . . . . . . . .137 
 
 The Chateau de Versailles in 1674 (south front Orangery Terrace and Piece d'Eau 
 
 des Suisses. From a print by Israel Silvestre) . . . . . .138 
 
 Ballet of "La Jeunesse," 1680 (one of the last danced in the Gardens of Versailles. 
 
 From a print in the Hennin collection) . . . . . . . .139 
 
 A Louis XIV. Salon (from La Mode aux Escrans an enigmatical engraving on the 
 
 use of the hand-screen) . . . . . . . . . . .140 
 
 The royal lottery in 1679 : the courtiers playing (Cabinet of Prints) . . . 143 
 The large chapel of the Chateau de Versailles (from a print representing a ceremony 
 
 of the Chevaliers du Saint-Esprit, 1689. -This chapel was in the space now 
 
 occupied by the Salon d'Hercule, and was abolished when Louis XIV. built the 
 
 new church. From a print in the Hennin collection) . . . . .144 
 Life at the Court, 1694 : the Royal family at a concert (print by Trouvain in the 
 
 series of the Ajppartements Royaux) ........ 145 
 
 Life at the Court: the King's children at the game of " Trou-Madame " (pigeon-holes) 
 
 (print by Trouvain) 145 
 
 The baptism of the Due de Bourgogne (from an engraving by Larmessin) . . 146 
 Life at the Court : the King's children at collation (print by Trouvain in the series 
 
 of the Appartemenlx Royaux) . . . . . . . . . .149 
 
 xvi 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAOI 
 
 "Demoiselles de Saint Cyr " in 16S6 : pupils in the third class (frmti an engraving 
 
 hy P«. •mi. irt i . . . . . . . , . . . ,150 
 
 "Dame Heligieuse " of Saint-Cyr (from a print hy Bonnart) . . . . ,151 
 
 The village wedding: ball ami masquerade danoed at Versailles by tin- Grand 
 
 Dauphin ami the courtiers in IfiS.'l (from a print of the period) . . L52 
 The (iraml I>anphin ami his family (copy hy Delutel (1692) of the picture by 
 
 Milliard at tin- Louvre. Music de Versailles the Ql n'a guardroom) . I"'"' 
 
 Print in honour of 1/mis XIV. (the v irt m-> are (lie rav s of (he King, " who on (lie 
 
 earth is radiant like the sun in the skies ' ) ....... I ."Hi 
 
 I>mis XIV. all jxiwerful on land and on sea (from an allegorical print hy Chcvardi). L56 
 The (iraml Dauphin (medallion from the little (inure in wax belonging to B&rOK 
 
 Jerome Pichon) . . . . . . . . . . .157 
 
 The Due ile Bourgogne in the arms of his nurse (from a popular print) . . I">7 
 Louis XIV. in Irt'.lS. surrounded l»y all the tnfinlx-rs of his family (print hy Marietta 
 
 for an almanac. "The glorious and flourishing slate of the family of France ) . 158 
 The Duchess de Bourgogne (marhle hust hy Covsevox. from nature. Musee de 
 
 Versailles) 159 
 
 The Duchess de Bourgogne (from a gold medal. 1701) ...... I ■">'.• 
 
 The Duchess de Bourgogne as a huntress (marhle statue hy Covsevox. Musee du 
 
 Louvre) ............. 159 
 
 The fashionable doctor in his o >nsul( ing- room (from an almanac of (he time) . I do 
 
 An alchemist's lalxiratory in the seventeenth century (from a print taken from ///»/>■/ /•'.«. 
 
 Prurrrltrs hy Lagniet) . . . . . . . . . .162 
 
 (Juv Patin. a type of the Paris doctor (from a print hy Masson) .... L62 
 
 Card of invitation to a funeral in the seventeenth century (Cahinet of Prints. Ilenuin 
 
 collection) . . . . . . . . . . . .163 
 
 IV. The Decline ok tmi. Rbiok: the Kim. s Old A.OH \m> Drath. 
 
 Wisdom triumphs over Destiny (from a composition and engraving hy Bcgm-sson) 166 
 Louis XIV. in 1690 (from a silver crown, with the eight L's crowned) . . |<;; ( 
 From the satirical Dutch caricature. "Tel homme, tel discours." — La Fin den Itui* 
 
 nrgueilleux . . . . . . . . . . . . .166 
 
 Louis XIV. in old age (from the wax medallion hy Benoist, in the King's bed- 
 
 chaml>er. Chateau de Versailles) . . . . . . , .167 
 
 The education of the Children of France (aquatint engraving. Cahinet of Prints) . 167 
 Excesses committed hy the French in the Palatinate (satirical Dutch print on the 
 
 evils of war). . . . . . . . . . . .168 
 
 Lace coverlet of the lied of Louis XIV. still in its place (Chateau de Versailles) . 171 
 Dutch caricature: Louis XIV. dying in the arms of priests and women (Cabinet of 
 
 Prints) 171 
 
 Louis XIV. lying in state (from a popular print of 171")) ..... 172 
 Facsimile of the memorial tablet of Louifl XIV. at Saint Denis .... I7-'5 
 Funeral of Louis XIV. at Saint Denis (from an engraving of the period) . . I7.'t 
 
 The "(ialcrie des (I laces at Versailles, as it was at the most glorious period of the 
 
 reign (from a print hy S-hastien L-clerej . . . . . . .174 
 
 Balustrade in carved and gilded wood in front of the l>ed of Louis XIV. (Chilean 
 
 de Versailles. — The King's bedchaml>er . . . . . . . .177 
 
 Louis XIV. impresses the seal (from a print by S. I>-cIerc) . . . . .177 
 
 Audience given by the King to the ambassadors from Siam (from a contcmp iraiy 
 
 print published by Nolin) . . . . . . . .178 
 
 tctfii a i 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Louis XIV. in armour (from a portrait by Rigaud. — Musee de Versailles) . .181 
 French courtesy (frontispiece of a book published under this title in Germany, in 
 
 1658) 181 
 
 The joy of the French in the restoration of peace under the reign of Louis XIV. 
 
 (from an almanac of the time) . . . . . . . . .182 
 
 The Due d'Aumale declared King of Spain by Louis XIV. (from an almanac of 
 
 1701) 183 
 
 Cabinet by Boulle (Mobilier National, Chateau de Fontainebleau) . . . .185 
 An officer who was not a courtier. Le sieur Jean Bart (Admiral) (from a popular 
 
 print by Bonnart . . . . . . . . . . . .186 
 
 The ball-room in the gardens of Versailles, constructed in 1680 (drawn by Bondier 
 
 from Nature) .. . . . . . . . . . 189 
 
 Marble vase (Gardens of Versailles) . . . . . . . . . 1 90 
 
 The usurped coat. Louis XIV. dressed in the strongholds he had conquered (from a 
 
 Dutch caricature of 1693) 191 
 
 The Bibliotheque Royale of Paris (medallion of an almanac of 1670) . . .192 
 Louis XIV. and the Court ladies going to receive the homage of Strasburg (fragment 
 
 of an almanac of the time) . . . . . . . . . .192 
 
 Halberd No. 90 of the Scotch Guard of Louis XIV., with the arms of the Sun-King 
 
 (collection of M. Charles de Rossigneux) . . . . . . .193 
 
 The colonnade of the Louvre during its construction (from a print by Leclerc). . 194 
 
 LOUIS XIV. AND HIS MINISTERS. 
 
 I. — The Internal Government of France. — Justice. — Commerce. — Police. — 
 Laws. — Military Discipline. — The Navy, Etc. 
 
 Louis XIV. giving orders to his ministers in his cabinet at Versailles. Fide et 
 
 obseqxio (composition by Sebastien Leclerc) . . . . . . .197 
 
 Reverse of medal of 1680 (medal for La Levee des Matelots, engraved by Molart) . 197 
 The King giving audience to his subjects (from a popular print of 1667) . .198 
 
 Societe des Marchands (coin engraved by Mauger, 1664, to commemorate the 
 
 foundation of Compagnie des Indes) . . . . . . . .199 
 
 Sister of Charity carrying succour to the wounded (from a print by Bonnart) . .199 
 The spider and the fly (satirical print by Lagniet on the idleness of the nobles) . 200 
 The French trader (from Leclerc : Conditions de la vie humaine) .... 201 
 
 A fete at the Gobelins in honour of Lebrun (from a print by S. Leclerc, which 
 
 represents the manufactory in 1676) ........ 202 
 
 Costumes of men and women of the seventeenth century (from a print of the period : 
 
 Fashion triumphant in the Place du Change) ....... 205 
 
 Coin engraved by Molart in honour of the aggrandisement of Paris (1670) . . 206 
 The clock-maker (print by Bonnart. Clockwork articles of the seventeenth century) . 206 
 The mirror-maker (print by Bonnart. The costume is made of glasses, lustres, etc.). 207 
 The new police established in Paris by La Regnie (from an anonymous print of the 
 
 period) 208 
 
 An old street in Paris : La Rue aux Ours in the seventeenth century (from an 
 
 engraving by Lepautre, 1661) . . . . . . . . . 208 
 
 Allegorical print by Mellan in honour of the publication of the code of Louis XIV. 211 
 
 xviii 
 
LI8T OP l LLUSTR LTIONS 
 
 Paris in the seventeenth century (view «>f tin- Pont Neuf. by Israel Silvestn-) . . SIS 
 l^a Samaritainc (Paris at the end of tin- n-ign of Luiis XIV., paved streets, coaches 
 
 in circulation. Fnuii n print of 1712) . . . . . . . .SIS 
 
 Fencing (fnun a print of the time) . . . . . . . . ,218 
 
 Puels al«olish<Hl (medallion by I Vsjardins. Mim " dn I/mvrv) . . . . '.'II 
 
 A duel in tin* seventeenth century (armourer's trade mark. !>esign by Sini|H>l and 
 
 l.«|M»l r.- 1 . . . . . . . . . , . . .211 
 
 Musketeer using his |»owder tiask : (Jmiadicr (linen ing grenade : Musketeer living 
 
 kayonet (fnun tin* military theory, in colour, by Manesson, published in 1 T 1 ■"» 
 
 and preserved in tlio Versailles Li bran |, . . . . . . .315 
 
 Studies <>f horsemen (from a design h\ Van dor Meulcn, preserved at tin- Qobeuns) . 216 
 Pikcman at drill (from a print by S. Leelerc in l.< s ninJilion* </< la r»V humaine) . '_' 1 7 
 The Hotel des Invalides . . . . . . . . . .218 
 
 Tin* King giving orders for the fortification of the frontiers (from a print of liiNO) . 218 
 Medallion: establishment of cadet eompanies (design 1 > v Bcrain. dune 22, 1682) . 219 
 French artillery in action (from a print by S. l/eclerc : Lr* Guerre* <!<■ L«ui* XIV. . 219 
 Studies of horsemen (from a drawing by Van der Meiileii. preserved at the Cobelins) 220 
 The cross of Saint-Louis . . . . . . . . . .221 
 
 A picture of military life (French camp in the seventeenth century, by S. Leolerc : 
 
 Let Guerre* de Lout* XIV. ~ 1672) 222 
 
 French pikemen attacking a fortress (from a print by S. L-clerc : I.es (imrrr* <L 
 
 L«uit XIV. Siege of Tournay) ......... 225 
 
 French tleet in Kittle array (from a print by S. Leelerc : Lrs Gurrrr* </< Loui* XIV. 
 
 Rattle ..f Agoustc. 1676) 226 
 
 Portrait of Admiral de Huyter (by Michel Mousyn. from engraving in National 
 
 Library ) 
 
 — t 
 
 The Paris Arsenal in 16S4 (fnun a print by 1*. P. Sevin) ..... 228 
 France rejoicing at the restoration of peace (fn>m a cont •mporary almanac) . . 231 
 •• My m.istt r s.-« - everything." words addressed by Li< nne to a foreign ambassador 
 
 (engraving by Lepautre) .......... 282 
 
 Law: fnun a satirical print (Cabinet of Prints. Bihliot hemic Nationalc) . . . 288 
 Bird's-eye view of Marly (from an engraving of the time, published by P.aillicul) . 237 
 Statue of Louis XIV. at Lyons, by llesjatdins (has reliefs of the Bhonc and the 
 
 Saone, by Coustou. The statue was by Hesjardins. Restoration from a print by 
 
 Audrain . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 
 
 The ex«-cution of the Chevalier de Kohau (fntm a drawing in the Cabinet of Prints) 2 .'19 
 A provincial lady- c.i>tume in the seventeenth century (young lady's portrait by 
 
 Rethel. From a print by Saint-Jean) ........ 240 
 
 The hotel of Madame de Beauvais. Hue Saint Antoine, Paiis (from a print by 
 
 Marot) 241 
 
 The fountains uf the Porte Saint- Denis, tie la Charite. and del Saints-Peres in Pari* 
 
 (print by Marietta, 1672) 212 
 
 Teapot of red copper (from the collection of M. Edmond (itn'rin) .... 248 
 The inner court of the Hotel de Ville of Paris, with the statue of Louis XIV. which 
 
 was erected there in 1687) .......... 243 
 
 The glory of Paris and the splendour of its ls>urg<-ois in the reign of Louis XIV. 
 
 (print by Jollain. 1692) 244 
 
 Luxurious life in the seventeenth century (a lady reclining on a tent liedstead. From 
 
 a print by Saint-Jean) ........... 245 
 
 The Porte Saint Bernard, opposite the lie de Saint -Lou is (from a print by V. Perelle) 246 
 Tapestry screen — seventeenth century (Mobilier National Fontainebleau). . . 247 
 
 trim 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Luxury in the seventeenth century ; a lady of quality in deshabille (from a print by 
 
 Saint-Jean) 248 
 
 A lady of the bourgeoisie in walking dress (from a fashion-plate) .... 249 
 Blue satin bag embroidered in gold (from the collection of M. Charles Rossigneux . 249 
 View of Paris from the Pont de la Tournelle : the Seine, Notre Dame, and the 
 
 Gardens of l'lle du Palais (from a print by Perelle and Mariette) . . . 250 
 Medallion in honour of Louis XIV. (tail-piece by Poilly) ..... 251 
 The Sergeant (from a print by S. Leclerc in the Conditions de la vie humaine) . . 252 
 
 II. — Finance. 
 
 Pediment of the new Custom-house at Rouen (allegorical bas-relief by Coustou : 
 
 commerce and navigation) .......... 253 
 
 Ornamented letter (by Francois Chauveau) ........ 253 
 
 Edouard de Colbert, Marquis de Villacerf (bust by Desjardins in the Louvre) . . 254 
 Stockjobbers and revenue-farmers struck by the lightning of the royal justice (satirical 
 
 print of 1711) 257 
 
 Tax-collector's office in the seventeenth century. Payment of poll-tax (from a popular 
 
 print of 1709) 258 
 
 Peasants at table (after a painting by the Mothers Le Nam in the Louvre) . . 259 
 Monopolists compelled by Justice to disgorge their corn, and Plenty restored to France 
 
 (satirical print, 1695) 260 
 
 Office for stamps and addresses (almanac of 1694 in the Hennin collection) . .261 
 " A femme desolee, mari joyeux, treve a la bourse du mari " (satirical print on the 
 
 edict of Louis XIV. against the extravagance of women, November 16th, 1700) 262 
 The French peasants aggrieved by compulsory enlistment (from a print of 1705, 
 
 representing the first levy of militia) ........ 263 
 
 The miseries of war : violence of the French in the invasion of 1672 (from a Dutch 
 
 print) 264 
 
 Solid silver couch, with the arms of the Sun-King and ornaments in goldsmith's work 
 
 (from a print by Saint Jean, representing the bath-room of a lady of quality) . 265 
 The French peasant forced to go to the war (a Dutch caricature) .... 266 
 
 Gold coin of 1644 (upper side of the louis) ........ 269 
 
 The great Thomas, Parisian (mack and dentist : his triumphal progress amidst his 
 
 good people of Paris (from an anonymous etching in the Hennin collection) . 269 
 The great winter of 1709 (an allegorical print of the period) ..... 270 
 Cap of the great Thomas, the quack of the Pont Neuf (from a print of the period) . 271 
 " La course des mitrons," or, men of the jieople beaten by the " grands seigneurs " on 
 
 their way to the tournament at Versailles (poj^ular caricature) . . . .271 
 The fashion in 1678 : lady in shooting costume (from a print by Bonnart) . . 272 
 Crown piece of 1705, with insignia (ecu carambole de Flandre) .... 273 
 Fashion in 1678 : lady in summer dress with a description of the costume, the fan, 
 
 and the cane . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 
 
 Crown piece of 1709 with three crowns (obverse) ....... 273 
 
 Fashion in 1678 : a man in winter costume (print by Bonnart) .... 274 
 
 The villager or peasant who is born to labour : " He is despised and necessary." His 
 
 object: "Tax paid" (from a satirical print by Guerard) ..... 275 
 The powdered pug (satirical print on the fashion in wigs) . . . . .276 
 An interior in the seventeenth century : man and woman in deshabille (from an 
 
 anonymous print in Hennin's collection) 277 
 
 xx 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PACE 
 
 Homely simplicity restored to the household by the " Racine de hola ! " or the 
 
 husbands' stick (fragment of an almanac) . . . . . . .279 
 
 Field work (from the picture by the brothers Le Nam, Hay Harvest. — Musee du 
 
 Louvre) ............. 280 
 
 ARTS, LETTERS AND SCIENCES. 
 I. — Sciences. 
 
 Frieze in gilt stucco from the Salon de rCEil-de-Bteuf (Chateau de Versailles. — 
 
 Carving by Van Cleve) .......... 283 
 
 Ornamental letter by Fr. Chauveau ......... 283 
 
 Portrait of Descartes by S. Bourdon (Musee du Louvre) ..... 284 
 
 Louis XIV. visiting the Museum of Natural History and the Academy of Sciences 
 
 (from an engraving by Sebastien Leclerc) ....... 285 
 
 Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625-1712) (from an engraving by Cossin) . . . 286 
 Medal commemorative of the foundation of the Academy of Inscriptions and Medals : - 
 
 " Rerum gestarum fides 287 
 A sitting in a chemical laboratory : chemistry at the Academy of Sciences in the 
 
 seventeenth century (engraving by S. Leclerc in Memoires pour servir a Vliistoire 
 
 des plantes, by Dodart) ........... 287 
 
 A litter of rats tied by the tail (a great wonder that occurred in Germany in 1686, 
 
 and is accredited by a popular print) ........ 288 
 
 Pierre Gassend, called Gassendi (1592-1655) mathematician and philosopher (medallion 
 
 by Varin, in the collection of Baron Jerome Pichon) ..... 289 
 A criticism on the fashions ........... 290 
 
 II. — Literature. 
 
 From a composition by S. Leclerc in the series called "The Lorraine" . . .291 
 Ornamental letter by Fr. Chauveau (for the collection of Courses de tetes et de bagues, 
 
 of the Imprimerie Roy ale) . . . . . . . . . .291 
 
 A sitting of the Acadcmie Francaise recently installed at the Louvre . . . 292 
 Conrart, the founder of the Acadcmie Francaise (portrait by Lefebvre, engraved by 
 
 ' Cossin) .293 
 
 A rondeau to the Jesuit Fathers, placed at the end of the introduction to one of 
 
 the early editions of the " Lettres Provinciales " (Cologne, 1657) . . . 294 
 A sermon in the seventeenth century : the Capuchin (from a print by Lepautre) . 295 
 J. B. Bossuet at the age of seventy-two (from the original by Rigaud, engraved by 
 
 Sarrabat) 296 
 
 Bourdaloue at prayer (from the painting by Jouvenet, engraved by Rossler) . . 297 
 First page of the first edition of " Telemaque," which appeared under the title : 
 
 " Suite de l'Odyssee d'Homere " 298 
 
 Frontispiece of the first complete edition of " Telemaque," published in 1717 by the 
 
 Marquis de Fenelon (print by Bailleul and Dunos) ...... 299 
 
 Georges de Scudery (from a print by Desrochers) ....... 300 
 
 Pierre Corneille (from the original portrait by Lebrun) ...... 301 
 
 Moliere (from the original portrait by Mignard, which belonged to the Due dAumale, 
 
 Chateau de Chantilly) 302 
 
 xxi 
 
LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Great Conde (from a medal by Cheron, face) ....... 303 
 
 The triumphs of the Great Conde (same medal, reverse) ...... 303 
 
 The Great Conde (bronze bust by Coysevox. — Musee du Louvre) .... 303 
 
 A dish in Parisian earthenware, representing, from the romance by Francion, a scene 
 
 of Parisian life, Place Maubert (collection of M. Charles Rossigneux) . . 304 
 
 Boileau Despreaux, by H. Rigaud (Musee de Versailles) ..... 305 
 The Muse of History writing the life of Louis XIV. (bas-relief in marble by 
 
 Rousselet. — Musee du Louvre) ......... 306 
 
 Chancellor Seguier, patron of the Academie Francaise (from a print by Sebastien 
 
 Leclerc) ............. 307 
 
 Louis XIV. patronises Art and Science (a print by Watelc and Edelinck) . . 308 
 Tailpiece from the Collection of Frontispieces of the Seventeenth Century (from the 
 
 Cabinet of Prints, Bibliotheque Nationale) ....... 309 
 
 The Loves as sculptors and architects (an allegorical engraving for the Academy of 
 
 Sculpture) ............. 310 
 
 III.— The Fine Arts. 
 
 The Cascade or the Baths of Diana (bas-relief by Girardon. Bronze gilt. — Gardens 
 
 of Versailles) 311 
 
 Ornamental letter by Fr. Chauveau (from the collection of Courses de teles ef de bayucs 
 
 from the Impriinerie Royale) . . . . . . . . . .311 
 
 A harpsichord of the seventeenth century (from a print by Bonnart) . . .312 
 A satirical print of 1664 on the constitution of the Academie des Beaux-Arts, which 
 
 replaced the former Academie des Maitres Peintres on September 10th . .313 
 A composition by S. Leclerc in honour of the foundation of the academies by 
 
 Louis XIV 313 
 
 Louis XIV. visiting one of the first exhibitions of painting at the Gobelins, 1699 
 
 (print by Sebastien Leclerc) . . . . . . . . . .314 
 
 A children's bacchanalia (bronze vase on the terrace of the Chateau de Versailles, 
 
 cast by Duval, and carved by Ballin) ........ 314 
 
 The erection of the statue of Louis XIV. at Lyons (from a print of the period) . 317 
 Ancient torchstand in the chamber of Louis XIV., Chateau de Versailles . . 317 
 Emblematic device of the surgeons of Paris (fragment of an almanac) . . .318 
 Louis XIV. victor in the war with Holland (marble vase on the terrace of the 
 
 Chateau de Versailles, sculptured by Tuby) . . . . . . .318 
 
 The Rape of Proserpine (a composition by Lebrun for the Bosquet de la Colonnade, 
 
 executed by Girardon. — Gardens of Versailles). . . . . . .321 
 
 A concert by children (fragment of a picture of the school of Lely. — Musee de 
 
 Versailles) . . . . . . . . . . . . .321 
 
 Damon, a "grand seigneur," playing the viol (from a print by Bonnart) . .322 
 
 Urania, a lady of quality, singing (from a print by Bonnart) .... 323 
 
 The dancing master (from a print by Bonnart) ....... 324 
 
 The aldermen of Paris (by Philippe de Champaigne. — Musee du Louvre) . . . 325 
 The Rhone (bronze statue by Coustou, which decorated the base of the statue of 
 
 Louis XIV. at Lyons. — Hotel de Ville, Lyons) . . . . . .326 
 
 Nymph with a shell (marble figure by Coysevox. — Musee du Louvre) . . . 326 
 The Saone (bronze statue by Coustou, decoi'ating the base of the statue of Louis XIV. 
 
 at Lyons. — Hotel de Ville, Lyons) . . . . . . . .327 
 
 xxit 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 A lion striking down a wolf (bronze group by Van Cleve for the Fountain of Diana 
 
 in the gardens of Versailles) . . . . . . . . .327 
 
 A female faun, marble bust attributed to Sarrasin (collection of Madame Moreau 
 
 Nelaton) . 328 
 
 Antoine Coysevox (from the portrait by G. Allou. — Musee de Versailles) . .329 
 
 Pierre Puget, by himself (Museum of Aix) ........ 330 
 
 Candle-bracket from the Palace of Versailles (collection of M. Charles Rossigneux) . 331 
 Cabinet by Boulle (from a design by Berain. — Musee du Louvre) . . . .331 
 
 Doorway of the Hotel de Ville at Toulon, by Pierre Puget ..... 332 
 
 Jean Varin (from a portrait attributed to CI. Lefebvre. — Musee de Versailles) . 333 
 Ice-bowl of the seventeenth century in carved copper (collection of M. Edmond Guerin) 333 
 Porphyry vase (made by order of Louis XIV. after the melting down of the gold 
 
 and silver plate in 1709. — Musee de Versailles, salle des Gardes de la Reine) . 334 
 
 IV. — The Fine Arts in the Time op Louis XIV. 
 The arms of the Dauphin borne by Loves (heading by Chauveau for the collection 
 
 of Courses de tetes et de bagues, from the Imprimerie Royale. — From the 
 
 illuminated copy in the Library of Versailles) . • . . . . 335 
 
 Ornamental letter in honour of Louis XIV. (by P. P. Sevin) .... 335 
 
 The chaste Susanna (a carving in ivory attributed to Bernini. — Collection, of Madame 
 
 Moreau Nelaton) 336 
 
 Portrait of John Milton (from an allegorical picture preserved by his family and 
 
 engraved in the eighteenth century) ........ 337 
 
 John Dry den (from the portrait by Kneller, engraved by Edelinck) . . . 338 
 Addison (from the portrait by Dahl, engraved by Simon) ..... 339 
 
 Jonathan Swift (painted from nature by Mai-kham, engraved by Barforcl) . . 340 
 Halley (from the portrait by Kneller, engraved by White) . . . . .341 
 
 Sir William Temple (portrait by Lely, engraved by Houbroken) .... 342 
 
 Geometry (marble bust by Legros. — Musee du Louvre) ...... 343 
 
 John Locke (from the portrait by Kneller, engraved by Vertue) .... 343 
 
 Philip Sydenham at the age of twenty-four (from the portrait by Hcese, engraved by 
 
 Smith) , 344 
 
 Leibnitz (from an anonymous engraving of the period) ...... 345 
 
 Louis XIV (medal belonging to Baron Jerome Pichon) ...... 345 
 
 Scipio Maffei (from the drawing and engraving by Marcus Pitteri) .... 346 
 
 THE CHURCH AND RELIGION. 
 
 I. — Ecclesiastical Affairs — Memorable Disputes. 
 
 The Sorbonne (from a print by Lepautre) ...... 
 
 Mass in a church of the seventeenth century (print by Lepautre) 
 Mass in a church of the seventeenth century (from a print by Lepautre). 
 An abbe wearing a cassock (from an engraving by Bonnart) . 
 Church procession in the seventeenth century (from a painting by the 
 Le Nain. — Musee du Louvre) ....... 
 
 Charity (marble bust by Legros in the Louvre) ..... 
 
 xxiii 
 
 . 349 
 . 349 
 . 350 
 .351 
 brothers 
 
 . 353 
 . 354 
 
LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bust of the Virgin (attributed to Sarrasin. — From the collection of Madame Moreau 
 
 Nelaton) 355 
 
 Chancellor d'Aligre enforcing respect to the King's justice (1674) (from a print of 
 
 the time) 356 
 
 Allegorical print on the affair of the "Regalia," 1682 (anonymous engraving in the 
 
 Gallery of Engravings) ........... 357 
 
 Louis XIV. favours Catholicism by receiving King James at Versailles (from a Dutch 
 
 print in the Hennin collection) ......... 359 
 
 The rights of the " Regalia " (from a print by Lepautre) . . . . .360 
 
 Bronze vessel for holy water used by Louis XIV., seventeenth century (the King's 
 
 Chamber. — Chateau de Versailles) . . . . . . . . .361 
 
 Christ (bust by Pierre Puget. — Musee de Marseilles) . . . . . .361 
 
 Altar vase (collection of Baron Jerome Pichon) ....... 362 
 
 Medallion of Louis XIV. by Bertinetti (collection of Baron Jerome Pichon) . . 364 
 
 II. — Calvinism in the Time of Louis XIV. 
 
 The Flight into Egypt (bas-relief by Sarrasin. — Musee de Versailles) . . . 365 
 Heresy destroyed (medallion by Desjardins. — Musee du Louvre) .... 365 
 Cruelties committed upon the Vaudois (a Dutch satire, from a contemporary print) . 367 
 Principal points of the Catholic Faith (frontispiece by Mellan for the treatise by 
 
 Cardinal de Richelieu so entitled) ......... 369 
 
 Calvin overthrown by true religion (fragment of an almanac) . . . . .371 
 
 Hypochondriacs (satirical Dutch print against the sovereigns, defenders of the Catholic 
 
 Faith) 373 
 
 Bureau de Charite where aid was distributed to converted protestants (fragment of 
 
 almanac of 1686) ............ 375 
 
 Satirical coloured prints on sure and proper means of bringing back protestants to 
 
 the true faith: dragonnades, the galleys, prisons, the wheel and the stake (Cabinet 
 
 of engravings) ............ 377 
 
 Dutch satirical coloured print on sure and honest means for bringing protestants back 
 
 to the true faith : dragonnades, galleys, prisons, wheels and stakes . . . 378 
 The fair Constance " dragooned " by Arlequin Deodat (Louis XIV.) (Dutch allegory 
 
 and satire upon the persecution of the protestants) . . . . . .379 
 
 Satirical French engraving of the destruction of the protestant church at Charenton 
 
 (Cabinet of Prints) 380 
 
 Caricatures in black of the King and Madame de Maintenon, persecutors of pro- 
 testantism (published by Peters) . . . . . . . . .381 
 
 Caricature in black of the Archbishop of Rheims, persecutor of protestantism 
 
 (published by Peters) 382 
 
 Pierre Jurieu, pastor and professor of theology (from the portrait by Gole, engraved 
 
 by Marot) 383 
 
 " Sic itur ad astra," — " Cappa omnia tegit " (after a satirical Dutch print) . . 384 
 The revocation of the Edict of Nantes : proclaimed by Louis XIV. before the clergy 
 
 of France (Dutch picture) .......... 385 
 
 The flight of James II. (from a print of the time, done in Holland. — Cabinet of 
 
 Engravings) ............ 386 
 
 Medal struck by the protestants of the Cevennes ....... 389 
 
 Le Marechal de Villars (from a print by Rochefort) ...... 390 
 
 Dutch caricature upon the evil influence of Madame de Maintenon during the last 
 
 years of the reign of Louis XIV. . . . . . . . . .391 
 
 xxiv 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The great bell of Notre Dame de Paris . . . . . . . .393 
 
 The demolition of the temple at Charenton . . . . . . . .395 
 
 Tailpiece engraved by Sebastien Leclerc . . . . . . . .396 
 
 III. — Jansenism. 
 
 Composition by Lebrun in honour of Louis XIV. (engraved by S. Leclerc) . . 397 
 
 The Pope confides .398 
 
 The Novitiate and the house of the Jesuit professors at St. Germain-des-Pres (from 
 
 a print by Lepautre and Van Merlen) ........ 399 
 
 Corneille Jansen, Eveque d'Ypres (from a print by Morin) ..... 400 
 
 True religion triumphant under Louis XIV. (Picture by Lebrun, engraved by 
 
 Edelinck) 401 
 
 The road to Heaven (a popular print of the Jansenist party, showing, on the right, 
 
 the road to Paradise for the elect, on the left, the road to Hell for the Jesuits 
 
 and their partisans) . .. . . . . . . . . .402 
 
 Pope Innocent X. (from the portrait by Velasquez, preserved in England, engraved 
 
 by Green) 403 
 
 A Jansenist satire upon the Constitutions of the Popes (1661-1665) (from an 
 
 engraving in the Cabinet of Prints) ........ 403 
 
 Defeat of the Jansenists by the Pope, Religion, and Louis XIV. (after an almanac 
 
 of 1653) 404 
 
 Duvergier Duhauranne, Abbe de Saint-Cyran (original portrait by Philippe de 
 
 Champagne. — Musee de Versailles) ......... 405 
 
 Nuns in Chapter. — The Choir of Port-Royal des Champs (copied from an anonymous 
 
 print) 405 
 
 The Sisters of Port-Royal expelled by order of the King (from a print of the time) . 406 
 The Church of the Monastery of the Holy Sacrament, or Port-Royal of Paris 
 
 (Faubourg Saint- Jacques) (a print by Marot)'. ...... 407 
 
 Pascal as a child (from an original drawing by Donnat, found in a corpus juris 
 
 in his library by his son) . . . . . . . . . .408 
 
 Pascal (from an anonymous coloured drawing, which might be attributed to Edelinck, 
 
 in the Cabinet of Prints) .......... 409 
 
 Isaac Louis le Maistre de Sacy, 1613-1684 (after a print by Van Schuppen) . .410 
 Antoine Le Maitre, Attorney to the Parliament, 1608-1653 (from a print by Lubin) 413 
 Cardinal Antoine de Noailles (after an anonymous portrait in the Musee de Versailles) 414 
 Pere Quesnel (a portrait by Pitau) . . . . . . . . .415 
 
 Time chases away Tyranny, Fraud, and Discord : The Archbishop of Sebaste 
 
 recognises good Jansenists by passing them through a sieve (from a Jansenist 
 
 print of 1706) 416 
 
 Pere de La Chaise (from a print by Trouvain) . . . . . . .417 
 
 God confounds the designs of the proud (a Jansenist print by Jardieu) . . .418 
 A description of the land of Jansenism (Cabinet of Prints) . . . . .419 
 
 Pere Michel Le Tellier (from a portrait by Desrochers) ...... 420 
 
 Madame de Maintenon as Saint Frances of Rome (original portrait by Pierre 
 
 Mignard. — Musee de Versailles) . . . . . . . . .421 
 
 A satirical composition by Jansenists against the Constitutionalists who remain in 
 
 their party solely for the sake of temporal gain (1713) (Cabinet of Prints). . 422 
 Frontispiece of the protest of Pere Quesnel against the condemnation of his 
 
 propositions (Cabinet of Prints) ......... 423 
 
 xxv a 5 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A satirical composition by the Jansenists against the Constitutionalists who are kept 
 
 in their party by the love of wealth only (1713) (Cabinet of Prints) . . 424 
 Cardinal Dubois (from the portrait by Rigaud, engraved by C. Roy) . . . 425 
 Monument illustrative of the folly of Law's system (from a Dutch satire of the time) 426 
 Cardinal de Tencin (from the portrait by Heilmann, engraved by J. G. Wide) . . 427 
 The Tomb of Blessed Francois de Paris, died 1st May, 1717, and illustrious for 
 
 untold miracles (print in the Series of Les Miracles du Diacre Paris) . . 428 
 A meeting of the Jesuits (fragment of an almanac, engraved by Lepautre) . . 429 
 Le Diacre Paris at Prayer (from a print of the time) ...... 429 
 
 The Jesuits (fragment of an almanac, engraved by Lepautre) ..... 429 
 
 Fame glorifying Louis XIV. (composition by S. Leclerc) ...... 430 
 
 IV. — Quietism. 
 
 The glorious arms of Louis XIV. (composition by Sebastien Leclerc) . . . 431 
 Madame Guy on at the age of forty-four years (from the print by V. Broen) . .432 
 Francois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fenelon (from the original portrait by Joseph Vivien. 
 
 — Musee de Versailles) 433 
 
 Godet des Marais, Bishop of Chartres (from the portrait by Paul Bria, engraved by 
 
 Crespy) 435 
 
 P. de Harlay de Chanvallon, Archbishop of Paris (from a portrait by Lenfant, 1671) 436 
 Michel Molinos and his works at the stake (from a popular print of the time) . . 437 
 Madame Gxryon with the features of the Virgin, " to whom God Himself is subject " 
 
 (composition by S. Leclerc) .......... 438 
 
 The Golden Age come back to earth, under the influence of the Due de Bourgogne, 
 
 the shepherd of the people, and Madame Guyon, a new incarnation of the Virgin 
 
 (from a print by S. Leclerc and F. Silvestre) ....... 339 
 
 A Saint and a Mystic in the seventeenth century (.Madame Helyot) . . .441 
 Abbe Theodore, of Tour d'Auvergne, Due d'Albret (Cardinal Bouillon in his youth, 
 
 after the portrait from life by Nanteuil) ....... 442 
 
 Fac-simile of the Letter of Resignation of Cardinal de Bouillon to the King (in the 
 
 Cotte Collection.— Cabinet of Prints) 443 
 
 Cardinal de Bouillon between Charity and Truth (composition by Vernansal, engraved 
 
 by Thomassin) 445 
 
 " Lex una sub uno " (design by Leclerc) ........ 446 
 
 Group in gilt metal, by Masson : Loves bearing quivers and supporting an escutcheon 
 
 with the King's monogram (staircase leading to the Queen's apai'tments — Chateau 
 
 de Versailles) 460 
 
 The Loves laying by their arms (a heading by Francois Chauveau for the collection 
 
 of the Courses de tetes et de bayues in the Imprimerie Royale) i 
 
 Ornamented letter by Francois Chauveau (from the collection of the Courses de tetes 
 et de bayues at the Imprimerie Royale) 
 
 Roger de Bussy-Rabutin, a Colonel (Maitre de camp) in the royal army (from a print 
 in the Hennin collection) 
 
 The Coronation of Louis XIV. (composition and print by S. Leclerc) . . . Hi 
 
 Louis XIV. in 1690 (from a silver crown with the eight " L's " crowned) . . Hi 
 
 xxvi 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Military discipline (a medal by Mauger, struck for the establishment of the Companies 
 
 of Cadets, 1665) . . . . . . . . . . iv 
 
 Bossuet, persecutor of protestants (a caricature in mezzotint) iv 
 
 Louvois, persecutor of protestants (a caricature in mezzotint) . . . ■ . iv 
 
 The King, a beneficent sun (from a medal by Loir, 1660) . . . . . v 
 
 Cardinal Purstenberg (a caricature in mezzotint) ....... v 
 
 Lulli and his orchestra (from a print by Bonnart) ...... vi 
 
 The peasant at his plough (from a coin in commemoration of the capture of Cambray, 
 
 1677) vii 
 
 Tailpiece engraved by Poilly (Cabinet of Prints. — Bibliotheque Nationale) . . viii 
 Frontispiece of the seventeenth century (Hennin collection, Cabinet of Prints. — 
 
 Bibliotheque Nationale) .......... ix 
 
 Ornamented letter (composition and engraving by S. Leclerc) .... .xxvii 
 
 ORNAMENTED LETTER. 
 (Composition and engraving by S. Leclerc.) 
 
 xxvii 
 
ERRATUM 
 
 The reader is requested to substitute "revenue-farmers'" for " partisans " 
 when the latter word occurs in relation to the finances of the kingdom of 
 Fiance under Louis XIV. 
 
DECORATION BY LEBRUN, EXECUTED FOR THE AMBASSADORS' STAIRCASE. 
 (Chateau tie Versailles.) 
 
LOUIS XIV. AS CONQUEROR : A TRIBUTE TO .THE MEMORY OF MAZARIN. 
 (Print by Poilly, 1660.) 
 
 I. 
 
 THE PREFACE TO THE REIGN: 
 THE YOUTH AND EDUCATION OF THE KING. 
 
 OUIS XIV. made his Court as well as 
 his reign so magnificent and brilliant 
 that the smallest details of his life seem to 
 interest posterity, even as they aroused the 
 curiosity of all the Courts of Europe and all 
 contemporaries. The splendour of his rule 
 extended to his least actions. Readers are more 
 eager, especially in France, to learn the par- 
 ticularities of his Court than the revolutions 
 ot some other countries. Such is the effect 
 of great reputation. We would rather learn 
 what went on in the cabinet and the Court 
 of Augustus than the details of the con- 
 quests of Attila or Tamerlane. 
 
 Therefore have all the historians pub- 
 lished the early love affairs of Louis XIV. with the Baronne de Beauvais, 
 and Mademoiselle dArgencourt, with Cardinal Mazarin's niece — who was 
 
 FAME ENTRUSTS TO TIME THE IMAGE OJ 
 LOUIS XIV. 
 (Group by Lebrmi and Guidi. — Gardens 
 of Versailles.) 
 
4 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 married to the Comte de Soissons, Prince Eugene's father — and especially 
 with Marie Mancini her sister, who afterwards married Colonne, a 
 Constable of France. 
 
 His real reign had not yet begun when these amusements occupied 
 the idleness to which Cardinal Mazarin, who governed despotically, 
 condemned him. The affair of Marie Mancini was the only important 
 one, for he loved her well enough to be tempted to marry her, and was 
 sufficiently master of himself to part with her. That victory over himself 
 first made it known that the young king had been born with a great 
 soul. A victory more signal and more difficult was his allowing Mazarin 
 to retain absolute power. Gratitude forbade him to shake off 
 
 the yoke that was beginning to weigh heavily 
 It was a current anecdote at Court 
 that he said after the Cardinal's 
 death : "I do not know what I 
 should have done if he had lived 
 longer." 
 
 f* During this leisure time 
 
 ! he occupied himself in reading, 
 especially with Colonne, who 
 was clever, as were also all 
 his sisters, Louis liked the 
 verses and romances which 
 secretly flattered his own 
 character in depicting gallantry and grandeur. He read the tragedies of 
 Corneille, and formed his taste for the masterpieces of literature. The 
 conversation of his mother and her ladies contributed not a little to his 
 appreciation of intellect and wit, and trained him in that singular polite- 
 ness which then began to characterise the French Court. Anne of Austria 
 had lirought into it a certain proud and lofty gallantry which belonged 
 to the Spanish mind and manners of those days, and united this to the 
 grace, gentleness, and becoming freedom which existed in France only. 
 The King made more progress in that school of accomplishments, 
 between his eighteenth anil his twentieth years, than he had made in 
 the sciences under the teaching of his preceptor, the Abbe de Beaumont, 
 afterwards Archbishop of Paris. He had been taught hardly anything. 
 It would have been well had he been instructed in history, and 
 
s^ isifaje) son. ^£mn£A 
 
THE POLICY OF CARDINAL MAZARIK 
 
 5 
 
 Louis xiv. in 1658. 
 Statuette in Colour from the Theirs Collection. 
 (Musee du Louvre.) 
 
 especially in modern history, but the 
 latter was as yet too ill-written. A 
 translation of Caesar's " Commentaries " 
 was printed under his name, and a trans- 
 lation of " Florus " under the 
 name of his brother ; but neither 
 the King nor the Prince had 
 anything to do with those pro- 
 ductions. 
 
 The Abbe de Beaumont, who 
 presided over the education of the 
 King under Marshal Villeroi, his 
 " governor," was all that he ought 
 to have been ; but the civil strife 
 interfered with the royal boy's 
 lessons, and Cardinal Mazarin was 
 quite willing that he should not 
 learn very much. When he fell 
 
 in love with Marie Mancini he learned Italian readily for her sake ; but 
 when the time came for his marriage he applied himself to Spanish with 
 
 less success. His taking to 
 long-neglected study, and the 
 ignorance of affairs in which 
 he was kept by Mazarin, led 
 all the Court to anticipate that, 
 like his father Louis XIII., he 
 would be always governed in- 
 stead of governing. 
 
 .tt 
 
 On these points Voltaire 
 and all his contemporaries are 
 agreed. Laporte, the young 
 King's valet, brings the grave 
 accusation against Mazarin that 
 he abandoned Louis XIV. to 
 ignorance and frivolity, and 
 
 A NOBLE AND HIS WIFE. 
 (From Les plus illustres Proverbes, by.Lagniet.) 
 
6 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 Laporte was in the confidence of Anne of Austria. His statements are no 
 doubt those of an honest and upright, although somewhat self-conceited 
 man, and we must consider them. 
 
 "In 1645," he writes, "the King was taken out of the women's 
 charge, I was the first who slept in His Majesty's room, much to his 
 surprise at first; hut what troubled him most was that I could not 
 tell him stories, with which they used to put him to sleep. 
 
 THE ROYAL HUNT AT VTNCENNES, DURING THE YOUTH OF LOUIS XIV. 
 (Engraving by Monconiet.) 
 
 " I told this to the Queen, and added that if Her Majesty 
 pleased I would read some good book to him. If he went to 
 sleep, well and good ; if he did not, he might get some profit out of 
 the reading. 
 
 " The Queen approved, and I owe it to the truth to testify that she 
 was always for the right thing when not prejudiced beforehand." 
 
 The valet turned tutor read Mezeray to the King every evening, 
 and the young Prince did not go to sleep. 
 
 Neither did Mazarin, to whom the Queen had entrusted the 
 superintendence of her son's education. 
 
THE CARDINAL AND THE YALET. 
 
 7 
 
 "The reading of history did not please the Cardinal, for one 
 evening at Fontainebleau, the King being in bed and I in my dressing- 
 gown, reading to him the history of Hugh Capet, His Eminence passed 
 through the King's room to avoid the people who were waiting for him. 
 He came inside the balustrade surrounding the bed— the King pretended 
 to be asleep so soon as he perceived him — and asked me what book I was 
 reading. I told him frankly that I was reading the history of France, 
 because the King found it so 
 difficult to go to sleep unless 
 he had some story or another 
 told him. He went away 
 very abruptly, without ap- 
 proving of what I was doing, 
 and said to his familiars at 
 his own bedtime (coucher) 
 
 doins; governor ' 
 
 that I was 
 to the King." 
 
 " I can say with truth that 
 M. de Beaumont, His Majesty's 
 preceptor, omitted no part of 
 his duty. On the contrary 
 once, when I was present with 
 M. de Villeroi, on the King's 
 idling, I, having vainly waited 
 for the governor to act as 
 became him, said all I could 
 to make this child-king think 
 of what he was and of what 
 he ought to do, and after I had lectured him well the governor re- 
 marked : ' Laporte, you say what is true. Sire, Laporte tells you the 
 truth.' I also told the Queen one day that she was spoiling him ; that 
 in his own abode nothing was allowed him, and in hers everything was 
 permitted." 
 
 Laporte avenged himself on Cardinal Mazarin during his lifetime for 
 having put him in his proper place by inciting the young King against 
 him ; and after his death, by accusing him to posterity of not teaching him 
 to reign so that he (Mazarin) might reign in his place. 
 
 LODIS XIV. AND HIS BROTHER THE DUKE OF ORLEANS "WITH THEIR 
 GOVERNESS, MADAME DE SOUVRE, MARQUISE DE LAN SAC. 
 (Musee de Versailles.) 
 
THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 THE REGENCY OK ANNE OF 
 AUSTRIA. 
 (Medal of the 18tli of May, 1643.) 
 
 Saint- Simon has condensed the criticism of Laporte. 
 " The King's intelligence was below mediocrity, but 
 very capable of improvement. The fault really lay else- 
 where. His early education was so neglected that nobody 
 ventured near his apartment. He was often heard to 
 advert to that time with bitterness, and told how he 
 was found one evening, having fallen into the garden of 
 the Palais Royal where the Court was then in residence. 
 
 " Eventually his dependence on others was extreme. 
 He was barely taught to read and write, and he remained so ignorant 
 that of the best known matters of history, events, fortune, careers, birth, 
 laws, he never knew a word." 
 
 Spanheim, the Envoy from Brandenburg, writes as follows in 1690 :— 
 '' His natural intelligence, which was neither brilliant nor lofty, and 
 was moreover limited by the little care that was taken to cultivate it in 
 his youth, and by the dependent state in which he was kept during the 
 life of the Cardinal, afterwards gained greater strength." 
 
 In reality Mazarin had been careful to instruct Louis XIV., but by object- 
 lessons rather than by boots. He made him come to the Council, he took 
 
 him to the army, thus teaching 
 him politics and war at the 
 head-quarters of each. 
 
 His tutor having told His 
 Eminence one day that the 
 King did not apply himself to 
 study, and that he (the Car- 
 dinal) ought to use his authority 
 and reprimand him, because it 
 was to be feared that some day 
 he might do the same in great 
 matters, Mazarin answered — 
 
 " Do not trouble yourself. 
 Depend upon me. He will know 
 only too much. For, when he 
 comes to the Council, he asks 
 me a hundred questions on the 
 
 LOUIS XIV., WHEN YOUNG, ON HORSEBACK. i. • 1 » 
 
 (School of Vouet.-Musee de Versailles.) mailCl 111 UclllU. 
 
A SELF-TAUGHT SOVEREIGN 
 
 11 
 
 louis xiv. in 1644. 
 (From a gold coin.)i 
 
 Mazarin considered Louis XIV. 
 capable of teaching himself the 
 jS| business of a king. And in fact 
 the King did teach himself, with- 
 out appearing to do so. He tells 
 us this. " Although very young," 
 he says, " I preferred in my mind 
 a high reputation to all things, 
 and even to life itself, if I could acquire it. I was never weary of 
 exercising myself in private and without any confidants, reasoning by 
 myself and in myself on all the events that occurred, full of hope and 
 joy when I discovered sometimes that my first thoughts were the very 
 same as those at which able and mature minds had come to a stop." 
 
 The men of the seventeenth century have wondered at that education 
 in action, which was not according to their custom, but was a practical 
 and realistic regime more like our own. Was it not, after all, the best 
 for a strong and sturdy child full of life and eager for movement ? 
 
 His unexpected birth in 1G38 had given rise to gossip at Court 
 and among the people, for the 
 relations of Anne of Austria 
 and Louis XIII. were not in- 
 timate, and when Louis XIV. 
 was born he came to France as 
 a miracle. France thanked God 
 for that miracle, and followed 
 with the keenest interest the 
 progress of Louis the God- 
 
 given. 
 
 The country rejoiced to 
 learn that in three months the 
 lusty infant had exhausted 
 three nurses. The first was a 
 noble lady, Mademoiselle de la 
 Giraudiere, the wife of a 
 lawyer employed in the Orleans 
 Treasury. The others — the 
 " dame " Hamelin, for instance — 
 
 LODIS XIV. IN THE ARMS OP HIS NURSE. 
 (Museeide Versailles. Recent acquisitions.) 
 
I 'J 
 
 THE CENTURY OE LOUIS XTV 
 
 were more difficult to find. The milk-teeth of the young King were 
 formidable. The enemies of Louis XIV. afterwards maintained that the 
 greediness of his babyhood was a presage of his rapacious and brutal 
 deeds. It was at all events a proof of vigour. 
 
 He gave other proofs as he grew older. Laporte has recorded some 
 of these. " One night, after he was undressed, he set about making a 
 hundred jumps and turning head over heels a hundred times on his bed 
 
 before getting into it ; but at 
 last he made so big a jump 
 that he came head foremost 
 against the raised floor of the 
 alcove on the other side with 
 such a bump that I did not 
 know what to think. I ran to 
 the King and lifted him up on 
 the bed. He had received only 
 a slight hurt. The footcloth, 
 which was laid on loose boards, 
 had broken the force of the 
 blow." 
 
 To this uncommon robust- 
 ness the young King added the 
 lively and fearless disposition 
 not uncommon in children who 
 feel their strength. 
 
 " The King, having had a 
 fort built in the garden of the 
 Palais Royal, got into such a 
 heat in attacking it that he 
 
 LOUIS XIV. GIVING LETTERS-PATENT TO THE BENEDICTINES, 1053. 
 (Print by Lahire.) 
 
 perspired profusely. He was told that the Queen was about to take her 
 bath, and ran quickly to get into it with her, commanding me to undress 
 him, which I would not do. He went off to tell the Queen, and she 
 dared not refuse. I told Her Majesty that it might be the death 
 of him. She said that the permission of Vautier, his first physician, must 
 be asked." 
 
 Louis XIV. had to bow to the fiat of the faculty, and, moreover, to 
 put up with a lengthy admonition from Laporte in the evening. 
 
FRATERNAL FEUDS 
 
 13 
 
 Sometimes there were terrible 
 battles between the King and his 
 young brother, and this continued 
 to be the case when they were 
 both big boys, as we learn from 
 a scene that was witnessed by 
 Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 
 " Monsieur had broken Lent, 
 and ate in his room. He came one day into the Queen's just as she was 
 about to dine with the King. He found a small pan of bouilli, and 
 
 LOUIS XIV. WHEN FIVE 
 
 YEARS OLD. 
 (From a medal by Manger. 
 May, 1G43.) 
 
 LOUIS XIV. WHEN THIRTEEN 
 TEARS OLD. 
 
 (From a medal by Mauger for bis 
 majority. September, 1650.) 
 
 THE "ROYAL GAME OF GOOSE,' - FOR THE DIVERSION OF HIS MAJESTY. 
 (From the Collection of Baron Jerome ricbou.) 
 
 showed it to the King, who told him not to eat it. Monsieur said he 
 would. The King replied, ' I engage you don't.' The King snatched at 
 the plate, and some of the meat-soup fell on Monsieur, who is very 
 handsome, and extremely proud of his fine head of hair. This made him 
 angry, and he Hung the plate in the face of the King, who did not at 
 first lose his temper. But some of the Queen's women stirred him up 
 
14 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 against Monsieur, so that he said if it were not for his mother he would 
 kick him out. Monsieur went away and shut himself up in his room. 
 The Queen and the Cardinal reconciled them the next day." But this 
 enfant terrible was not bad hearted. 
 
 " When he wanted to go to sleej)," says Laporte, " he would make 
 me lay my head near to his own ; and if he woke in the night he would 
 come to sleep with me. Many times I carried him back to his own bed 
 still sleeping. He liked to be with the Queen, for whom he always had 
 great affection — much more than children of that condition usually have 
 for their mothers." 
 
 COMEDY AT COURT IN 1656. 
 (The Theatre at Clermont. From a print in the Ilemiiu Collection.) 
 
 Louis XIV. shared his affection for his mother with Mazarin. Perhaps 
 he suspected the bond that existed between them. " My mother, who knew 
 him thoroughly," writes the Abbe de Choisy, " told me a hundred times 
 that the King's heart betrayed his head in the unbounded gratitude which 
 he displayed towards Cardinal Mazarirj. He believed himself to be under 
 the deepest obligations to him." 
 
 * 
 
 Only on one occasion were observers of sound judgment afforded a 
 forewarning of what the King was going to be : this was in 1655, 
 
A FORETASTE OF THE KING'S QUALITY 
 
 15 
 
 when, after the civil wars, his first campaign and his coronation, the 
 Parliament had met again for the discussion of certain edicts. The 
 King left Vincennes in his hunting dress, followed by the whole Court, 
 entered the Parliament Hall in his big boots, whip in hand, and 
 pronounced these words : " The harm your assemblies have done is well 
 known. I command that those which have been begun upon my edicts 
 shall cease. Monsieur the first President, I forbid you to suffer meetings 
 to take place, and every one of you to demand them ! " 
 
 "LES NOCES DE THETIS." 
 (The first opera played in Paris in 1654. Engraving by Silvestre.) 
 
 These early blossoms of his greatness seemed however to wither away 
 immediately afterwards, and the fruits did not appear until after the death 
 of the Cardinal. 
 
 The Court, since the return of Mazarin, was occupied with plays, 
 ballets, comedy — newly born in France, and not yet an art — and tragedy, 
 which had become a sublime art in the hands of Pierre Corneille. A 
 cure (parish priest) of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, who inclined towards 
 the Jansenists, had frequently written to the Queen concerning these plays 
 
16 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUTS XIV 
 
 vM9 Wm, 
 
 in the early years of her regency. He asserted that the penalty of 
 witnessing them was damnation, and induced seven doctors of the 
 Sorbonne to sign this anathema. The Abbe de Beaumont, however, 
 provided himself with a greater number of documents by learned doctors 
 in approval than the severe cure could produce in condemnation. Thus 
 he appeased the scruples of the Queen ; . and when he 
 was Archbishop of Paris he formally authorised the 
 performances which as abbe he had defended. This 
 fact is stated in the Memoirs of Madame de Motteville, 
 which are trustworthy. 
 
 After Cardinal Richelieu introduced the plays which 
 have rendered Paris the rival of Athens, not only was 
 there always a special bench for the Academy — which 
 has several ecclesiastics among its members — but there 
 was a special one for the bishops. 
 
 In 1G4G and 1054 Cardinal Mazarin had 
 Italian operas, executed by singers from Italy, 
 represented on the stage of the Palais Royal 
 and the Petit Bourbort, near the Louvre. 
 
 The Jansenists, whom the two cardinals, 
 Richelieu and Mazarin, respectively desired to suppress, 
 avenged themselves upon the pleasures which those 
 Ministers had procured for the nation. Lutherans and 
 Calvinists had done the same in the time of Pope 
 Leo X. The same minds which would overturn a State 
 to establish an opinion (frequently absurd), condemn the 
 innocent pleasures which a great city needs, and the 
 arts that contribute to the splendour of a nation. The 
 abolition of plays would be an idea more worthy of 
 the age of Attila than of the century of Louis XIV. 
 The dance, which may also be reckoned among the arts, because it is 
 subjected to rules, and makes the body graceful, was one of the chief 
 amusements of the Court. Louis XIII. had danced only once, in 1625, 
 in a ballet of a coarse character, which gave no promise of what the arts 
 were to be in France thirty years after. Louis XIV. excelled in stately 
 dances, which suited the majesty of his face, and did not take from that 
 of his rank. The ring races, which sometimes took place with great 
 
 LOUIS XIV. IN COSTUME AS 
 THE SUN-KING. 
 (In the ballet of La Nuit.) 
 
THE KING'S MARRIAGE. 
 
 17 
 
 display, exhibited his proficiency in all sorts of exercises. The pleasure 
 and splendour of those days were small things indeed in comparison with 
 the magnificence of the King's real reign, but astonishing after the horrors 
 of civil war and the gloom of the sombre life of Louis XIII. That sickly 
 and morose monarch had not been housed or served like a king. 
 
 The Crown jewels were not worth a hundred 
 thousand crowns. Cardinal Mazarin left only twelve 
 hundred thousand crowns' worth ; and to-day there 
 are gems in the regalia to the value of nearly 
 twenty millions of francs. 
 
 (1660.) At the marriage of Louis XIV. every- 
 thing bore a more marked character of magnificence 
 and taste. When he made his entry with the 
 Queen, his wife, Paris greeted the young bride 
 with respectful admiration. She was fair to see, 
 borne in a superb car of novel construction ; 
 the King on horseback by her side, adorned 
 with all that art could add to his manly 
 and heroic beauty, attracted every eye. 
 
 At the end of the Vincennes alleys a 
 triumphal arch was erected on a base of 
 stone, but time did not admit of its being finished 
 in durable material ; it was erected in plaster only, 
 and has since been entirely demolished. The design 
 was by Claude Perrault. The Porte Saint-Antoine 
 was rebuilt for the same ceremony ; a monument 
 inferior in taste, but adorned with some handsome 
 pieces of sculpture. Those who had beheld the bodies 
 of many dead or dying citizens carried back into 
 Paris through that gate after the battle of Saint- 
 Antoine, and now witnessed that far different entry, blessed God and 
 returned thanks for so beneficent a change. 
 
 Cardinal Mazarin had the Italian opera entitled Ercole Amante per- 
 formed at the Louvre in celebration of the royal marriage. It did not please 
 the French. They cared only to see the King and Queen, who danced. 
 The Cardinal wanted to distinguish himself by a spectacle more suited to 
 the taste of the nation, and de Lyonne, the Secretary of State, undertook 
 
 A GENTLEMAN OF THE COURT 
 IN COSTUME 
 (In the ballet of La Nuit, 1653.) 
 
18 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 ENTRY OF LOUIS XIV. AND MARIE THKRESE INTO PARIS AFTER THEIR MARRIAGE. 
 (From the official account published in 1662 by the City of Tans.) 
 
 to have a kind of tragic allegory, in the style of L'Europe, which was 
 partly by Richelieu composed. It was lucky for the great Corneille that 
 
 he was not chosen to execute such a task. 
 
 The subject was Lysis and Hesperia. 
 Lysis signified France and Hesperia Spain. 
 Quinault was employed to compose the 
 piece. He had just made a great reputation 
 by his Faux Tiberinus, which, though bad, 
 had achieved a prodigious success. Lysis 
 had no such good fortune. It was per 
 formed at the Louvre. 
 
 Its only attraction was the machinery. 
 The Marquis de Sourdeac, to whom the 
 establishment of Opera in France was 
 afterwards due, had La Toison a" Or by 
 Pierre Corneille performed at his chateau of 
 Neubourg with machinery. Quinault, who 
 was young and good looking, had the Court 
 on his side. Corneille had his name and 
 France. And so it is the fact that France 
 owes opera and comedy to two cardinals. 
 
 The King's wedding was followed by 
 a long series of fetes ; the general rejoicing 
 was increased by the marriage of Mon- 
 sieur, the sovereign's brother, with Princess 
 Henrietta of Great Britain, sister of Charles II. The festal period was 
 interrupted in 16G1 by the death of Cardinal Mazarin. 
 
THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. 
 
 19 
 
 Some months after the Cardinal-Minister's decease an event which 
 has no parallel in history occurred, and, strange to say, all the historians 
 have ignored it. A prisoner, more than common tall, 
 young, with a finely-shaped head and a noble mien, 
 was secretly conveyed to the chateau of the lie de 
 Sainte-Marguerite. The captive wore a mask with 
 steel springs which enabled him to eat without re- 
 moving it. He remained in the island until an 
 officer named Saint-Mars, who was made governor 
 of the Bastille in 1G90, took him away to the 
 State Prison, still masked. The Marquis de 
 Louvois had visited him before his removal, 
 and had spoken to him, standing, with 
 courtesy and observance. The unknown 
 person was comfortably lodged at the Bastille, con- 
 sidering the accommodation at the disposal of the 
 governor, and he was refused nothing that he asked 
 for. His particular fancy was for extraordinarily 
 fine linen and lace. He played the guitar ; he 
 was supplied with the daintiest food, and the 
 governor rarely took a seat in his presence. An 
 old doctor in the service of the Bastille, who 
 attended this strange man, has stated that he never 
 saw his face, although he had frequently examined 
 his tongue and the rest of his body. He was very 
 
 well made, of dark complexion, had a most attractive voice, made no com- 
 plaints and never allowed a glimpse of his possible identity to be obtained 
 
 OPERA AND BALLET COSTUME. 
 
 (From a ms. by Berain in the 
 Versailles library.) 
 
20 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 This unknown person, familiar to tradition, romance and drama as 
 " the Man with the Iron Mask," died in 1705, and was buried by night 
 in the parish of Saint-Paul. His story is more strange for the fact that 
 
 A. 
 
 at the period of his being sent to the He de Sainte-Marguerite, no man 
 of mark in Europe disappeared. That the prisoner was " somebody " is 
 indubitable, for, from the day of his arrival the governor himself set the 
 dishes on his dinner-table, and then retired after having locked the doors. 
 One day the prisoner wrote with a knife on a silver plate, which he 
 threw at a boat drawn up on the river bank at the foot of the tower. 
 The owner of the boat brought it to the governor. 
 
 "Have you read what is written on this plate?" he asked; "and has 
 
 GROTESQUE FACES FOU BALLETS AND OPERAS. 
 (MS. by Beraiu iu tlw Versailles Library. > 
 
 any person seen it in your hands V "I cannot read," replied the fisher- 
 man. " I have only just found the plate ; nobody has seen it." The 
 man was detained until the governor was fully satisfied that he was not 
 able to read, and that nobody had seen the plate. " You may go," he 
 said then. "It is well for you that you do not know how to read." 
 
 Among persons who had authentic knowledge of this fact, one is 
 still living. M. de Chamillart was the last Minister in possession of the 
 strange secret. The second Marshal de la Feuillade, his son-in-law, told 
 me that when the Marshal was dying he entreated him to tell him the 
 truth concerning the identity of the Man with the Iron Mask. Chamillart 
 made answer that it was a State secret, and he had sworn never to reveal 
 it. Lastly, many of my contemporaries depose to the truth of what 
 
A STATE SECRET WELL KEPT. 
 
 21 
 
 CJROTESQUE DANCER FOR BALLETS 
 AND OPERAS. 
 
 GROTESQUE DANCER FOR BALLETS 
 AND OPERAS. 
 
 I state, and I am not acquainted with, 
 any fact more extraordinary or better 
 authenticated. 
 
 Since Voltaire's time this legend 
 has been public property, and it has 
 never yet been satisfactorily 
 explained. Not one of the 
 contemporaries of Louis XIV. 
 referred to it. It was only in 
 1745 that the author of "Me- 
 moires Secrets pour servir a 
 l'Historie de la Perse " brought 
 this cause celebre into fashion. Vol- 
 taire immediately undertook the 
 investigation of it ; he entered 
 eagerly into this police incident of 
 the Court of the great King. At Paris he cross-examined the son-in-law 
 of the physician who had attended the masked prisoner — a former commis- 
 sariat officer at Cannes, who had information respecting the detention of 
 the captive — and also others whose testimony he invokes. Proud of 
 having set forth this problem, he left the solution of it to posterity. 
 
 It has been thought that the masked man was Fouquet, or the Due 
 de Vermandois, or even the Duke of Monmouth, notwith- 
 standing the circumstantial details of the execution of the 
 unfortunate son of Charles II. It is almost certain that 
 
 in • stimulating curiosity Vol- 
 taire has departed from 
 history. The captive 
 existed, it is true, but 
 his imprisonment was less 
 strict than is believed ; 
 his mask was of velvet 
 only, not .of iron. He was 
 neither a personage of the royal 
 family nor a celebrated man, but 
 probably either one Mattioli, an 
 
 GROTESQUE DANCER FOR BALLETS 
 AND OPERAS. 
 
 GROTESQUE DANCER FOR BALLETS 
 AND OPERAS. 
 
22 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 obscure agent of the Duke of Mantua, 
 or a mere valet de chambre named 
 Eustache Dauger.* 
 
 It is more profitable 
 to contemplate the pretty 
 picture of the young Court 
 and the united royal family 
 which Madame de Lafayette has 
 >equea thed to us. " The Queen- 
 mother," she writes, "in virtue of 
 her rank, held the first place in 
 the royal house, and according to 
 grotesque dancer for ballets , appearances she ought to have 
 
 held it by her influence ; but the 
 
 AND OPERAS. 
 
 GROTESQUE DANCER FOR BALLETS 
 AND OPERAS. 
 
 same disposition that had made the royal authority a heavy burden to her 
 when it was entirely in her hands jn'evented h er from wishing to have 
 any part in it after it ceased to be so. Her mind seemed to be anxious 
 and occupied with affairs during the life of her husband, but no sooner had 
 she become mistress of herself and of the kingdom than she thought only 
 
 * The author does not mention the most plausible of all the suppositions respecting the 
 identity of the Man with the Iron Mask, viz., that he was the son of Anne of Austria 
 and Mazarin. It is easily to be understood that the King and his Ministers would be 
 anxious to conceal the existence of such a person, and that the death of Mazarin would 
 enable them to do so by imprisoning him. It is curious that the " particular fancy " of 
 
 the prisoner in the Bastille, which M. 
 Bourgeois records, furnishes a piece of cir- 
 cumstantial or at least presumptive evidence 
 of the relationship of the masked man to 
 the Queen. It was Anne of Austria who 
 raised luxury in lace and lingerie to the 
 height of a craze in the French Court, and 
 of whom it is told that she said her purga- 
 tory would surely be having to sleep in 
 coarse sheets. The details of cuffs, guipure, , 
 and suggestion of under-dress in the por- Csi, 
 trait of the Queen-mother-Regent, by 
 Philippe de Champagne, and in that pre- 
 sented by Anne of Austria to her steward, 
 M. Le Pelletier, reproduced in this work, are 
 worth examining, if the reader cares to 
 entertain the notion of heredity in taste. — ■ 
 grotesque dancer for ballets Translator's Note grotesque dancer for ballets 
 
 AND OPERAS. AND OPERAS. 
 
A JEALOUS QUEEN. 
 
 23 
 
 of leading a quiet life, and 
 occupying herself with de- 
 votional exercises. Thence- 
 forward she displayed great 
 indifference to everything. 
 
 " Nevertheless she did 
 care for the affection of her 
 children. She had brought 
 them up with herself so 
 tenderly that she felt some 
 jealousy of the persons with 
 whom they sought their pleasures. She was, however, satisfied if only 
 they paid her the attention of visiting her. 
 
 "The young Queen was twenty-two years old; her figure was good, 
 
 THE KING ASSUMING THE GOVERNMENT 
 OP THE STATE. 
 
 MEDAL BY MOLAET. 
 (1661.) 
 
 THE DEATH OF CARDINAL MAZARIN. 
 (From a contemporary print.) 
 
 and she might fairly be described as handsome, though not pleasing. She 
 was but little known, and there was not any great desire to know her 
 better, for she was entirely absorbed in a passionate attachment to the 
 
 King, and in all the rest of her actions she kept 
 close to the Queen her mother- 
 in-law, making no distinction 
 of persons or diversions, and 
 suffering on account of her 
 jealousy of the King. 
 
 " Monsieur, the 
 only brother, was no less at- 
 tached to his mother. His 
 inclinations were as much in 
 
 King's 
 
 THE QUEEN'S ENTRY INTO PAR[S, 1660 
 (Medal by Molart.) 
 
 louis xrv. in 1660. 
 (Medal by Loir.) 
 
24 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 the direction of feminine occupations as the King's were the reverse. He 
 was handsome and well made, but his face and his stature would have 
 become a princess better than a prince. He cared more for winning universal 
 admiration by his personal attractions than for gaining the love of women. 
 His self-conceit seemed to render him incapable of any other attachment. 
 
 " When the marriage of Monsieur took place everybody was surprised 
 by the gracefulness and the courteous behaviour of Madame. As the 
 Queen-mother kept her constantly with herself, the English Princess was 
 
 only seen in the Queen's circle. 
 It was a new discovery to 
 find her mind as attractive 
 as her person. She was the 
 universal subject of conversa- 
 tion, and everybody was loud 
 in her praise. 
 
 " After a prolonged sojourn 
 in Paris Monsieur and Madame 
 went to Fontainebleau, and the 
 presence of the Princess made 
 everything bright. The King, 
 when he came to see more 
 of her, knew how unjust he 
 had been in not regarding 
 her as the fairest of the fair. 
 He became greatly attached to 
 her, and treated her with the 
 philippe, "fils de prance," brother of the king. utmost kindness and distinction. 
 
 (From a portrait by Lely.) , . 
 
 She arranged the parties ot 
 pleasure ; they were all made up for her. It was the middle of summer. 
 Madame bathed ; every day she went in a coach, followed by all the 
 Court ladies. After supper they drove round the canal in open carriages, 
 and to the music of violins, for a part of the night. 
 
 " Then it was that all France flocked to the palace where dwelt 
 Madame. The men were all bent on paying court to her and the women 
 on pleasing her. 
 
 " Mme. de Valentinois, sister of the Comte de Guiche, was one of 
 those whom she selected as a companion in her pleasures. Mme. de 
 
COLBERT ON THE BRINK 25 
 
 Maintenon, as well as other persons to whom she had shown kindness 
 before her marriage, had the honour of seeing her frequently." 
 
 Mdlle. de la Tremouille and Mme. de Lafayette were of this number. 
 
 * 
 
 In the meantime Louis XIV. divided his time between the pleasures 
 of his time of life and the affairs that constituted his duty. He held 
 a council every day, and afterwards worked privately with Colbert. The 
 
 THE COURT AT FONTAINHBLEAU IN 1662 — -"THE GRANDEST COURT IN EUROPE." 
 (Print by Lepeautre.) 
 
 latter custom was the origin of the downfall of the famous Superin- 
 tendent Fouquet, which entailed that of Guenegaud (Secretary of State), 
 Pellisson, Gourville, and so many others. The fall of Colbert, who 
 was much less open to reproach than Cardinal Mazarin had been, shows 
 that there is more than one way of coming to disaster. The Minister's fate 
 was already decided when the King accepted the magnificent fete which 
 was given to him by Colbert at Vaux. The palace and gardens had cost 
 him eighteen millions — the present equivalent of that sum would be 
 about thirty-five millions. He had built the palace twice, and purchased 
 three hamlets ; the whole extent of these was inclosed in the immense 
 
 E 
 
26 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 gardens, partly planted by Le Notre, and then regarded as the most 
 beautiful in Europe. The fountains of Vaux, which afterwards appeared 
 below mediocrity in comparison with those of Versailles, Marly and Saint- 
 Cloud, were marvels at that time. 
 
 But however beautiful the house, that expenditure of eighteen 
 millions — the accounts still exist — proved that Colbert's money had been 
 spent as lavishly as he had expended the King's. Fontainebleau and Saint- 
 Germain, the only "pleasure- 
 houses " inhabited by the King, 
 were much inferior to Vaux. 
 Louis XIV. felt this, and it 
 irritated him. All over the 
 house the arms of Fouquet 
 were to be seen with his 
 device, a squirrel, and the 
 words : " Quo non ascendam ? " 
 (Whither shall I not climb ?) 
 The King had them explained 
 to him, and the ambition of 
 this motto did not tend to 
 mollify him. The courtiers 
 remarked that the squirrel 
 was painted everywhere, pur- 
 sued by an adder, which was 
 Colbert's arms. The fete 
 excelled those which Car- 
 dinal Mazarin had given, not 
 only in magnificence but in 
 taste. The Facheux of Moliere 
 was represented for the first 
 time on this occasion. Pellisson had written the prologue, which was 
 much admired. Had it not been for the Queen-mother, the Superintendent 
 and Pellisson would have been arrested at Vaux on the day of the fete 
 itself. The King's resentment was increased by the fact that Mademoiselle 
 de La Valliere, for whom he was beginning to feel a real passion, had 
 been the object of one of Fouquet's passing fancies. The Superintendent, 
 whom she unhesitatingly rejected, having afterwards perceived what a 
 
 COUNCILLOR TO THE PARLIAMENT. 
 
 (In Les conditions de la vie htimaine, by S. Leclerc.) 
 
FOTJQTTET'S HOSPITALITY AND ITS REWARD 27 
 
 THE ARMS OF COLBERT WITH THE ADDER IN THE] CENTRE. 
 (Heading in honour of Colbert.) 
 
 powerful rival he had, would have liked to be the confidant of the lady, 
 and that too was an offence. The King had been tempted, in the first 
 impulse of his anger, to have the Superintendent arrested in the midst of 
 
 FOtJQUET PROTECTING THE ARTS AND SCIENCES, AND RENDERING JUSTICE. 
 (Print by Chauveau.) 
 
 the fete which he had accepted from him, but afterwards adopted 
 unnecessary dissimulation. It looked as though the monarch, already all- 
 powerful, feared the influence of the adherents whom Fouquet had gained. 
 He was Procurator-General to the Parliament, and that office gave 
 
28 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 him the privilege of being tried by the assembled Chambers ; but so 
 many princes, marshals and dukes had been tried by commissaries that 
 a magistrate might have been treated in the same way, since recourse had 
 been had to unusual methods — a step which, without being unjust, always 
 conveys a suspicion of injustice. Colbert induced him, by means that 
 were not precisely honourable, to sell his post. He was offered eighteen 
 hundred thousand livres for it — a sum which would now be equivalent to 
 
 three millions and a half — and 
 by a misunderstanding he sold 
 it for only fourteen hundred 
 thousand francs. The Due de 
 Guise, Grand Chamberlain to 
 the King, had sold this Crown 
 office to the Due de Bouillon 
 for eight hundred thousand 
 livres. 
 
 It was the Fronde, the 
 civil war of Paris, that had 
 put this price upon places in 
 the Judicature. It was one of 
 the great defects and one of 
 the great misfortunes of a 
 heavily indebted Government 
 that France was the only 
 country in the world in which 
 judgeships were vendible, but 
 this came from the leaven 
 of sedition. It was an insult 
 to the throne that the post of 
 Royal Procurator should cost more than the highest dignities of the Crown. 
 
 Fouquet, notwithstanding that he had wasted the finances of the 
 State and his own, was a great-souled person. His depredations were 
 committed in the spirit of magnificence and liberality (1661). He handed 
 over the price of his place to the public treasury, and that noble action 
 did not save him. A man whom a police-officer and two guards might 
 arrest in Paris was induced to go to Nantes, and the King was conspicu- 
 ously gracious to him on the eve of his disgrace. Louis XIV. seems to 
 
TAPESTRY WITH THE KING'S ARMS AND MOTTO. 
 (Garde-Meuble Collection.) 
 
HESNAULT TO COLBERT 
 
 31 
 
 have belied his character in this matter ; but he was given to understand 
 that Fouquet was making great fortifications at Belle Isle, and that he 
 might have too many connections both outside and inside the kingdom. 
 It became evident, when he was arrested and taken to the Bastille and 
 to Vincennes, that his " party " was nothing else than the greed of 
 certain courtiers and women who received pensions from him, and forgot 
 him so soon as he ceased to be in a position to bestow them. Other 
 friends he retained, and this proves that he deserved them. The famous 
 Madame de Sevigne, Gourville, Mademoiselle Scudery, with several 
 
 SONNET. 
 
 Ministre avare et lache, esclave malheureux, 
 Qui gemis sous le poids des affaires publiques ; 
 Victime devouee aux chagrins politiques, 
 Fantome revere sous un titre onereux ; 
 
 Vois combien des grandeurs le comble est dangereux ; 
 Contemple de Fouquet les funestes reliques, 
 Et, tandis qu'a sa perte en secret tu t'appliques, 
 Grains qu'on ne te prepare un destin plus affreux : 
 
 Sa chute quelque jour te peut etre commune. 
 Crains ton poste, ton rang, la cour et la fortune. 
 Nul ne tombe innocent d'oii l'on te voit monte. 
 
 Cesse done d'animer ton prince a son supplice ; 
 Et, pres d'avoir besoin de toute sa bonte, 
 Ne le fais pas user de toute sa justice. 
 
 was told that His Majesty was not offended. " Then I am not," replied 
 the Minister. Colbert appeared to be moderate, but in reality he eagerly 
 desired the death of the Superintendent. It is a pity he was not so 
 generous as he was vigilant. 
 
 One of Fouquet's most implacable persecutors was Michel Le Tellier, 
 then Secretary of State, and his rival in repute. Le Tellier was after- 
 wards Chancellor. But it was Chancellor Se'guier, the President of the 
 Commission, who sought his death most persistently and treated him with 
 the greatest severity. 
 
 The fact was that to try the Superintendent was to accuse the 
 memory of Cardinal Mazarin. 
 
 men of letters, declared 
 openly for him, and 
 served his cause so ar- 
 dently that they saved 
 his life. 
 
 The accompanying 
 verses against Colbert, 
 the persecutor of 
 Fouquet, written by 
 Hesnault, the translator 
 of Lucretius, are well 
 known. 
 
 Colbert, to whom 
 this offensive sonnet 
 was mentioned, asked 
 whether the King was 
 offended by it. He 
 
3^ 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 The most important depredations in the finances were his doing. He 
 had arbitrarily appropriated to himself several branches of the State 
 revenue ; he had dealt in his own name and to his profit with munitions 
 for the troops. " He imposed," says Fouquet, " extra sums upon the 
 districts by arbitrary warrants (lettres de cachet). This had never been 
 done except by him and for him, and is punishable by death according 
 to the statutes." Thus it was that the Cardinal had amassed wealth great 
 indeed beyond his own knowledge. 
 
 I have heard it related that M. de 
 kumartin, Comptroller of the Finances, 
 when visitim*; the Palais Mazarin, 
 the abode of the Due de Mazarin, 
 his heir, and the Duchesse Hortense, 
 several years after the death of the 
 Cardinal, saw there a large mar- 
 quetry cabinet in a recess. The 
 keys had been lost long before, and 
 the drawers had not been opened. 
 M. de Caumartin, much surprised 
 at such negligence, said to the 
 Duchesse de Mazarin that she might 
 probably find curiosities in the 
 cabinet. She had it opened : it 
 was filled with quadruples, counters, and 
 gold medals. The Duchesse flung these out 
 of the palace windows to the people in 
 handfuls during more than a week. 
 The abuse of his despotic power by Cardinal Mazarin did not justify 
 the Superintendent; but the irregularity of the procedure in the case of 
 Fouquet, the length of his trial, the animus shown by Chancellor Seguier, 
 the lapse of time, which subdues public envy and inspires compassion for 
 the unfortunate, lastly, the solicitations in favour of an unhappy man, 
 which were more urgent than the demands of his enemies— all these 
 combined to save his life. 
 
 Judgment was not given until 1664, at the end of three years. Of 
 the twenty-two judges only nine voted for a sentence of death ; the 
 thirteen others voted for banishment for life. The King changed the 
 
 FOUQUET. 
 (By S. Bonrikm.— Mnsee de Versailles.) 
 
THE FATE OF FOUQUET 33 
 
 latter penalty for a harder one. Such severity was not in conformity 
 either with the ancient laws of France or with those of humanity. 
 
 Public feeling was especially outraged by the act of the Chancellor 
 in causing one of the judges, named Roquesante, who had chiefly 
 influenced the tribunal towards leniency, to be exiled. Fouquet was 
 imprisoned in the Chateau de Pignerol. All historians state that he died 
 there in 1680 ; but G-ourville asserts that Fouquet came out of prison 
 some years before his death. The Comtesse de Vaux, his daughter-in-law, 
 had already affirmed this to me personally ; nevertheless the family gives 
 no credit to it. And so it is not known where the unfortunate man, 
 
 COMPOSITION IN THE FORM OF A MEDAL IN HONOUR OF CHANCELLOR LE TELLIER. 
 (By Van Schuppen, 1679.) 
 
 whose least actions and movements were so widely published in the days 
 of his power, ended his life. 
 
 Guenegaud, the Secretary of State, who sold his post to Colbert, was 
 prosecuted by the Chamber of Justice, notwithstanding, and deprived of 
 the greater part of his fortune. 
 
 Saint-Bvremond was connected with Fouquet in his disgrace. Certain 
 papers entrusted to Madame du Plessis-Belliere, which had been seized by 
 order of Colbert, and the manuscript letter of Saint-Bvremond on the 
 " Peace of the Pyrenees " was found among them. This jesting production 
 was read to the King and made to appear as a State offence. Colbert, 
 who did not deign to avenge himself upon Hesnault, an obscure person, 
 
 F 
 
34 
 
 THE GENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 persecuted in Saint-Evremond the friend of Fouquet, whom he hated, 
 and the wit whom he feared. The King was so ruthless as to punish 
 an innocent jest aimed long before at Cardinal Mazarin, whom he did not 
 regret, and whom the Court had insulted, calumniated and proscribed 
 with entire impunity during several years. The least cutting of a thousand 
 satires upon the Cardinal -Minister was the only one ever punished, and 
 
 that after his death. 
 
 Saint-Evremond lived and 
 died in retirement in England, 
 as a free man and a philoso- 
 pher. The Marquis de Mire- 
 mont, his friend, maintained 
 that there was another cause 
 for his downfall, and Saint- 
 Evremond never could be 
 induced to explain it. When 
 Louis XIV. gave permission 
 for Saint-Evremond to return 
 to France at the close of his 
 life, the philosopher disdained 
 to regard the royal permission 
 as a favour ; he held that 
 one's country is where one is 
 happy, and he was happy in 
 London. 
 
 The new Finance Minister, 
 under the simple title of Comp- 
 troller - General, justified the 
 severity with which he had 
 acted, by re-establishing the order that his predecessors had disturbed, and 
 working with unremitting energy for the benefit and greatness of 
 the State. 
 
 f It 
 
 We have trustworthy testimony to the excessive severity of Colbert 
 towards Fouquet, from d'Ormesson, who was " reporter " on the occasion 
 of the trial, and forfeited the King's favour by saving the life of Fouquet. 
 
THE TESTIMONY OF D'ORMESSON 35 
 
 " Here is the end," he writes in his journal, " of that great trial of 
 which all France talked from the day of its beginning until the day of 
 its termination. Its greatness, however, consisted mainly of the quality 
 of the accused and the importance of the affair, and principally of Berryer, 
 who introduced a thousand useless things in order to make himself the 
 most necessary and chief person in affairs, and to prolong the time so 
 as to make his fortune secure. Such conduct he was acting against 
 
 A SATIRICAL PRINT. THE REVENUE-FARMERS PUNISHED BY THE ROYAL JUSTICE. 
 
 (1661.) 
 
 the interests of M. Colbert, who craved only for its end and its 
 result, and he did not fail to throw the fault on all the most honest 
 people of the Court. . . . The bias of enmity and the arbitrary use of 
 authority which appeared in all the incidents of the trial, and the false- 
 hoods of Berryer, have been the chief means of saving M. Fouquet from 
 the capital sentence ; and the disposition of men's minds in the matter 
 has been manifested by the rejoicing of the public, from the highest to 
 the lowest, in the safety of the ex- Superintendent. This has been carried 
 to an excess not to be described, universal benedictions being lavished 
 on the judges who saved him, and on the others curses and every mark 
 of hatred and contempt — songs in the first place." 
 
36 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 D'Ormesson is certainly less equitable, being embittered by resent- 
 ment, when lie judges and condemns the very popular proceedings which 
 were instituted against the revenue-farmers after the trial and sentence of 
 the Superintendent. 
 
 "On the 18th of October, 16(55, M. Le Pelletier sent for me to go 
 to supper at the house of Boucherat, with M. Brillac. There I learned 
 that the taxes of the Chamber of Justice have been settled, and the 
 contract signed before the King at a hundred and ten millions ; this is a 
 resolution which astonishes everybody. It ruins the creditors of the 
 financiers; it ruins all money dealings with men of business; it ruins 
 the King, because financiers, no longer having credit, will not be able to 
 make advances to the King, and it is certain that after these taxes shall 
 not have been paid this maximum will have to be abolished. It is 
 certified every day that there are taxes so extraordinarily heavy that 
 they amount to at least the whole property of the taxpayers, and it 
 appears impossible that they can he realised. The hardship of these taxes 
 is a subject of genera] complaint." 
 
 JEWELS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 (From <lra»iugt> by Gilles l'Egaru.) 
 
FRIEZE OF THE SALON DE L'ffilL DE BCEUF. 
 (Bas-relief by Van Cleve in gilded stucco.— Chateau ,de Versailles.) 
 
 IT. 
 
 THE BIRTH OF THE GREAT CENTURY. 
 
 r I 'HE Court became the headquarters of 
 pleasure and the model of the other 
 European Courts. The King piqued himself 
 upon giving fetes which should cast those of 
 Vaux into the shade. 
 
 France boasted at that period the greatest 
 men in all the arts, and all that was finest 
 and fairest among men and women were 
 assembled at the Court of her King. Louis 
 surpassed all his courtiers in symmetry of form 
 and the majestic beauty of his features. The 
 tones of his noble and touching voice won 
 the hearts of those who were intimidated by his 
 presence. His gait and bearing became him- 
 self only and would have been ridiculous in 
 any other. The embarrassment of persons who 
 spoke to him was a secret gratification to his sense of superiority. The 
 old officer who grew confused, stammered in asking a favour of him, and 
 at last, being unable to proceed, said : " Sire, I do not tremble thus in 
 
 GALLANT FRANCE. 
 
 (l'rint, eigliteei-ith century— touching the 
 King's love affairs.) 
 
38 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 presence of your enemies," got 
 what he wanted readily enough. 
 
 LOUIS XIV. AS A YOUNG MAN. 
 (Ki'iiiii an 'anonymous [picture in the Louvre.) 
 
 + 
 
 " He was," says Madame de 
 Motteville, "amiable, kind and 
 easy of access to everybody, 
 with a lofty and serious air 
 that inspired respect and fear 
 in the public, and prevented 
 those whom he held in most 
 consideration from making 
 free with him even in private, 
 although he was familiar and 
 merry with ladies." 
 
 Says Saint-Simon: "It was 
 in this brilliant society that the 
 King assumed the air of polite- 
 ness and gallantly which he re- 
 tained throughout his whole life, 
 and so happily combined with 
 propriety and majesty. It may 
 
 he said that he was made for that Court, and that 
 in the midst of all the other men his stature, his 
 carriage, his beauty, and the grand mien 
 which survived that beauty, even to the 
 tones of his voice, and the alertness and 
 naturally majestic grace of all his person, 
 caused him to be distinguished to the 
 hour of his death as ' the King of the 
 bees.' It may also be said that, had he 
 been born only a private gentleman, he 
 would equally have possessed the secret 
 of fetes and pleasure, of gallantry and 
 fascination. 
 
 •' His gallantry was always majestic, 
 although it could sometimes be gay, and 
 
 MKDALLION OF LOUIS XIV., BY BERTINKTTI. 
 (Collection of Iiaron Jerome l'ichon.) 
 
LOUIS XIV. IN PERSON AND MANNERS 
 
 39 
 
 in public there never was anything unbecoming in it. But even to the 
 slightest gesture, his walk, his deportment, his countenance, all was 
 circumspect, becoming, noble, grand, majestic, imposing, and yet quite 
 natural. To this the incomparable and unique superiority of his whole 
 person gave great facility. 
 
 LOUIS XIV. — -MEDALLION BY PIERRE PUGET. 
 (Musee de Versailles. 1 
 
 " In serious things also, such as ambassadors' audiences, no man ever 
 impressed me so deeply, and one had to begin by accustoming oneself 
 to see him if one would not rim the risk of stopping short in addressing 
 him. His answers on these occasions were always brief, exact, full, and 
 very rarely without something pleasing, sometimes even flattering, when 
 
40 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 the address deserved it. The respect also which his presence inspired, 
 wherever he might be, imposed silence and even a sort of fear. 
 
 " He loved open-air exercise and sports. In youth he excelled in 
 dancing, pall-mall and tennis. In his old age he was still an admirable 
 horseman. He liked to see all these things done with skill and grace. To 
 acquit oneself well or ill in them was to merit or to lose his favour. 
 He said that things which were not necessary ought to be done well, or 
 not done at all. He was very fond of shooting, and there was no such 
 
 good shot as he. He had 
 excellent setters, and kept 
 seven or eight in his rooms, 
 and liked to feed them him- 
 self, so that they should know 
 him. He was very fond of 
 stag-hunting, but followed oil 
 wheels, after he broke his arm 
 in hunting at Fontaineblcau, 
 shortly after the death of the 
 Queen. He sat alone in his 
 equipage, a hooded carriage 
 drawn by four ponies, with five 
 or six relays, and he drove at 
 full speed with skill equal to 
 that of the best coachman, and 
 always as gracefully as he did 
 everything else." 
 
 This last feature is the 
 essential note of the fair por- 
 trait of Louis XIV. which Saint-Simon has drawn for us. Majestic and 
 handsome in his youth, the King possessed above all " grace still more beau- 
 tiful than beauty." His ascendency over all about him is unfairly judged 
 if it be attributed to authority and the prestige of autocratic power only. 
 Frenchmen, on first approaching him, recognised that leading quality — grace, 
 and all combined with Saint-Simon to acknowledge and to praise it. 
 
 La Bruyere depicts him in his ideal sovereign : " How many gifts are 
 needed for reigning well ? August birth, an air of empire and authority, 
 a face which satisfies the curiosity of the people, eager to behold the 
 
A PANEGYRIC BY RACINE 
 
 41 
 
 prince, and preserves respect in the courtier, a perfectly even temper, a 
 ready and pleasant wit, an heart open, sincere, and into whose depths 
 one may look to facility in making friends for himself, also creatures and 
 allies, seriousness and gravity in public, brevity united with accuracy and 
 
 CABINET BY BOULB, WITH A MEDALLION OF THE KING IN THE CENTRE. 
 
 (From the Collection in the Mobilier National. 
 Chateau tie Versailles. — The King's Chamber.) 
 
 dignity, whether in addressing ambassadors or in council, and a manner 
 of conferring favours which doubles their value." 
 
 Racine, praising Titus by the lips of Berenice, gives a similar picture 
 of Louis XVI., his power and his grace : — 
 
 De cette nuit, Phenice, as-tu vu la splendeur ? 
 
 Tes yeux ne sont-ils pas tous pleins de sa grandeur ? 
 
 Ces flambeaux, ce Imeher, cette nuit enflammee, 
 
 Ces aigles, ces faisceaux, ce peuple, cette armee, 
 
 Cette foule de rois, ces consuls, ce senat, 
 
 Qui tous de mon amant einpruntaient leur e'clat ; 
 
 Cette pourpre, cet or, que rehaussait sa gloire, 
 
 Et ces lauriers encor temoins de sa vietoire ; 
 
 Tous ces yeux qu'on voyait venir de toutes parts 
 Confondre sur lui seul leurs avides regards ; 
 Ce port majestueux, cette douce presence. 
 Ciel ! avec quel respect et quelle complaisance 
 Tous les ccsurs en secret l'assuraient de leur foi ! 
 Parle, peut-on le voir sans penser comme moi 
 Qu'en quelque obscurite que le sort l'eut fait naitre, 
 Le monde, en le voyant, eut reconnu son maitre ? 
 
42 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Madame Lafayette gives the same impressions, even with her reser- 
 vations. To his contemporaries he presented a type of the finished and 
 perfect man. 
 
 "The King could only be depicted by his actions. A judgment of 
 him may be formed by what we have to say. He will be regarded no 
 
 doubt as one of the greatest kings that ever 
 has been, and one of the most honest men in 
 his kingdom, and it might be said the most 
 perfect, if he were not so miserly of the intellect 
 that God has given him, if he would let it 
 come out completely, instead of shutting it 
 up so closely in the majesty of his rank." 
 
 Bestowed by so clever a woman, 
 f this is no commonplace eulogium. 
 
 It explains and comments upon the 
 kind of adoration and worship of 
 which Louis XIV. was the object, 
 and which was offered at least as 
 much to his person as to his rank 
 and authority. " Whosoever shall 
 consider," says La Bruycre, " that the face of 
 the prince makes the felicity of the courtier, 
 that lie is occupied and satisfied all his life 
 long with seeing it and being seen by it, can 
 understand a little how it is God constitutes 
 the glory and the happiness of the saints." 
 
 La Bruyere ridicules such adoration. 
 Madame de Sevigne shared it, and described 
 it to Madame de Guiche on her return from 
 a sojourn at Versailles : — 
 
 " That which gives me the utmost 
 pleasure," she writes, "is to pass our four hours with the King, to be in 
 his pleasures and he in ours ; this is also the contentment of a whole 
 kingdom, which passionately loves to behold its master." 
 
 Bossuet, while adding some criticism, so just that it enables us to 
 regard him, not as a courtier, but almost as a judge, said before the 
 face of Louis XIV. :— 
 
 BRONZE BIST OK I.OV1S XIV. 
 (Chateau de Versailles.) 
 
PRAISE AND PRECEPT FROM BOSSUET 
 
 43 
 
 " It is no flattery of your Majesty, sire, to tell the King, that he was 
 born with great qualities. Yes, you were born to attract the love and 
 respect of all your people. You ought to make it your high object to be 
 feared by enemies of the State and evil-doers only ; let all the rest love you, 
 place in you their consolation and their hope, and receive relief for their 
 ills at your hands. This, of all your obligations, is the most essential ; 
 this, Sire, is what God com- 
 mands, and what He requires 
 the more urgently from you, 
 in that He has given you all 
 the qualities for the execution 
 of so fair a design : penetration, 
 firmness, kindness, gentleness, 
 authority, patience. ..." 
 
 This testimony by French 
 writers is supported by the 
 evidence of foreigners, which 
 may perhaps command more 
 implicit credence. 
 
 Massi, the ambassador from 
 the Republic of Venice, who saw 
 the King at the outset of his 
 career, writes, on the 3rd of 
 February, 1GG0 : "I cannot 
 describe His Majesty, and at 
 the same time the affability and 
 
 (Musee tie Versailles.') 
 
 the grace that he displayed." 
 
 Spanheim, the ambassador from Brandenburg, saw Louis XIV. thirty 
 years later, in the full splendour of his reign, and passes the same 
 judgment on him: "The attractions of his person are his figure, his 
 carriage, air, and fine bearing, an exterior full of grandeur and majesty, 
 and a bodily constitution fit to sustain the fatigues and the burden of so 
 great a post, to which may be added that he most happily mingles 
 greatness and familiarity in his private conversations, and bears himself in 
 them without either haughtiness or over-condescension. His inclinations 
 naturally tend to rectitude, justice and equity. He takes pleasure in doing 
 good of his own choice or when moved to it." 
 
4-1 
 
 THE CENTURY OP LOUIS XIV 
 
 To form a just conclusion, to know Louis XIV. as he really was, 
 without a shadow of flattery, we must return to Saint-Simon. Have the 
 painters and sculptors of the period left us a picture more full of colour 
 or a statue more full of life than this ? 
 
 " The stature of a hero, his whole figure so naturally endowed with 
 majesty that it was equally evident in the slightest gestures and the 
 most ordinary actions, without any air of pride, but simple gravity ; so 
 admirably well made and proportioned that sculptors might have sought 
 him for their model ; a perfect face, with the finest countenance and the 
 grandest air that ever man had. 
 
 "All these advantages were enhanced by the most natural grace, and, 
 what has been given to no other, he wore this air of grandeur and majesty 
 in his dressing-gown, to the point of one's being unable to bear his glance, 
 just the same as in the attire of fetes or ceremonies, or on horseback at the 
 head of his troops. He had excelled in all bodily exercises, and he liked 
 to see them well done. Neither fatigue nor inclemency of weather told 
 on him or made any impression on that heroic face ; showing through rain, 
 snow, cold, sweat, or covered with dust, it was always the same. 
 
 " I have frequently witnessed this with admiration, for, unless it were 
 weather of extreme and rare severity, nothing kept him from going out 
 every day and staying out a long time. 
 
 " A voice whose tones answered to all the rest, a facility of speaking 
 well and listening courteously, and better than any other, much reserve, 
 politeness always grave, always majestic, always discriminating according to 
 age, rank, sex, and for the sex ever that natural gallantry. 
 
 " So much for the exterior, which never had its like or anything 
 approaching it." 
 
 + 
 
 The taste for society had not yet reached its height at Court. The 
 Queen-mother, Anne of Austria, was beginning to like retirement. The 
 Queen hardly knew the French language, and goodness was her only merit, 
 Princess Henrietta of England, the King's sister-in-law, contributed to 
 the Court circle pleasant, lively conversation, adorned and kept up by 
 her reading of good books and her pure and refined taste. She studied 
 the language of her adopted country and became perfect in it. At 
 the time of her marriage she wrote French badly. She inspired 
 
MADAME 
 
 45 
 
 intellectual emulation, and introduced an elegant politeness and other 
 graces at the Court of Louis XIV., hardly dreamed of by the rest of 
 Europe. Madame had all the wit of Charles II., her brother, embellished 
 by the charm of her sex, and also by the wish and the power to please. 
 The Court of the Sun-King was a centre of gallantry, tempered and 
 enhanced by propriety. At the Court of Charles II. gallantry also reigned, 
 
 LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT LADIES, 1665. 
 (From an Almanac of the period.) 
 
 but it was of a coarser kind. At first there was a good deal of the 
 play of bright wits and of the mutual understanding common enough 
 when congenial spirits meet frequently at small entertainments. The King- 
 sent verses to Madame, she replied, and the Marquis de Dangeau was 
 the confidant of both in this amusing exchange of communications, not 
 genuine on either side. The King employed him to write for him, and 
 the Princess employed him to reply for her. Thus did he serve them 
 both, unsuspected by either ; and this was one of the means by which his 
 fortune was made. 
 
46 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 The mutual understanding between the King and his sister-in-law 
 alarmed the royal family. The King reduced their association to terms of 
 single-minded friendship, which never altered, thus modifying its notoriety. 
 When, at a later period, Madame set Racine and Corneille to work on 
 the tragedy of Berenice, she had in view not only the breach between 
 
 FRENCH GALLANTRY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (From a print of the period.) 
 
 Louis XIV. and Colonne, but the check which she herself had put 
 upon her affection for the King, lest it might become dangerous. 
 Louis XIV. is clearly enough designated in these two lines of Racine's 
 
 Berenice — 
 
 Qu'en quelque obscurite que le sort l'efit fait naitre, 
 Le monde, en le voyant, eiit reconnu son maltre. 
 
 These amusements gave place to his serious and lasting passion for 
 
A ROYAL TOURNAMENT 
 
 47 
 
 Mademoiselle dc La Valliere, maid of honour to Madame. A young man 
 named Belloc, valet de chambre to the King, composed several recits, or 
 musical recitals with dances interspersed. These were performed sometimes 
 in the Queen's apartment, sometimes in Madame's, and gave sweet 
 mysterious utterance to the secret of the two hearts that soon ceased 
 to be a secret. 
 
 All the public entertainments given by the King were so many acts 
 
 THE ROYAL TOURNAMENT IN THE COURTYARD OF THE TUILERIES, 1662 : A QUADRILLE. 
 
 (From the Illustrated Collection by Fr. Chauvean, ,.Counes de tetes et de bague:. 
 Illuminated copy in the Versailles Library.) 
 
 of homage to his mistress. In 1662 a tournament was held in the wide 
 space in front of the Tuileries, which retained thenceforth the name of 
 Place 'du Carrousel. There were five "quadrilles" or sets of jousters. 
 The King was at the head of the Romans, his brother led the Persians, the 
 Prince de Conde the Turks, the Due d'Enghien (his son) the Indians, and 
 the Due de Guise the Americans. This Due de Guise was the grandson of 
 Le Balafre, and renowned for the luckless audacity with which he had 
 attempted to make himself master of Naples. His imprisonment, his 
 
48 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUTS XIV. 
 
 duels, his romantic love affairs, his extravagance and his adventures, made 
 him every way remarkable. He seemed to belong to another century. 
 It was said of him, on his being seen jousting with the great Conde : 
 " There go the heroes of history and fable." 
 
 The Queen-mother, the Queen, and the Queen-Dowager of England, 
 widow of Charles I., witnessed the spectacle from a dais. The Comte de 
 Sault, son of the Due de Lesdiguieres, carried off the prize and received 
 it from the hands of Anne of Austria. 
 
 On the occasion of this famous carrousel an antiquary named 
 Douvrier invented for Louis XIV. the emblem of a sun darting its rays 
 
 THli KING AS ROMAN EMPEROH AT THK TOURNAMKNT OF 16f)2. 
 
 (Collection <>t Courses <le tiles el tic tmr/ues. 
 Illuminate I copy in the Versailles Library.) 
 
 upon a globe, with these words : " Nee pluribus impar." The idea bore 
 some resemblance to a Spanish device made for Philip II., and more 
 suitable to the monarch who possessed the fairest portion of the New 
 World and so great a kingdom in the old, than to a young King of 
 France who as yet gave only hopes of a great future. The emblem had 
 a prodigious success. The King's armorial bearings, the Crown furniture, 
 tapestries and carriages were adorned with it. The King never used it 
 at his tournaments. He has been unjustly reproached with the boastfulness 
 of this motto, as though he had chosen it himself; and it has been more 
 fairly criticised on its own account. The substance does not represent 
 what the legend signifies, and that legend is not sufficiently clear and 
 precise. That which may be explained in many ways is not worth 
 explanation. Mottoes — a relic of the old chivalry — are pleasing when the 
 
THE FETES 
 
 49 
 
 THE DUO DE GUISE AS KING OF THE AMERICANS AT THE 
 TOURNAMENT OP 1662. 
 
 THE DUC D'ENGHIEN AS KING OF THE INDIES 
 AT THE TOURNAMENT OF 1662. 
 
 (From the Collection in the Imprimerie Royale, Courses de tetes et de bagues.) 
 
 allusions are true, new and striking ; but it is better to have none than 
 to adopt contemptible ones, like 
 that of Louis XII. — a porcupine 
 with these words : " Qui s'y frotte, 
 s'y pique." 
 
 The fete of Versailles, in 1664, 
 surpassed that of the tournament by 
 its singularity, its magnificence, and 
 the intellectual pleasures which lent 
 to the splendour of the entertainment 
 a flavour and a charm unknown at 
 any former festival. Versailles had 
 already become a delightful place 
 of abode at that period, but 
 did not yet approach its later 
 grandeur. 
 
 On the 5th of May, 1665, the 
 King came to the chateau with 
 
 -. _ . . •Ill THE PKINCE DE CONDE AS EMPEROR OF THE TURKS 
 
 the Court, comprising six hundred AT THE tournament op 1662. 
 
50 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 " NEC PLURIBUS IMPAK." 
 (Meilal in honoui of Louis XIV., 1G6-4.) 
 
 persons, with their attendants. The expenses of 
 all, and also of those employed in preparing the 
 enchanting spectacle, were defrayed. Nothing 
 was wanting to these fetes except buildings 
 constructed expressly for the purpose of giving 
 them, such as the Greeks and Romans had ; but 
 the promptitude with which theatres, amphi- 
 theatres and porticoes, ornamented with equal 
 taste and magnificence, were erected, was a 
 marvel, and as these were diversified in a 
 thousand ways they added to the effect of 
 the spectacle. The proceedings opened with a 
 tournament. Those who were to enter the lists appeared on the first day in 
 review order, preceded by heralds, pages and esquires, who carried their 
 mottoes and shields ; verses by Perigni and Benserade were inscribed 
 on the latter in letters of gold. Benserade had a special talent for these 
 pieces galantes, in which he always made delicate reference to the 
 characters of the individuals, to the personages of antiquity or fable who 
 were represented, and to the love affairs of the Court. The King personated 
 Rooer ; all the Crown diamonds adorned his costume and the horse he 
 The three queens and three hundred ladies witnessed this superb 
 
 spectacle. All eyes were fixed upon His 
 Majesty, but the King sought only those 
 of Mademoiselle de La Valliere. The 
 fete was solely for her ; she beheld it 
 unnoticed in the crowd. 
 
 The cavalcade was followed by a 
 gilded car, eighteen feet in height, fif- 
 teen in width, and twenty-four in 
 
 length, representing the chariot of the 
 Sun, and was followed on foot by the 
 four Ages — gold, silver, bronze, and 
 iron — the signs of the Zodiac, the Seasons, 
 and the Hours. Shepherds carried wooden 
 bars for the barriers, which were ad- 
 justed by sound of trumpet, succeeded 
 at intervals by violins and musettes. 
 
 rode. 
 
 SCREEN FOH THE DAUPHIN. 
 (With a device in honour of the King.) 
 
THE FETES 
 
 51 
 
 Then came certain personages who recited verses appropriate to the 
 time, the place, the King, the ladies, and the three queens. When 
 the games were over and evening had come, four thousand huge torches 
 lighted up the space where the fetes were given, and tables were served 
 there by two hundred persons, who 
 represented the seasons, fauns, sylvans, 
 and dryads, with shepherds, grape- 
 gatherers, and harvest-men. Pan and 
 Diana advanced upon a moving hill, and 
 stepped down from it to bid spread the 
 tables with the most delicious products 
 of field and forest. Suddenly, from 
 behind the tables, arose a stage occu- 
 pied by a concert orchestra in a semi- 
 circle. The arcades surrounding; the 
 tables and the stage were adorned with 
 five hundred chandeliers in green and 
 silver, bearing wax-lights, and a gilded 
 balustrade enclosed the vast space. 
 
 These fetes, which surpassed the inven- 
 tions of romance, lasted for seven days. 
 The King won the prize in the games four 
 times, and left his four prizes to be com- 
 peted for by the other knights. 
 
 La Princesse d'filide is not one of the 
 best comedies of Moliere, but it sensibly 
 enhanced the pleasures of the games by 
 a multitude of allegories on the morals 
 and manners of the time, and by its 
 d-propos, which delighted the people of 
 those days, but are lost to posterity. 
 Judicial astrology was still in high favour at Court; several princes held 
 the vain-glorious superstition that nature had distinguished them even to 
 the extent of writing their destinies in the stars. Victor Amadeus, Duke 
 of Savoy, father of the Duchesse de Bourgogne, had an astrologer with 
 him always, even after his abdication. Moliere ventured to attack this 
 craze in Les Amants Magnijiques, which was played at a fete in 1670. 
 
 LARGE VASE ON THE TERRACE AT VERSAILLES 
 WITH THE ARMS OP THE SUN-KING. 
 (The work of Dngoulon and Drouilly.) 
 
52 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 In Les Amants Magnijiques there is also a Court fool. These poor 
 creatures were still in fashion. This was a remnant of barbarism which 
 lasted longer in Germany than elsewhere. The need of amusement, which 
 could not be procured of a proper and pleasing kind in the times of 
 ignorance and bad taste, led to the adoption of so degrading a diversion. 
 The Court fool at this period had formerly belonged to the Prince de 
 Conde ; his name was l'Angeli. The Comte de Grammont said that of 
 all the fools who had followed Monsieur le Prince, l'Angeli was the only 
 
 BALLET OF THE GIANTS AND DWARFS AT THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV. 
 (From a print of the period.) 
 
 one who had made his fortune. This buffoon was not lacking in wit. It 
 was he who said that he " did not go to the sermon because he did like 
 to brawl at it, and did not know how to answer it." 
 
 Le Mariage Force was also played at the fete of 1664. But the 
 most admirable feature of the entertainment was the representation of the 
 three first acts of Le Tartufe. The King desired to see this masterpiece 
 even before it was finished. He afterwards protected it against the sham 
 devotees who moved heaven and earth to suppress it, and it will live, as 
 has already been said, "while taste and hypocrites exist in France." 
 
LOUIS XIV. — EQUESTRIAN STATUE BY GIRARDON FOR THE PLACE VENDOMK. 
 (From the reduction in bronze at the Musee du Louvre.) 
 
THE FETES 
 
 55 
 
 For the most part these brilliant festivities appeal to the eye and ear 
 only. Mere pomp and magnificence pass away into swift oblivion ; but 
 when masterpieces of art like Le Tartufe adorn such entertainments the 
 remembrance of them is eternal. 
 
 Several passages of the allegories by Benserade, which formed the 
 
 THE COURT IN THE ARC DE TRIOMFHE GROVE, VERSAILLES PARK. 
 (From a drawing of the period. — Musee de Versailles.) 
 
 setting of the ballets, are still remembered. I shall quote only these lines 
 written for the King, who represented the Sun — 
 
 Je doute qu'on le prenne avec vous sur le ton 
 
 De Daphne ni de Phaeton, 
 Lui trop arabitieux, elle trop inhumaine. 
 II n'est point la de piege oil vous puissiez donner : 
 
 Le moyen de s'imaginer 
 Qu'une femme vous fuie, et qu'un homme vous mene? 
 
 It must be said to the King's praise that the amusements which 
 brought taste, talent, and politeness to perfection in France, did not 
 turn him from the unremitting labour of government, without which 
 he would merely have held a Court becomingly, not reigned supremely 
 
56 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 well ; and if the magnificent pleasures of that Court had flouted the 
 poverty of the people they would have been odious ; but the same 
 man who gave these fetes gave bread to the people in the dearth 
 of 1GG2. He sent for com — which the rich were buying at a low 
 price — and gave it away to poor families at the gate of the Louvre ; he 
 remitted three millions of taxes to the people. No part of the internal 
 administration of the kingdom was neglected. His Government was 
 
 THE DETAILS OF A COUKTIEIl's ATTIRE. 
 (From a contemporary engraving. La Garde-robe des liommes.) 
 
 respected abroad. The King of Spain was obliged to yield precedence to 
 him ; the Pope was forced to make satisfaction to him ; Dunkirk was added 
 to France ; indeed all his actions, once the reins of power were in his own 
 hands, were either noble or useful ; after that he did well to give fetes. 
 
 +"+ 
 
 Voltaire's testimony to the care with which Louis XIV. governed his 
 kingdom in the midst of his pleasures is strictly true. He did this on 
 
THE KING TO THE DAUPHIN 
 
 57 
 
 THE KING S CHARITY. 
 (Medal by Manger, 1662.) 
 
 principles which he himself dictated at that epoch 
 as a rule of conduct for his son. 
 
 " Thenceforth I made it a rule to work twice a 
 day, even after dinner, at the despatch of ordinary 
 business, not failing to apply myself at any other 
 time to whatever might arise unexpectedly. 
 
 " I cannot tell you how fruitful I immediately 
 found that resolution. I felt my mind and my 
 courage elevated. I was quite different. I dis- 
 covered in myself that which I did not know, and I 
 reproached myself with joy for having been so long ignorant of it. The 
 first sense of timidity that comes with decision caused me pain, but it 
 passed off in less than no time. It seemed to me then that I was, and 
 was born to be, King. 
 
 " It may happen, my son, that you will begin to read these Memoirs 
 at an age when one usually fears rather than loves work, being too glad 
 to have escaped from subjection to teachers and masters, and to have 
 
 no more fixed hours, no more long and un- 
 certain application. Here I will only tell 
 you that it is always by work one reigns, 
 and there is ingratitude to G-od, injustice and 
 tyranny to men, in desiring the one without 
 the other. Those conditions of royalty, 
 which may sometimes seem hard and 
 
 A WRITING-TABLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH 
 CENTURY. 
 
 (Obtained from the Mobilier National. 
 Garde-Meuble Collection.) 
 
58 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 THE "CADENAS" OR TABLE DRESSING- 
 CASE OP LOUIS XIV. 
 
 (From a drawing in the Cabinet of Prints. — Cotte Collection.) 
 
 vexatious to you, would appear pleasant 
 and easy if it were a question of 
 attaining it." 
 
 Louis XIV. might urge this sound 
 and urgent lesson because he had begun 
 early to apply it to himself. " I am 
 aware," he adds, in revealing the secret of 
 his governing power to his son, " that I 
 dimmish by so much the only or almost the 
 only merit I can hope for in the world." 
 
 Posterity has acknowledged that merit in its entirety on the faith 
 of contemporaries who are above suspicion of flattery. 
 
 Saint-Simon reproaches Louis XIV. with his taste for details, but 
 really he praises him unintentionally. 
 
 " He examined into every particular concerning the troops : clothing, 
 arms, evolutions, drill, discipline, every sort of small detail. He busied 
 himself no less with respect to his buildings, his civil household, his 
 table expenses extraordinary. This was a loss of time to which the King 
 imputed the merit of assiduous application." 
 
 In minutely describing the daily routine of the King's life, Saint- 
 Simon shows how large a share of it was assigned to work : — 
 
 " At eight o'clock the first valet de cliamhre, who slept in the 
 King's room, and had dressed himself, awakened His Majesty. The first 
 physician, the first surgeon, and his nurse, so long as she lived, entered 
 at the same time. His nurse went to him and kissed him, the others 
 
 rubbed him, and often changed 
 his shirt. 
 
 " At a quarter past eight the 
 Grand Chamberlain and the Grand 
 Almoner were summoned and with 
 them came the grandes entrees. 
 The curtain, which had been re- 
 closed, was opened, and holy water 
 from the benitier at the head of the 
 bed was presented to the King. 
 
 FRAGMENT OF THE CLOCK IN THE KING'S CABINET AT THE ,, m1 rr"> t> , 1 TT 1 i 
 
 CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES. ^ ^ ^ Hol 7 Gll0St 
 
 (The work of Morand de Pontdevaux.) was then said, and the King 
 
THE KING'S MORNING HOURS 
 
 59 
 
 dressed. He did almost everything for himself, neatly and gracefully. No 
 dressing-table was within his reach ; only a looking-glass was held for him. 
 
 "The King then passed into his cabinet. He was either followed 
 thither by all who had the entree, or 
 he found them there. He then gave 
 the order of the day to each, 
 so that everybody knew almost 
 to a quarter of an hour what 
 the King would be doing." 
 
 The day's work began at 
 once, with audiences when 
 the King had granted them, 
 or when he wished to speak 
 to anybody, and with private 
 audience of the foreign en- 
 voys in presence of the 
 Minister. The King then 
 heard Mass ; his private choir 
 always sang a motet. During 
 Mass the Ministers assembled 
 in the King's chamber, where 
 distinguished persons might 
 speak with them. The King 
 allowed himself little leisure, 
 he summoned his Council 
 almost immediately after 
 Mass. 
 
 " The morning was ended. 
 The King was seen no more. 
 He remained with his Ministers. 
 
 " On Sunday a Council of 
 State was held, frequently on 
 Monday also ; on Tuesday a 
 Finance Council, on Wednesday a Council of State, on Saturday a Finance 
 Council. The ordinary dinner-hour was one o'clock; if the Council sat 
 longer the dinner waited. The King invariably dined alone in his room 
 at a square table set opposite the central window. 
 
 MARBLE STATUE OF LOUIS XIV., BY JEAN WARIN. 
 (In the Salon de Venus. — Musee de Versailles.) 
 
60 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 KNIFE, SPOON AND FORK USED BY LOUIS XIV. 
 (From a drawing in the Cabinet of Prints. — Cotte Collection.) 
 
 J 
 
 " On rising from table the King entered his cabinet immediately. 
 This was the time to have a few minutes speech of him. Then he went 
 out by the back way, down his private staircase into the 
 Marble Court, and got into his carriage. 
 
 " As he was hardly at all sensitive to either cold or 
 heat, or even to rain, only very bad weather indeed 
 prevented him from going out every day. He went out 
 with three purposes only ; to hunt the stag at least one 
 day in the week, but frequently more ; to shoot in his 
 parks ; and on the other days to visit and inspect the 
 work in progress in the gardens and the buildings. Then 
 there were occasional promenades with the Court ladies 
 and collations for them." 
 
 At ten o'clock His Majesty was " served." The King 
 always supped in state with the royal household. 
 
 We are bound to admire the clockwork order and 
 regularity of this daily routine, laid out for work rather 
 than for fetes and representation. Here is a detail to 
 the point : " Every day while the King is dressing, the 
 
 watchmaker 
 in his room 
 even the watch that 
 
 GOLD WATCH OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (From the Collection of M. Charles Rossigueux.) 
 
 comes to regulate the timepieces 
 and the other apartments, and 
 the King wears ; this he places on a 
 table in the cabinet. 
 
 " Nothing could be more exact 
 than the regulation of his hours 
 and days in the diversity of 
 places, business and amusements. 
 With an almanac and a watch 
 one might tell exactly what he 
 was doing three hundred leagues 
 away. He required great exact- 
 ness in his service, but he was 
 exact in it himself." 
 
THE KING'S DAY 
 
 61 
 
 GOLD WATCH-CASE OF THE SEVENTEENTH 
 CENTURY. 
 
 (From the Collection of M. Charles Rossigneux.) 
 
 Saint-Simon remarks on this point: "The benefit 
 to his service of the King's precision was incredible. It 
 imposed orderliness on everybody, and secured 
 despatch and facility in his affairs; while his 
 constant residence out of Paris caused a con- 
 tinual coming together of officials and persons 
 employed, which kept everything going, got 
 through more business, and gave more access to 
 Ministers and their various bureaux in one day 
 than would have been possible in a fortnight 
 had the Court been in Paris." 
 
 Spanheim confirms this eulogium, and the 
 foreigner is most 
 likely to be correct. 
 
 " He [the King] had at the same time, and 
 at so little advanced an age as twenty-three 
 years, great application to business, assiduity 
 at the councils, discretion in deliberation, 
 and firmness in the execution of formed 
 resolutions. He was assisted in 
 this by a naturally cool, calm tem- 
 perament which made him master of 
 himself and his impulses, and belongs 
 rather to a grave, serious and reserved 
 disposition than to a free, hearty and 
 open nature. By this he scattered 
 all the factions of the past, caused 
 the nobles to return to their duty ; 
 sovereign courts to dependence ; and 
 the people to their obedience. He 
 also removed the pretexts for dis- 
 order and disturbance formerly 
 urged against the Government. 
 
 " So that it may be gathered 
 from what I have just said that His 
 Majesty, without having a brilliant, 
 broad or enlightened intellect, has 
 
 CLOCK OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (From the Collection in the Mohilier National. — Chateau de Foutaineblean.) 
 
62 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 sufficient to fulfil the duties of a great King, that he is in his proper 
 place, that he can discriminate, and has discernment enough not to allow 
 himself to be taken in, and to do justice to merit where he finds it." 
 
 Facts testify, even more strongly than men, to the value set by 
 Louis XIV. on steady daily work and precise information. A striking 
 example of this was afforded in 1678 by the disgrace of Pomponne, the 
 Minister who had signed the Peace of Nimeguen, but forfeited the 
 friendship of the King by negligence at the full tide of his fortune. 
 Saint-Simon relates the occurrence as follows : — 
 
 " A courier, whose coming was impatiently expected, arrived on a 
 
 TOP OF A CHEST OF DRAWERS BY BOULE. 
 (From tlie Collection at the Mobilier National. — Chateau de Foutaineblean.) 
 
 Thursday evening. The marriage of the Dauphiness in Bavaria was the 
 affair in question, and the decision on the matter was to be conveyed by 
 this particular express. M. de Pomponne gave the despatches to be 
 deciphered — an affair of twenty-four hours — and told the courier not to show 
 himself. The man however, considering his employer first, delivered the 
 letters which he also carried to the family — no other than that of the 
 great Colbert — and the family imparted their contents to the King, who 
 was impatient to know what was being deciphered. Thursday evening, 
 the whole of Friday and Saturday, until five o'clock in the evening, 
 passed, and the despatches had not been received. The deciphered 
 
THE FALL OF POMPONNE 
 
 63 
 
 LOUIS XIV. — MARBLE BUST BY COYSEVOX. 
 (Musee lie Versailles.) 
 
 documents reached Pomponne at his country 
 house on Friday evening ; he started at ten 
 o'clock on Saturday evening, but he 
 was too late. On his arrival," says 
 Saint- Simon, " he found an order 
 from the King to send in his de- 
 spatches and his resignation, and to 
 return to Pomponne." 
 
 " The post that I gave him," says 
 Louis XIV., " was too great for 
 him. I suffered for years from his 
 weakness, obstinacy, and want of 
 application ; he has caused me con- 
 siderable losses. I have not profited 
 by all the advantages that I might 
 have had ; and all this from kind- 
 ness and compliance. I am obliged 
 
 to command him to retire because every- 
 thing that is done through him loses 
 magnitude and power. If I had made up 
 my mind to remove him sooner I should 
 have avoided the trouble that I have in- 
 curred, and I should not have to reproach 
 myself with complacence which has perhaps 
 been harmful to the State." 
 
 The other Ministers, especially the 
 chief among them, Colbert and Louvois, 
 who were competing with each other 
 for Pomponne's place, owed the King's 
 favour to their indefatigable attention 
 to business. 
 
 Spanheim, who did not like him, 
 bears the following testimony to 
 Louvois : — 
 
 " Such a post could hardly be filled 
 with greater vigilance and personal 
 attention to all that concerned and 
 
 AN ARM-CHAIR OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (From the Collection of Baron Jerome Pichon.) 
 
64 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 was related to it The habit of both which he had adopted in his youth, 
 gave him the facility that such a post demanded. He was also aided 
 by the strict order which he carried into the superintendence and the 
 expedition of the affairs of his department, into the selection of the clerks, 
 and into the distribution of the functions assigned to them according to 
 
 capacity, and each had to 
 render an account to himself. 
 It ensued from this regularity 
 and exactness that his own 
 toil was eased ; that nothing 
 was neglected ; and that those 
 who had to deal with him — 
 no small number — soon came 
 to know how they stood." 
 
 Colbert gives him similar 
 praise : " Luxury and diver- 
 sions were banished from his 
 dwelling that he might devote 
 himself entirely to a post of 
 such importance. Not content 
 to make himself acquainted 
 with the bulk of affairs and 
 then relieve himself of them 
 by means of the clerks, 
 (From the portrait by a. Lefebvre.) stewards, comptrollers, and 
 
 other people employed in the 
 business of finance, he chose to take the care of all upon himself alone, 
 to enter into all the details, receipts and expenses, and the supplying of 
 expedients for the future. He relied upon nothing but his own judgment 
 and capacity, the exact information which he took pains to acquire, 
 the regulations which he found it necessary to make, and lastly, the 
 correct private registers which he himself kept. Thus did he discharge 
 the duties of his post with indefatigable and unremitting labour and 
 application, in proportion to the needs of the State or the conjuncture 
 of affairs." 
 
 In a word, like master like ministers. This is the secret of the 
 greatness of the reign. 
 
THE KING'S AUDIENCES 
 
 65 
 
 A MEDAL BY FALTZ IN HONOUR OF THE KING S COUNCILS. 
 
 (1664.) Cardinal Chigi, 
 the legate d latere, who 
 was the nephew of 
 Pope Alexander VII., 
 afforded a novel spec- 
 tacle to the Court on 
 coming to Versailles in 
 the midst of all the 
 rejoicings to "make 
 satisfaction " to the King for the offence of the Pope's guards. 
 
 The honours paid to the legate emphasised the " satisfaction." He 
 received, under a canopy, the respects of the clergy, the superior courts, 
 and the civic corporations. He entered Paris under a salute of guns, 
 having the great Conde on his right and the Prince's son on his left, and 
 with all this parade he came to humble himself and the Pope before 
 a King who had not yet drawn the sword. After the audience he 
 dined with Louis XIV., and 
 everybody was solicitous to 
 make his mission as pleasant 
 as possible. 
 
 The Doge of Genoa was 
 afterwards entertained, with 
 lesser honours, but with the 
 desire to please which the King 
 always combined with the 
 haughtiest of his actions. 
 
 + + 
 
 The Doge of Genoa was 
 in fact a less important per- 
 sonage than the Pope's legate, 
 as may readily be conceived. 
 Nevertheless his presence at 
 Versailles was celebrated by one 
 of the most brilliant fetes of the 
 period. Le Mercure de France 
 of the 16th of March, 1685, 
 
 PYRAMID ERECTED IN ROME IN MEMORY OF THE SATISFACTION 
 MADE BY THE POPE TO LOUIS XIV. IN THE 
 CORSICAN MATTER. 
 
 K 
 
66 
 
 THE CENTURY OP LOUIS XIV 
 
 has preserved for us a detailed and precise description, enabling us to 
 reconstitute the beautiful exterior decoration of the Chateau of Versailles 
 at the most brilliant period of the reign of the Sun-King. 
 
 " Having ascended the magnificent staircase leading to the chief 
 
 apartment of His Majesty (the Ambassadors' 
 Staircase, no longer existing), in the left 
 wing of the chateau, visitors entered the 
 Salon de la Guerre, which joins the gallery 
 at the end, and from this salon they 
 turned into the gallery, beyond which 
 was the King, in the salon facing that 
 they had just passed through (the Salon 
 de la Paix). 
 
 " Two things are to be remarked, one 
 is that the apartment and the gallery were 
 magnificently furnished, and contained 
 several millions' worth of silver plate ; the 
 other is that the crowd was equally 
 numerous everywhere, although that 
 apartment and that gallery put together 
 could hold as many people as the largest 
 palace. Whatever pains had been taken 
 to leave free passage along the gallery, 
 the Doge had great difficulty in getting 
 through it. The Marechal Due de Duras, 
 Captain of the Guard, who had received 
 him at the door of the guard-room, 
 accompanied him to the foot of His Majesty's throne, which was of silver, 
 and raised two steps only. The Dauphin and Monsieur stood beside the 
 King, who was surrounded by all the princes of the blood, and those 
 among his great officers who have rank near his person in ceremonies of 
 this kind. 
 
 " So soon as the Doge came in sight of the King he uncovered ; he 
 then advanced a few steps and made two deep reverences to His Majesty, 
 the senators doing likewise. The King rose, and having acknowledged 
 these salutations by slightly raising his hat, made them a sign to 
 approach, beckoning them with his hand. 
 
 THE PRE-EMINENCE OF FRANCE ACKNOWLEDGED 
 BY SPAIN. 
 
 (Marble Vase by Coysevox. — Terrace, Versailles.) 
 
i 
 
 T * : 
 
 COMPOSITION BY LEBRUN, BAS-RELIEF BY COYSEVOX IN HONOUR OF LOUIS XIV. AS CONQUEROR. 
 " History registers his victories— Fame publishes them." 
 (Salon de la Guerre.— Chateau de Versailles.) 
 
KING AND DOGE 
 
 69 
 
 VASES AND DISHES OF GOLD AND SILVER FOR THE DECORATION OF THE APARTMENTS. 
 (From the picture of the baptism of the Dauphin by Christophe. — Musee de Versailles.) 
 
 " The Doge then ascended the first step of the throne, where he made 
 a third reverence. After this the King and the Doge resumed their hats, 
 and the speeches began." 
 
 To complete its picture of the pomp of this great event, the Mercure 
 gives a description of the ornaments in silver which were displayed 
 in the incomparable reception-room : " Eight silver portable stands with 
 four handles (brancards), bearing chandeliers, placed between four silver 
 orange-tree tubs on stands of the same metal, adorn the spaces between 
 the windows, and eight silver vases 
 occupy portable stands by the side of 
 the doors. Four tall gilded stands 
 in the corners support huge silver 
 candlesticks. Eight silver branched 
 candlesticks occupy the centre of 
 the glass windows." 
 
 Dangeau adds that porphyry vases 
 brought from Rome, little ships of finely 
 wrought alabaster, and silver ewers and 
 flagons in profusion formed part of the 
 
 rich decoration. silver portable stand (brancard). 
 
 TX7"L„j- „ , J? "1 ((From the picture by Lebnm and Seve of Louis XIV. 
 
 W Uat a Scene for Stately Ceremonial, aux ffoldms.-Musee de Versailles.) 
 
70 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 for audiences, for great Court or family events, or even for the King's 
 receptions on] v. which took place once a week, and were called les apparte- 
 ments. Saint Simon, who frequented these receptions at sixteen, says: — 
 
 " What was called appartement was the 
 assemblage of the whole Court from seven 
 o'clock to ten in the evening ; the King's 
 supper was served in the great apartment 
 extending from the Salon de la Paix to the 
 neighbourhood of the gallery of the chapel. 
 
 " First there was music, then tables set 
 out in all the rooms ready for all sorts of 
 games: lansquenet, at which Monseigneur [the 
 Dauphin] and Monsieur [the Due d'Orleans] 
 always played ; billiards — in short, entire 
 freedom to play with whomsoever one would, 
 and to call for tables if those already set were 
 occupied. Beyond the billiard table was a 
 room where refreshments were laid, and the 
 whole suite was brilliantly lighted. 
 
 "At first, when this order of things was 
 established, the King went there and played 
 for some time. In 1692 he left off doing 
 this, but he wished his courtiers to be 
 assiduous in their attendance, and everybody 
 was eager to please him." 
 The Mercure resumes : — 
 " The King permits the entree of his 
 grand appartement at Versailles on Monday, 
 Wednesday and Thursday in each week for 
 playing all sorts of games ; these days are 
 called jours d 'appartement. 
 
 " Each person admitted may walk about 
 in these superb apartments at the hour named 
 for the reception. No one presents himself 
 without knowing beforehand that the entree will be accorded. The choice 
 of games is free to everyone, and those who prefer to look on while 
 others play, or to stroll round and admire the assembly and the splendid 
 
 DOOR GIVING ACCESS TO THE AMBASSADORS 
 STAIHCASE IN THE KING'S APARTMENT. 
 (Chateau ile Versailles.) 
 
THE "GRANDS APPARTEMENTS " 
 
 71 
 
 A FIXED STOOL. 
 (Fiom a print in the Hennin Collectiou.) 
 
 salons, may do so at their pleasure. 
 Though the rooms be ever so full, none but 
 persons of high rank, both men and women, 
 are to be seen there. 
 
 "The King, the Queen and the whole 
 of the royal family lay aside their greatness 
 to take part in the play with several 
 persons in the assembly who have never had 
 a similar honour. The King goes now to 
 one table, now to another. It is his wish 
 that none shall rise or leave off playing at 
 his approach. After some time music strikes 
 up and those who like to dance may do so. Then the company resort to 
 the refreshment tables, where they find a collation and liqueurs, served 
 with incomparable elegance and readiness. The attendants wear blue coats 
 with gold lace. 
 
 " Whatever one can possibly desire among the pleasure-giving things 
 in these splendid rooms is supplied immediately on the indication of such 
 wishes. The attendants seem indeed to divine them, for they ptesent 
 the object on the instant." 
 
 The Mercure also describes the rooms set apart for the collations, 
 and more particularly for play. 
 
 The Salle de Venus, which now retains only the wall-decoration of 
 that period, was furnished with tables 
 bearing silver candlesticks and bas- 
 kets of silver filigree work of various 
 shapes. " Fresh fruits, lemons, oranges, 
 confectionery, and dried sweets of 
 every kind, were piled up in pyramids 
 in these baskets, and adorned with 
 flowers. As this collation was 
 only served to be consumed, it was 
 accessible during the four hours' 
 duration of les appartements." 
 
 The Salon de Mars had marble 
 galleries intended for the musicians ; 
 
 A FOLDING STOOL. 
 
 these have been removed. (F rom the Collection of Baron Jerome Plchon.) 
 
72 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 A GOLDEN EWER. 
 (Cartoon by Lebrun, Chateau de 
 
 SILVER VASE. 
 (Cartoon by Lebrau, Chateau de 
 
 • Six groups of silver figures, four statues, 
 and four ewers of the same metal, a foot and a 
 half high, adorn the two cabinets. Two oval 
 silver basins, four feet high and six 
 feet wide, bear vases two feet high, and 
 four pails of the same height go with 
 these. Four great ewers, six feet high, 
 
 are at the two angles Silver 
 
 dogs and vases adorn the chimney." 
 
 The Mercure says, in conclusion : 
 "It was said formerly, in exaggera- 
 tion of the facts, that laughter and 
 play were at Court ; but this was 
 only a manner of speaking : it is 
 only now they are really to be 
 found there. Besides, never before 
 
 FontaineMeau.— MtisSe de Versailles.) was so Splendid an abode made tor Madrid.— Musee de Versailles.) 
 
 them. Nothing is to be seen in the places destined for them but a 
 dazzling collection of riches and lights, multiplied a thousand times in as 
 
 many glasses, forming a perspective that sparkles like 
 fire, with a thousand things equally and even more 
 brilliant within it. 
 
 " Add to this the splendour of the Court in their 
 rich attire, and the lustre of the jewels worn by most 
 of the ladies." 
 
 The official journalist does not exaggerate. Madame 
 de Sevigne, while still under the first impression of all 
 this magnificence, has described the wonders of the 
 appartement where Dangeau reigned as the alter ego 
 of the King and his lieutenant at Court. This was in 
 1676, the most brilliant period of all, while Madame 
 de Montespan was in favour. 
 
 " I was at Versailles on Saturday with the Villars. 
 This was how it was. At three o'clock the King, the 
 Queen, Monsieur, Madame, Mademoiselle, Madame de 
 Montespan, the whole suite, all the courtiers, all 
 the ladies, in short what is called the Court of 
 
 SILVER ORANGE-TREE TUB 
 EMBELLISHED WITH GOLD 
 AND 1'RECIOUS STONES. 
 
 J(Cartoou by Lebrun, ('bateau des] 
 Tuileries. — Musue de Versailles.) 
 
THE ROYAL POMP 
 
 73 
 
 France come together in that 
 fine apartment which you 
 know. The furniture is 
 superb, everything is magnifi- 
 cent. No one feels too hot 
 there (in July) ; one passes 
 from salon to salon without 
 crowding anywhere ; the 
 
 players at 
 
 reversi 
 
 * form the 
 
 THE KING S FOOTMEN CARRYING THE COLLATION 
 ON A PORTABLE STAND. 
 
 (Cartoon by Lebrmi, Chateau des Tuileries. Series of The Seasons. 
 Musee du Louvre.) 
 
 centre of attraction. The 
 King is beside Madame de 
 Montespan, who holds the 
 card ; Monsieur, the Queen 
 and Mademoiselle de Soubise, Dangeau and Comtesse Langlee are 
 playing. I watched Dangeau playing, and I was amused to think what 
 fools we are beside him. He thinks of nothing but what he is doing, 
 and wins where others lose ; he neglects nothing ; he profits by every- 
 thing. His mind does not wander. In a word, his perfect skill 
 defies fortune. The hundred thousand francs in ten days, the hundred 
 thousand crowns in a month are all entered in his book of receipts. I 
 said that I was taking part in his game, so that I was given a very 
 comfortable and pleasant seat. I saluted the King ; he returned my bow 
 as though I were young and beautiful. The Queen talked to me of my 
 illness for a long time. Madame de Montespan talked 
 to me of Bourbon. . . . Her beauty is a surprising 
 thing. . . . She was dressed entirely in French 
 point, her hair dressed in a thousand 
 ringlets — in short, a triumphant beauty 
 to captivate all the ambassadors." 
 
 Madame de Sevigne describes else- 
 where a gown which had been presented 
 to the King's mistress by one of the 
 most ardent gamblers at Court, when in 
 the winning vein : "A gown of gold on gold, 
 embroidered in gold, bordered with gold, over 
 raised gold, and brocaded with one gold mixed 
 
 A BOAT OP GOLD AND LAPIS-LAZDLI, WITH 
 THE L.-L. INTERLACED. 
 
 An obsolete game of' cards. 
 
 (Cartoon by Lebrun. Louvre.) 
 
74 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 with a certain gold which makes the most divine stuff' that ever has been 
 imagined. The fairies have done this work in secret." 
 
 The Princess Palatine, who also knew how to observe and take notes, 
 
 although in a different manner, has pre- 
 served an exact record of the incomparable 
 splendour of these costumes, particularly on 
 days of high ceremonial. 
 
 " The crowd was so great that one had 
 to wait a quarter of an hour at each door 
 before getting in, and I had on a gown 
 and underskirt so horribly heavy that 
 I could hardly stand upright. 
 
 " My costume was of raised gold, 
 with black chenille forming flowers, 
 and my pearl and diamond set. 
 Monsieur wore a coat embroidered in sold 
 and various colours, and all covered with 
 precious stones. My daughter wore a gown 
 of green velvet embroidered in gold, the 
 open gown and the underskirt being entirely 
 trimmed with rubies and diamonds, as well 
 as the bodice ; the embroidery was so well 
 done that each rose seemed to grow from 
 the stuff. Her head-dress consisted of 
 several tokens in brilliants, bodkins with 
 ruby heads, and gold ribbon studded with 
 diamonds." 
 
 In those extraordinary days the King 
 and his family wore quantities of diamonds 
 and other precious stones. Again in 1714, 
 when he received the Ambassador of Siam, 
 Dangeau says : " The King chose a coat of black and gold stuff edged 
 with diamonds to the value of twelve millions five hundred thousand 
 livres, and the coat was so heavy that he changed it immediately after 
 his dinner. Besides the precious stones which he wore he had lent a 
 trimming of diamonds and pearls to the Due du Maine and a trimming 
 of coloured stones to the Comte de Toulouse ; the Due d' Orleans had a 
 
 ONYX VASE. 
 (Gallery of Mirrors: — Chateau tie Versailles.) 
 
THE ROYAL POMP 
 
 75 
 
 GOLD PERFUME -BURNER. 
 
 (After the picture by Halle, La Reception du Doge de Genes. 
 Musee de Versailles.) 
 
 blue velvet coat embroidered in pearls and 
 diamonds in a mosaic design that was much 
 admired." 
 
 When opportunities for the wearing 
 of these magnificent costumes arose, their 
 splendour made up for their cumbrous- 
 ness. These occasions were, as we have 
 seen, the audiences given to foreign 
 ambassadors, and marriages and births 
 in the royal family. 
 
 The Court in all this splendour 
 passed along the Gallery of Mirrors. The crowd of spectators was very 
 great, but good order was observed on the passage of the procession to 
 the chapel, and on its return by the staircase, the " appartement " and the 
 gallery. 
 
 This march past must have been a fine sight, and no less fine the 
 balls, or grand entertainments, which were given during the carnival. 
 
 " This winter," says the Mercure, " five balls extraordinary have been 
 given in [five different apartments in the Chateau of Versailles, all so 
 
 grand and so beautiful that no 
 other royal house in the world 
 could furnish so great a number 
 on so vast a scale. 
 
 " The entree is not open 
 except to masks, and few 
 persons ventured to present 
 themselves there without being- 
 disguised. As these disguises 
 are assumed for the purpose of 
 general amusement rather than 
 for a display of fine attire, and 
 everyone is so well dressed at 
 Court that they need nothing- 
 more than a mask worn with 
 their ordinary garments to 
 the princess palatine, duchesse d'orleans, mother appear in superb array, it was 
 
 of the regent. rWirlprl for tbp mnvp pffppfnnl 
 
 (From the portrait by Rigaud.— Musee de Versailles.) ucuucu iul bnc muie eiieCLUcU 
 
76 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 diversion of the company, that masks with grotesque costumes should 
 be worn. 
 
 " Some outlandish ones were displayed ; one did not know what to 
 call them because they were purely an effect of the imagination of the 
 inventors. In resuscitating the old fashions the most ridiculous were 
 
 chosen, and these were improved upon 
 until the dresses were made completely 
 absurd. Exaggeration was actually 
 extended to the use of trimmings of 
 porcelain that moved and sounded. 
 
 " The Dauphin having his dress 
 changed eight or ten times each evening, 
 M. Berain required all his talent to 
 furnish him with costumes, and all his 
 vigilance to get them made, so little 
 time was there between the balls. 
 The Dauphin particularly desired to 
 pass without recognition, so that every 
 sort of extraordinary device for dis- 
 guising him was resorted to, and 
 frequently it was impossible to guess 
 whether the masked figure was tall 
 
 or short, stout or thin. Sometimes 
 double masks were worn, and wax 
 masks so well made under a first mask, 
 that when the latter was removed the 
 bystanders took the former for the 
 natural face. 
 
 " Monsieur, who is always dressed 
 in good taste, has frequently appeared at these balls in ordinary attire, 
 but so magnificent and so becoming that nothing could be added to its 
 beauty and richness. At other times the Prince has worn the most amusing- 
 disguises and surprised everybody by their novelty." 
 
 This brilliant picture, which the Courts of Europe strove to copy, was 
 not without its shadows ; these — Voltaire has perhaps softened them too 
 much — did not escape the criticism of contemporaries, that of Saint-Simon 
 especially. 
 
 GROTESQUE MASKS AND COSTUMES FOR THE BALLET 
 OF 1682 AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 (Drawing and plan of execution by Berain, from a 
 MS. in the Versailles Library.) 
 
FfeTES AND GAMING 
 
 77 
 
 " He [Louis XIV.] loved splendour, magnificence, profusion in every- 
 thing. He turned this taste into a maxim, from policy, and wholly 
 inspired his Court with it. To rush recklessly into that splendour and 
 profusion in table expenditure, in dress, in equipage, in building and in 
 play, was to please the master : he would be certain to speak to the 
 persons who did this. There lay 
 at the bottom of it, however, 
 the fact that he kept them on 
 the stretch and exhausted their 
 resources by thus making 
 luxury an honour — for certain 
 parties a necessity — so that by 
 degrees they were reduced to 
 depend entirely on his bounty 
 for subsistence. His pride was 
 gratified by a Court superb in 
 every way, and by a great con- 
 fusion which increasingly tended 
 to efface natural distinctions. 
 
 " This was a sore which, 
 being set up, has since de- 
 veloped into the internal cancer 
 that is eating up private persons' 
 lives. It has spread rapidly 
 from the Court to Paris, to the 
 provinces and the army, where 
 men in place are of account only 
 in proportion to their table 
 and their display. It preys on 
 
 private people since its unfortunate introduction, by obliging those who 
 are in a position to steal to do so, for the most part from the necessity 
 of keeping up their expenditure ; and by the confounding of different 
 ranks in life, which are now maintained from pride, and even from 
 propriety, it is increasing, through the folly of the majority, with infinite ill 
 consequences, and tends to nothing less than general ruin and downfall." 
 
 This state of things was so real that one day Louis XIV. thought 
 he was ruined at play. " He had been playing high for a long time. 
 
 COSTUME FOR THE BALLET OF 1682 AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 (Drawing and plan of execution by Berain, from 
 a MS. in the Versailles Library.) 
 
78 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Madame de Montespan urged him on beyond measure. In one night lie 
 had lost several millions. He left the table towards the mornino; and 
 desired the players to remain, so that Madame de Montespan might recoup 
 him. On awaking he asked if he were still King. He learned with joy 
 that he had been recouped to within fourteen or fifteen hundred livres. 
 
 This escape cured him for the rest of 
 his life." 
 
 Play was the plague-spot of the 
 Court, where it was the chief occupation.* 
 " Here in France," says the Princess 
 Palatine, " so soon as the reception is 
 complete, everybody plays at lansquenet. 
 This is the most fashionable game. 
 They play for frightful sums, and the 
 players are like madmen ; one howls, 
 another hits the table so hard with his 
 fist that the blow resounds through the 
 whole room, a third blasphemes in a 
 way to make one's hair stand on end. 
 They all seem out of their senses, and 
 are frightful to behold." 
 
 The scandal supplied Bourdaloue 
 with a theme for one of his sermons. 
 "Play without measure and without 
 rules, which is no longer a diversion for 
 you but an occupation, a profession, a 
 traffic, a bond, a passion; indeed, if I 
 may venture so to speak, it is a madness 
 and a fury, and it has for its necessary 
 consequence, disorder in the household, waste of resources, the base 
 cheating and roguery that are caused by the love of gain, violent anger, 
 oaths and despair." 
 
 Bourdaloue might have summed up in one word — robbery, for stealing 
 
 * Among the games of that period several are obsolete. The complete list is as 
 follows : — Barrette, reversi, calbas, trou-madame (pigeon-holes), trente-et-quarante, tourniquet, 
 portique, la bete, le cadran de l'amieau tournant (invented by Louis XIV. in 1689), 
 hoca, brelan, lansquenet, chess, trictrac and dice. 
 
THE QUEEN'S GUARD'S HALL. 
 •(Chateau de Versailles.) 
 
STEALING MADE EASY 
 
 81 
 
 MASK BY B15RAIN. 
 (Ballet of 1682. 
 Versailles Library.) 
 
 was common in the palace, at play and elsewhere. " At the 
 rtement," says Dangeau, "a hundred louis were taken one day 
 from a cavalry officer. The King 
 caused a like sum to be given 
 to him." But the following is 
 still more surprising : " The last 
 time the King went to Meudon 
 he left his hat in his cabinet on 
 going to supper. In the hat 
 was a buckle worth a hundred 
 pistoles, and this was stolen 
 while he was at table. The 
 thief did not venture to take 
 the button, worth four thousand 
 pistoles, on which the brim was 
 looped up, judging that a 
 diamond of that size would be 
 recognised anywhere that an at- 
 tempt to sell it might be made." 
 It is fair to observe that stealing was made easy at the Court. The 
 Chateau was free of access to drapers, booksellers, perfumers and clock- 
 makers, who kept shop on the staircase-landings at Fontainebleau, Marly 
 and Versailles, and even to the beggars, who were so numerous that in 
 
 1700, Louis XIV. distributed fifty Suisses about the 
 precincts of the Chateau " to take up people who 
 begged and convey them to the 
 general hospital." 
 
 All this constituted, a sort of hotel 
 life, with much meanness underneath 
 it, and it was not even comfortable. 
 Those grand apartments, although 
 they were so magnificent and so well 
 adapted to Court pageantry, were very cold. 
 
 "It is so cold," writes the Princess 
 Palatine (whose experience does not, like 
 that of Madame de Sevigne, refer to 
 
 MASK BY BERAIN. 
 (Ballet of ] 682.— Versailles Library.) 
 
 MASK BY BERAIN 
 
 (Baiiet of i682.-versaiiies Library.) summer), " that at the King's table wine 
 
 MASK BY BERAIN. 
 (Ballet of 1682. 
 Versailles Library.) 
 
 M 
 
82 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 as well as water has frozen in the glasses. The immense seulptured fire- 
 places, adorned with slabs hearing the King's arms, are not sufficient. 
 Certain rooms, and in particular the reception apartments and the Gallery 
 of Mirrors, have not any " [fireplaces]. 
 
 Saint-Simon has given a masterly description of the ways of the 
 courtiers who came^to this royal hotel by the King's orders, to people it, 
 
 and to lose .their fortunes, their dignity and 
 their independence there. 
 
 " The frequent fetes and the promenades 
 at Versailles were means invented by the King 
 to distinguish or to mortify, by naming the 
 courtiers who were to be present each time, and 
 to keep up everybody's assiduity and eagerness 
 to please. He had not nearly enough favours 
 to bestow to create a continuous effect, and 
 therefore he substituted imaginary ones for 
 the real, working on the jealousy of the 
 courtiers by showing little preferences, 
 which he might artfully manifest 
 every day, indeed at every 
 moment, so to speak. No one 
 was more ingenious than he in 
 inventing the petty j)references 
 and distinctions which gave rise 
 to hopes, and invested the re- 
 cipients w T ith general consideration. 
 Marly was more useful to him 
 in the end [than Versailles], and 
 especially Trianon, whither every- 
 body in truth might go to play the courtier. But ladies had the honour 
 of eating with him, and were selected at each meal, and the candle- 
 stick used at his coucher was held by a person on whom he desired to 
 bestow distinction, chosen from among the most important of those present, 
 and named aloud when the King had finished his prayers. 
 
 " He looked right and left at his lever and at his coucher, at his 
 meals, on passing through the apartments, in his gardens at Versailles, 
 where only the courtiers were permitted to follow him : he observed 
 
 CHAIR THAT BELONGED TO THE M AHKCHALE DE VILLABS, 
 (One of six in the Collection of Baron Jerome Pichon.) 
 
THE KING'S FAVOUR AND ITS COST 
 
 83 
 
 everybody, no one escaped his notice, not even those who did not hope 
 for it. He immediately detected the absence of any persons who were 
 in the habit of appearing at Court ; he put together in his own mind the 
 particular and general causes of such absence, and did not let slip the 
 slightest opportunity of acting accordingly with respect to the defaulters. 
 It was a demerit on the part of some not to make 
 the Court their habitual residence, of others to come 
 thither but seldom ; but to come never, or hardly 
 ever, was to incur certain displeasure. When there was 
 a question of some favour for these he would answer 
 haughtily, " I do not know them." Of those who pre- 
 sented themselves but seldom he would say, " That is a 
 man whom I never see." These decrees were irrevocable. 
 It was also a crime not to go to Fontainebleau, for he 
 regarded that royal palace in the same light as Versailles ; 
 and it was also an injury to him that certain persons 
 did not ask [permission] for Marly. Above all he could 
 not endure the people who liked Paris. 
 
 " A word, a look from the King, who was not lavish 
 of either, was precious, and attracted attention and envy. 
 King everywhere, at every moment King, he kept all 
 breathless and in fear, and by luxury and 
 war he almost reduced the nobles, great and 
 otherwise, to living on his bounty only." 
 
 La Bruyere has summed up the 
 grievances of those dukes and peers who 
 regretted the degradation of the nobility, in 
 the following plain, dry, moralist's formula : 
 " Show and luxury in a sovereign is the shepherd dressed in precious 
 stones, with a golden crook in his hands, his dog wears a golden collar, 
 
 A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY CANDLESTICK. 
 (Guerin Collection.). 
 
 and is held in a leash of gold and silk. 
 
 What avails so much gold to 
 
 his flock, or against the wolves ? " 
 
 The entire chapter " De la Cour " in his famous " Caracteres " is a picture 
 of the Versailles society of the period. La Bruyere paints the courtiers to 
 the life, their passions, their calculations, and their petty ambitions. 
 
 " The Court is like an edifice built of marble : I mean to say that it 
 is composed of men who are very hard, but highly polished. 
 
S4 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 " It is a country in which joy is visible but false, and grief is 
 hidden but real. Who could believe that the eagerness for spectacles of 
 all kinds, the applause of Moliere and Harlequin at the theatres, feasting, 
 hunting, ballets and tournaments cover up so much disquiet and care, so 
 many conflicting interests, so many fears and hopes, passions so strong, 
 and affairs so serious ? " 
 
 Then come the " Lettres Persanes," that first sample of an inimitable 
 satirist, the best criticism of all upon the seamy side of things at Versailles, 
 and the vices hidden beneath its splendour — the " Asiatic outside," as 
 Saint- Simon said. 
 
 "There is talk of a region in which old men are still gallant, urbane 
 and polite ; the young, on the contrary, are hard, rough, without manners 
 or politeness ; having rid themselves of the passion for women at the 
 age when it usually begins to be experienced, they prefer the ridiculous 
 in their repasts, their viands, and their loves. According to them, he who 
 gets drunk on wine only is sober and moderate ; their too frequent use 
 of it has rendered it insipid to them. They seek to revive their extinct 
 taste by brandy and the strongest liqueurs ; their debauch stops short at 
 aqua fortis only. The women of that country hasten the decline of their 
 beauty by tricks which beautify them as they believe ; their custom is to 
 paint their lips, their cheeks, their eyebrows and their shoulders, which 
 they display, together with their busts, their arms and their ears. They 
 who inhabit that country have a countenance which is not clear, but 
 blurred, encumbered by a mass of false hair — and this they prefer to their 
 own — making a long web that covers the head, comes half way down 
 the body, changes the features and prevents men from being known by 
 their faces. Those people have besides their god and their king. The 
 great persons of the nation assemble every day at a certain hour in a 
 temple which they call 'church.' At the far end of this temple there is 
 an altar consecrated to their god, where a priest celebrates mysteries which 
 they call holy, sacred and awful. The great personages form a w r ide circle 
 at the foot of this altar and remain standing, their backs turned to the 
 priest and the sacred mysteries, and their faces raised towards the king, 
 who is to be seen kneeling in a gallery, and on whom all their hearts and 
 minds seem to be fixed. A due subordination is thus manifested, for 
 these people seem to adore the prince, and the prince to adore God. The 
 people of the country name it ; it is about forty-eight degrees of 
 
COURTIERS 
 
 87 
 
 elevation from the Pole, and more than eleven 
 hundred leagues of sea from the Iroquois and the 
 Hurons." 
 
 We arrive later at the conclusion of Taine : 
 " Pompous parade has replaced efficacious action, the 
 seigneurs are merely pretty ornaments ; they are no 
 longer useful ornaments ; they ' represent ' round 
 about the King, who also £ represents,' and contribute 
 their persons to the scenery and stage effect." 
 
 It must be admitted that the scenery and stage 
 effect were successful, and that since the fetes of 
 the Italian Renaissance, nothing more magnificent 
 had been seen. 
 
 GOLDEN VASE. 
 
 (From a cartoon by Lebruu, 
 Palais Royal. Series of 
 The Seasons. — Musee de 
 Versailles.) 
 
 All this gave an air of grandeur to the Court 
 of Louis XIV. which eclipsed the other Courts of 
 Europe. He desired the prestige which attached 
 to his person to be reflected on all that surrounded 
 him ; that all the great should be honoured, but that none should be 
 powerful, beginning with his brother and Monsieur le Prince. With this 
 purpose in view he settled the old quarrel of the Peers with the Presidents 
 of Parliament in favour of the former. 
 
 To distinguish his principal courtier.' 
 invented blue jackets embroidered in 
 gold and silver. Permission to wear 
 these was esteemed a great favour by 
 men whose lives were ruled by vanity, 
 and it was craved for as though the 
 conferring of an Order had been in 
 question. It may be observed, since 
 small details are in question, that 
 jackets were then worn over a doublet 
 adorned with ribbons, and that a 
 baldrick, from which the sword hung, 
 was passed around the neck over the 
 
 1 j- ITT • 1 1 ,1 • . < A MANTEL SLAB IN THE SALON d'hERCULE. 
 
 lacket With this costume went a ..... . _ .„ „ 
 
 •> (Chateau de Versailles.) 
 
88 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 FRAGMENT OF THE WOODWORK AND THE CARVED FRAME OF THE PANELS OF THE KING'S ROOM 
 IN THE CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES. 
 
 falling lace cravat and a hat with two rows of feathers. The fashion, 
 which lasted until the year 1G84, was adopted all over Eurojie, with the 
 exception of Spain and Poland. The great world almost everywhere piqued 
 itself on imitating Louis XIV. 
 
 He established a Household Order, which still exists, regulated ranks 
 and functions, created new offices about his person — for instance, that of 
 Grand Master of the Wardrobe. He re-established the tables instituted by 
 Francois I., and augmented them. There were twelve for the officers' 
 
 mess, served with as much 
 elegance and profusion as those 
 of many sovereigns ; he desired 
 that strangers should all be 
 invited — -an attention that was 
 continued during the whole of 
 his reign. There was another 
 still more polite and rare. 
 When the Kino- had the 
 pavilions of Marly built in 
 1. 679, the ladies found that a 
 complete toilet equipage was 
 provided for each in her apart- 
 ment ; nothing requisite for 
 convenience or luxury was 
 omitted ; every member of the 
 " voyage" as these Sittings from 
 palace to palace were called, 
 might entertain in her own 
 rooms, and the repasts were 
 
 THE COSTUME OF A LIEUTENANT OF THE KINGS GUARD. 
 
 CEashioii prim by Bonnatt.) !IS elegantly served as the 
 
THE KING'S LIBERALITY 
 
 89 
 
 master's. These small things are precious only when they are backed up 
 by great things. In everything that he did generosity and splendour were 
 displayed. On the marriage of the daughters of his Ministers, the King 
 made each a present of two hundred thousand francs. 
 
 + 
 
 t i 
 
 Spanheim enables us to complete this picture of the Court of France 
 
 THE TOILET OP A LADY OP QUALITY. 
 (From an engraving by Saint-Jean.) 
 
 under Louis XIV., and the expenditure which it implied, by some inter- 
 esting details. He particularly admires the manner of the ordering of the 
 Court and the expenses. 
 
 " Under the present reign," he writes, " there is a great deal of 
 order and economy in the management of the household expenditure 
 
 N 
 
90 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 A LADY OF QUALITY AT HER TOILET : MARY ANNE STUART, 
 QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 
 (After a print by Bonuart.) 
 
 in the midst of the glitter and 
 parade. An effort lias been 
 made to remedy at their source 
 the confusion that existed in 
 the administration of the 
 finances under the past reign, 
 and under the minority and 
 early years of the present, and 
 which caused the funds destined 
 for, or that ought to have been 
 applied to the ordinary main- 
 tenance of the King's Court, 
 his tables, his officers, and other 
 regular requirements, to be 
 turned aside to other uses by 
 the extravagance or ill-con- 
 duct of Superintendents and 
 Treasurers of the State Funds, 
 who took advantage of their 
 
 office to keep up their own 
 luxury and expense. This con- 
 fusion having been .reformed 
 since the imprisonment of the 
 late M. Fouquet, and by the 
 order into which M. Colbert 
 brought the finances, enabled the 
 same order to be re-established 
 in the provision required for the 
 King's household, and for all 
 that was necessary to the main- 
 tenance of economy and the 
 display of magnificence at the 
 same time. 
 
 " Care was taken that both 
 should have their share in the 
 providing of the King's tables, 
 
 I ^luste out Grrpj 
 dejiamt/ie Couleur de 
 Frtnce . 
 
 la. Vej-te OMSsy lojiaiLe tpx£ 
 ie Iiufie oil Ccrr-pj dertode 
 "" I'LinirJic cjarnie de — 
 ^tg^cLenteite cru paint . 
 ~ tour de rnancfi£ — 
 douite . 
 
 1 dentelle. . 
 Le Baudr-ier cbjuns — 
 titanc et des arans — 
 fleurans brod&r de ia. 
 Cmleur de ihatnt . 
 
 A COURTIER IN SUMMER HABIT. 
 (From a Print of the time.) 
 
THE PALACE TABLES 
 
 91 
 
 His Majesty's in the first place, afterwards that of the Grand Master, 
 presided over by the Captain of the Guard, and those of the Grand 
 Chamberlain, the first Maitre d'Hotel to the Queen, and the first Maitre 
 d'Hotel to the Dauphine, without mentioning other inferior tables. These 
 are all maintained at the King's expense, and do honour to the Court, 
 while they are very agreeable to certain courtiers who are held in 
 consideration, and who generally find their place at them. 
 
 " We may number among the principal tables of the Court that of 
 
 RECEPTION BY THE KING AT VERSAILLES OP THE KNIGHTS OP THE ORDER OP SAINT-LOUIS. 
 (Musee de Versailles. This sketch of the begmmiig-of the jeigu of Louis XIV. exactly represents the King's Chamber.)] 
 
 the Dauphin's governor, the Due de Montausier, those of the governess 
 of the children of France, the Marechale de la Motte, the lady-in-waiting 
 on the Queen, and the present lady-in-waiting on the Dauphine ; 
 she is the Duchesse d'Arpajon. These personages maintain their tables 
 with money which the King gives them for this purpose and also to 
 do honour to the Court, according to the more or less method which 
 each of them brings to the task. All these circumstances contribute 
 not a little to the grandeur of a royal Court and the convenience of 
 the courtiers. 
 
 " The grands seigneurs and courtiers who frequent the Chateau are 
 
92 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 for the most part, and with the exception of a 
 very small number, such as the Prince de Conde, 
 dependent almost entirely on the King's bounties 
 and the salaries of their various posts." 
 
 While he admires the order, the tine ruling of 
 the Court, " which serve as instruction and example 
 to the rest of the kingdom and to foreign Courts," 
 Spanheim adds certain criticisms which Voltaire 
 tried to refute. He reproaches Louis XIV. with 
 his avarice. 
 
 " Although he was lavish in his own case," says 
 Saint-Simon, " and even gave great gifts, he was by no 
 means liberal, and he said himself that he took that from 
 his House and from all the Bourbons. He entered into 
 
 the smallest items of his 
 
 CRESSET IN BRONZE, BY LEHONGRE, IN THE "BOSQUET." 
 (Oardeni of Versailles.) 
 
 A GOLD EWER. 
 
 personal expenses, and as (Fl . om the cartoon by Lew 
 
 . , i • i Chateau lie Madrid. Series 
 
 he liked every kind 0 f z« saisons.— Mnsee de 
 
 1 Versailles.) 
 
 of detail, and the 
 
 most minute, he thought this was 
 
 doing great things." 
 
 To Spanheim belongs the credit of 
 l having discovered the secret motives of 
 i the gifts of Louis XIV. He gives us 
 a very curious study of royal 
 psychology : " As he is more in- 
 clined to make himself regarded by 
 his people as a master than as a 
 father, he is better pleased with 
 their submission than with their 
 liking, and he is not touched by 
 any real desire to relieve them. So 
 it may be said that though he loves 
 to give he loves better to amass ; 
 that his beneficence or his liberality 
 is generally interested ; that he gives 
 as much, or even more, from osten- 
 tation as from choice. Thus it is 
 
SPANHEIM ON THE KING'S LIBERALITY 
 
 93 
 
 that he is equally fond of show and saving ; that there often is profusion 
 where there might be economy, and too much of the latter where liberal 
 spending would be more to the purpose. We have only to reflect to see 
 this : on the one hand the eighty millions that the chateau, the gardens, 
 and the waterworks of Versailles cost him, on the works in progress on 
 the Maintenon aqueduct, at which more than thirty thousand men have 
 
 LOUIS XIV. RECEIVING, WITH THE PBINCESS PALATINE AND MADAME DE MAINTENON, THE ELECTORAL PRINCE 
 
 OF SAXONY AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 
 (From a painting by Louis Silvestre at Versailles. A replica is in the palace at Dresden.) 
 
 been employed for three years ; on the other hand the poverty of the 
 lower classes and of the country people, exhausted by taxes, the billeting 
 of soldiery upon them, and the excise and salt duties." 
 
 One unexampled act of generosity won for Louis XIV. his greatest 
 renown in Europe. The idea suggested itself to him in talking with the 
 Due de Saint- Aignan, who told him that Cardinal Richelieu had sent 
 
94 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 presents to some learned foreigner who 
 had praised him. The King did not wait 
 until he had been praised ; but, being- 
 sure of meriting eulogium, he directed his 
 .Ministers, Lyonne and Colbert, to select a 
 number of Frenchmen and foreigners, dis- 
 tinguished in literature, to be recipients 
 of tokens of his generosity. Lyonne having 
 written to foreign countries and learned as 
 much as he could in this very delicate 
 matter — for it involved the giving of 
 preference to contemporaries— a list was 
 at first made of sixty persons ; some 
 
 LOUIS XIV. CONVERSES WITH THE MUSES. 
 
 (Allegorical print by S. Leclerc.) 
 
 NEW DEVICE IN HONOUR OF THE SUN-KING. 
 
 of these had pensions, others 
 presents, according to their 
 rank, their needs, and their 
 merit. (16G3.) Allacci, the 
 librarian of the Vatican ; Count 
 Graziani, Secretary of State 
 to the Duke of Modena ; the 
 famous Viviani, mathematician 
 to the Grand Duke of Tuscany; 
 Vossius, the historiographer of 
 the United Provinces ; Huygens, 
 the celebrated mathematician ; 
 a Dutch resident in Sweden ; 
 lastly, even to professors of 
 Altdorf and Helmstadt, towns 
 almost unknown to the French, 
 were astonished to receive 
 letters from M. Colbert, by 
 which he informed them that, 
 although the King of France 
 was not their sovereign, he 
 begged them to allow him 
 to be their benefactor. The 
 terms of these letters were 
 measured by the dignity of 
 
RIGHT 
 
 ROYAL 
 
 MUNIFICENCE 
 
 95 
 
 the persons, and all were accompanied either by considerable gratuities 
 or pensions. 
 
 Among Frenchmen, Eacine, Quinault and Flechier — afterwards 
 Bishop of Nimes, then quite young — were distinguished ; they received 
 gifts. It is true that Chapelain and Cotin had pensions, but it was chiefly 
 Chapelain whom Colbert had consulted. These two men were not un- 
 deserving, much as their poetry was cried down. Chapelain was deeply 
 read in literature, and, however 
 surprising the statement may 
 appear, he had good taste, and 
 was a highly accomplished critic. 
 There is a great distance between 
 all this and genius. Learning 
 and intellect lead an artist but 
 do not in any sense make him. 
 None in France had more 
 reputation in their respective 
 day than Ronsard and Chape- 
 lain ; but we were barbarians 
 in the time of Ronsard and had 
 hardly emerged from barbarism 
 in that of Chapelain. Costar, 
 the fellow-student of Balzac and 
 Voiture, called Chapelain the 
 first of the heroic poets. 
 
 Boileau had no share in 
 these donations. He had 
 hitherto produced satires only, 
 and we know that in his satires 
 he attacked the very same learned persons whom the Ministers had con- 
 sulted. Some years afterwards the King marked him out for distinction 
 without consulting anybody. 
 
 The presents made to foreigners were so considerable that Viviani 
 had a house built at Florence with the money given to him by Louis XIV. 
 On the front was inscribed in letters of gold, " iEdes a Deo datse," an 
 allusion to the surname of " Dieu donne' " which the voice of the people 
 had bestowed upon Louis at his birth. 
 
 THE MOST CHRISTIAN HERCULES. 
 (Allegorical print in praise of Louis XIV.) 
 
96 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 It is easy to imagine the effect which this extraordinary munifi- 
 cence produced in Europe ; and if we consider all the subsequent 
 memorable acts of the King, the most severe and hard to please 
 of critics might tolerate the immoderate eulogy that was lavished upon 
 him. France was not the only country in which his praises were 
 sung. In twelve different cities of Italy the panegyric of Louis XIV. was 
 pronounced. This was true homage, not rendered under pressure 
 of fear or impulse of hope. The Marchese Zampieri conveyed it to 
 the King. 
 
 He never ceased to bestow his patronage upon Art and Letters. 
 We have evidence of this in his gratuities to Racine, amounting to nearly 
 four thousand louis, in the prosperity of Despreaux and Quinault, and 
 especially that of Lulli and all the artists who devoted themselves to 
 his service. He gave a thousand louis to Benserade to enable him to 
 have the line-engravings of his " Metamorphoses d'Ovide en rondeaux " 
 executed. This was liberality misapplied, and proves only the King's 
 generosity : in reality it was his way of rewarding Benserade for his very 
 moderate ballets. 
 
 Several writers have attributed the patronage of the Arts by Louis 
 XI V T . and his munificence, to Colbert alone ; but the Minister's only 
 merit in the matter was his support of the taste and generosity of his 
 master. Colbert, who had a real genius for finance, commerce, navigation 
 and general policy, had not the taste and elevation of mind of the King, 
 to whose views he lent himself zealously indeed, but he did not inspire 
 him with that which is a gift of nature. 
 
 All this considered, we do not see on what foundation certain writers 
 have based the accusation of avarice against Louis XIV. A prince who has 
 property absolutely independent of State revenues may be avaricious 
 like a private individual, but a king of France, who is in reality only 
 the dispenser of money that belongs to his subjects, cannot be tainted 
 by the vice of avarice. Perception, and readiness to reward may be 
 wanting in him, but these are faults with which Louis XIV. cannot be 
 reproached. 
 
 At the very time when he encouraged all the talents by so many 
 bountiful deeds, he severely punished the use made by the Comte de 
 Bussy of his abilities. Bussy was sent to the Bastille in 1665. The pretext 
 was "Les Amours des Gaules"; the real cause was the song in which the 
 
FOE, A SONG 
 
 97 
 
 King was too plainly indicated, and which was revived in order to 
 ruin Bussy, to whom it was imputed — 
 
 Que Deodatus est heureux 
 De baiser ce bee amoureux, 
 Qui d'une oreille a l'autre va ! 
 Alleluia ! 
 
 LOUIS XIV. TEACHES THE DAUPHIN TO PATRONISE ARTS AND LETTERS. ALLEGORICAL CONCERT 
 OF THE MUSES TO THE ROYAL FAMILY. 
 
 (From an Almanac of the period, 1667.) 
 
 The works of Bussy were not good enough to compensate for the harm 
 which they did him. He spoke his language purely ; he had a certain amount 
 of talent, but a greater amount of conceit, and he only made enemies by 
 his cleverness. The King would have acted generously if he had pardoned 
 
 o 
 
98 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 him ; but lie avenged a personal wrong while seeming to yield to the 
 public outcry. The Comte de Bussy was however released at the end 
 of eighteen months ; but he was deprived of his official employment 
 and remained in disgrace all the rest of his life, making vain protests 
 of attachment to Louis XIV., in which neither the King nor any other 
 person believed. 
 
 MEDAL STRUCK ON THE OCCASION OF 
 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, 
 1667. 
 
(Heading by C'bauveau 
 
 THE ARMS OF THE KING 
 
 from the Recueil des courses 
 From the illuminated copy 
 
 BORNE BY THE LOVES. 
 
 de tHes et de bague?, from 
 iu the Versailles Library.) 
 
 the Imprimeiie Eoyale. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE REIGN AT ITS APOGEE: 
 THE MANNERS AND HABITS OF THE KING AND THE COURT. 
 
 V 
 
 OUIS XIV. would gladly have added the charm 
 of friendship to the glory, grandeur, pleasure 
 and gallantry which occupied the early years of his 
 reign ; but it is difficult for a King to make a 
 fortunate choice of friends. Of two men in whom 
 he placed entire confidence, one basely betrayed him, 
 the other abused his favour. The first was the 
 Marquis de Vardes, the confidant of the King's 
 relations with Madame de La Valliere, whose position 
 indeed naturally created jealousy, but whose dis- 
 position ought to have preserved her from enmity. 
 The Marquis de Vardes was induced by Court 
 intrigues to endeavour to work her ruin. In concert 
 with the Comte de Guiche and the Comtesse de 
 Soissons, he ventured to forge a letter to the Queen, 
 purporting to come from the King of Spain, her 
 father, by which the Queen was informed of facts 
 that she ought not to have known, and which could 
 not fail to disturb the peace of the royal family. In addition to this 
 perfidious deed he basely threw suspicion upon the most upright persons of 
 
 GROUP OP CHILDREN IN 
 THE ALLEE D'EAU. 
 (Gardens of Versailles.) 
 
100 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 the Court, the Due de Navailles and his wife (1665). These two innocent 
 individuals were sacrificed to the resentment of the deluded monarch. 
 The atrocity of the conduct of Vardes was too notorious, but, criminal 
 as he was, Vardes hardly underwent a more severe punishment than his 
 falsely accused victims, who were compelled to resign their places and 
 retire from Court. 
 
 The other favourite was the Comte (afterwards Due) de Lauzun, 
 sometimes the King's rival in his transient loves, sometimes his confidant, 
 and afterwards notorious for his marriage with Mademoiselle, which he 
 wanted to contract too publicly, and did afterwards effect secretly, in spite 
 of his pledged word to his master. 
 
 The King, thus deceived, declared that he had sought for friends and 
 
 THE COLONNADE OF THE LOUVRE, ELEVATION OF THE PRINCIPAL FRONT. 
 (Front and plan, from the designs of Claude Terrault, 1665.) 
 
 had found schemers only. This unfortunate knowledge of men, which we 
 acquire too late, led him to utter the historic saying, " Each time that I 
 give away a vacant place I make a hundred malcontents and one ingrate." 
 
 During the war of 1667 the pleasures of the Court, the embellishment 
 of the royal dwellings in Paris, and the business of the internal policy of 
 the kingdom were not interrupted. 
 
 The King danced in the ballets until 1670. He was then thirty-two 
 years old. The tragedy of Britannicus was acted before him at Saint- 
 Germain, and he was struck by these lines — 
 
 Pour toute ambition, pour vertu singulicre, 
 
 II excelle a conduire un char dans le carriere; 
 
 A disputer des prix indignes de ses mains ; 
 
 A se donner lui-meme en spectacle aux Romains. 
 
 Thenceforth he danced no more in public : the poet had reformed 
 
LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE 
 
 101 
 
 the Prince. His attachment to Madame de La Valliere still continued 
 notwithstanding his infidelities. He always returned to her whose sweet- 
 ness, gentleness, and kindly nature had retained their charm for him ; 
 but from 1669 she perceived that Madame de Montespan was surely gaining 
 ascendency. This she contested indeed, but with her habitual gentle- 
 ness. She bore the pain of witnessing her rival's triumph for a long 
 time, and she hardly complained, regarding herself as still happy, in her 
 grief, to be " considered " by the King, and to see him although he no 
 longer loved her, 
 
 A NOCTURNAL FETE ON THE GRAND CANAL AT VERSAILLES IN 1674. 
 (From a print by Israel Silvestre.) 
 
 At length, in 1675, she sought the refuge of tender souls and deep- 
 feeling hearts. God alone could console the stricken and penitent woman. 
 Her conversion was as celebrated as her attachment ; she became a 
 Carmelite nun in a Paris convent of that Order, and she persevered. The 
 severity of the rule of Saint Teresa did not deter the delicate woman 
 accustomed to so much grandeur, ease, pleasure and adulation. She lived 
 in the practice of that austere rule from 1675 into the year 1710, under 
 the name of Sceur Louise de la Misericorde. 
 
102 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Voltaire's pity for Mademoiselle de La Valliere has been shared by all 
 contemporaries. Such was the effect upon all who approached her of her 
 brave and dignified retirement, and probably also of her charming nature. 
 She reminded the Court of the fair and gracious Princess Henrietta of 
 England, whose untimely death was one of the calamities of the reign. 
 
 Spanheim writes of Louise de La Valliere as follows : " She inspired 
 the King with the strongest affection of which he was capable, although 
 
 her birth and her beauty were 
 alike middling, and she was not 
 clever. She won and kept that 
 affection by her gentle and 
 thoughtful air, by a remarkable 
 refinement of feeling and dispo- 
 sition, by the strife of modesty, 
 which was natural to her, with 
 the real and strong attraction 
 that she felt towards the 
 King. That tender and reci- 
 procal, though not legitimate 
 attachment, accompanied by all 
 the precautions which it de- 
 manded and inspired, gave rise 
 to the King's retirement to 
 Versailles, and afterwards to 
 the diversions and fetes galantes 
 which were invented in compli- 
 ment to the passion of a king 
 in love. It lasted for nearly 
 two years in all its ardour, until it gave place to the King's new fancy 
 for Madame de Montespan. Mademoiselle de La Valliere — who sincerely 
 loved the King for himself alone, and apart from that weakness, and the 
 unfortunate position into which it had thrown her, had natural honour and 
 modesty — struck to the heart by her lover's inconstancy, was converted by 
 the trial, and, notwithstanding all the obstacles which the King himself 
 interposed, and her affection for her two children, she abandoned the Court 
 and the world with resignation and firmness of mind of which there are 
 few examples." 
 
 MADEMOISELLE DE LA VALLIERE. 
 (By Jean Nocret. — Musee de Versailles.) 
 
LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE 
 
 103 
 
 The beauty of Mademoiselle de La Valliere has been disputed ; for 
 instance by that worthy magistrate d'Ormesson, who was almost indignant 
 at the bad taste of the King. " This young lady did not appear hand- 
 some to me," he writes. " She has fine eyes and a good colour, but she 
 is skinny, her cheeks are hollow, her mouth and teeth are ugly, the end 
 of her nose is thick, and her face is long." Another adverse but anony- 
 mous critic, records his judgment thus : " What is this person like who has 
 taken so firm a hold of the 
 heart of so proud and splendid 
 a king ? She is of middle 
 height, very slender ; she does 
 not walk well because she is 
 lame ; her complexion is a pale 
 blonde, marked with small- 
 pox ; brown eyes ; her mouth is 
 large, rather red, the teeth not 
 good, no bust, flat arms, which 
 do not say much for the rest of 
 her figure." 
 
 On the other hand there 
 is nothing but praise for 
 her kind heart, her sweetness, 
 her gracious ways. The 
 author changes his tone 
 here: "She has a great 
 heart, firm, generous, disin- 
 terested, tender, loyal. She 
 
 MADEMOISELLE DE LA VALLIERE AS DIANA. 
 (From an anonymous painting in the Musee de Versailles.) 
 
 is sincere 
 
 and faithful, free 
 from all coquetry. She loves her friends Math incomparable warmth." 
 
 The Princess Palatine, who was not tender towards vice, was 
 disarmed by her. 
 
 "Her glance had a charm that one cannot describe. She had a good 
 figure but bad teeth. I thought her eyes even finer than those of Madame 
 de Montespan. She had a slight limp, but it was not unbecoming to 
 her." This sweet woman is the subject of one of the prettiest portraits 
 the Abbe de Choisy has given us. 
 
 " She was not one of those perfect beauties whom one may often 
 
104 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 admire without liking them. She was very amiable, and the line by La 
 Fontaine, ' Et la grace plus belle encore que la beaute,' might have 
 been written for her. She had a beautiful complexion, fair hair, a sweet 
 smile, a look so tender and yet so modest that it won love and esteem 
 
 from the first moment. She had no ambition, no views, 
 e bent on thinking of the object of her 
 pleasing him, preferred honour to all 
 xposed herself more than once to death 
 rather than let her frailty be suspected. 
 Sweet-tempered, generous, shy, she never 
 forgot that she was doing ill, and hoped 
 always to return to the right way." 
 
 She has however depicted herself 
 more faithfully than her admirers could 
 have portrayed her, at the moment when 
 she broke with Louis XIV. and with 
 the world. 
 
 " You fear for me, and you are 
 right, for I am still here. What would 
 you have ? I am weakness itself, and 
 yet I am striving to get out of peril, 
 perhaps too feebly. I say it to my 
 shame, but I assure you it is sincere, 
 and with the intention that it shall be 
 soon. 
 
 " I am in despair at having made 
 so little advance, and you could not cry more shame on me than I 
 on myself. I am however more determined than ever, and if I were 
 offered all the great things in the world I would not exchange the mere 
 desire to be a Carmelite for the possession of them. I hold by only a 
 thread now. Help me, I pray you, to break it ; scold, threaten, treat me 
 harshly. I have only one step to make, but I have feeling ; and they were 
 right who told you that Mademoiselle de Blois [her daughter] has inspired 
 me with much. I must speak to the King ; that is all my pain. Ask God to 
 give me the strength that I shall need on that occasion. It is not leaving 
 the Court for the cloister that costs me dear, but speaking to the King, 
 that is my punishment. I show myself to you such as I am ; do not love 
 
 A RELIQUARY SAID TO HAVE BEEN PUT TOGETHER 
 BY MADAME DE LA VALLIERE. 
 (From the collection of Baron Jerome Pichon.) 
 
THE SUCCESSFUL RIVAL 
 
 105 
 
 me less for that, I entreat you, and let your pity do on my behalf what 
 my esteem does on yours. (Versailles, 8th February, 1674)." 
 
 MADAME DE MONTESPAN. 
 (By Netscher and V. Meurs.) 
 
 The following anecdote, related by Voltaire, is testimony more indirect 
 borne by Mademoiselle de La Valliere to herself. It is eloquent and 
 sincere. 
 
 p 
 
106 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS 
 
 XIV 
 
 When the death of the Due de Vermandois, her son by Louis XIV., 
 was announced to Sceur Louise de la Misericorde she said, " I ought to 
 weep for his birth still more than for his death." A daughter remained 
 to her, who bore a stronger resemblance to the King than any other of 
 his children, and who married Prince Armand de Conti, nephew of the 
 great Conde. 
 
 O 
 
 Meanwhile the Marquise de Montespan comported herself as favourite 
 
 "ALCESTE," BY MOL1ERE, ACTED BEFORE THE KING IN THE MARBLE COURT OF THE 
 CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES, 1G74. 
 (From a print by Lepautre.) 
 
 with parade and imperiousness that contrasted strongly with the modesty 
 and gentleness of her predecessor in the royal favour. 
 
 During the competition between these two widely different women 
 for precedence in the heart of the King, love affairs were all the fashion 
 at Court. Even Louvois was in the mode, and Madame Dufresnoi, the 
 object of his affections, was made bed-chamber woman to the Queen, and 
 had the grandes entrees. The King showed favour to the failings of his 
 Ministers in order to justify his own. 
 
 A striking example of the power of prejudice and custom exists in 
 the fact that all the married women were permitted to have lovers, but 
 
LA GRANDE MADEMOISELLE 
 
 109 
 
 the granddaughter of Henri IV. was not allowed to have a husband. 
 Mademoiselle, after having refused many sovereigns, after having hoped to 
 marry Louis XIV., wished, at forty-four, to make the fortune of a mere 
 gentleman. She obtained permission to marry Puyguilhem, of the name 
 of Caumont, Comte de Lauzun, the last who was captain of one of the 
 two companies of the hundred 
 gentlemen with billhooks (bec- 
 de-corbin) — which no longer 
 exist — and the first for whom 
 the King created the military 
 rank of colonel-general of the 
 dragoons. There were numer- 
 ous instances of princesses who 
 had married gentlemen. The 
 Roman Emperors gave their 
 daughters to senators ; the 
 daughters of Asiatic sovereigns 
 more powerful and despotic 
 than a king of France always 
 have to marry their fathers' 
 slaves. 
 
 Mademoiselle gave all 
 her possessions, estimated at 
 twenty millions, to the Comte 
 de Lauzun — four duchies. She 
 kept nothing for herself, but 
 yielded entirely to her 
 cherished idea of making the fortune of the man she loved on a grander 
 scale than any king had ever made the fortune of any subject. The 
 contract was drawn up, nothing but the signature was wanting. All 
 was ready, when the King, persuaded by the representations of the Princes 
 and Ministers, all enemies of a too-fortunate man, broke his word and 
 forbade the alliance. He had written to the foreign Courts to announce the 
 marriage ; he now wrote to communicate its breaking-off. He was blamed 
 for having sanctioned it ; he was blamed for having prohibited it. He wept 
 over the grief of Mademoiselle ; but the same prince who with tears broke 
 his word to her, had Lauzun confined in the prison-fortress of Pignerol, 
 
110 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 in November 1670, for having married privately the princess whom he 
 had given him permission a few months before to marry in public. Lauzun 
 
 was imprisoned for ten whole years. 
 
 Those who have maintained that Madame de Montespan, after she had 
 prevented the marriage, exacted this cruel vengeance from Louis XIV. in 
 her anger with the Comte de Lauzun for his outspoken reproaches, have 
 done the King a great wrong. There would have been both tyranny and 
 
 cowardice in sacrificing a brave 
 man and a favourite, whom 
 he had already deprived of the 
 highest favours of fortune, to 
 the wrath of a woman, had his 
 only offence been that he com- 
 plained too bitterly of Madame 
 de Montespan. This rectifica- 
 tion is due to the rights of 
 humanity. Louis XIV. never 
 did anything in the whole of 
 his reign to justify such an accusation against him. It is enough that a 
 clandestine marriage which he w T ould more wisely have ignored was punished 
 so heavily. The withdrawal of his favour was very just ; imprisonment 
 was too severe. 
 
 Those who have doubted this marriage have only to read the 
 "Memoires de Mademoiselle" attentively. Those Memoirs reveal what she 
 does not say. We find that the same princess who complained to the King 
 so bitterly of the breaking-off of her marriage, did not venture to complain 
 of the imprisonment of her husband. She acknowledges that she was 
 believed to be married ; she does not say that she was not ; and were 
 there no other evidence, her own words, " I neither can nor ought to 
 change towards him," would be decisive. Lauzun and Fouquet were much 
 surprised to meet each other in the same prison, but especially Fouquet, 
 who, having seen Puyguilhem, a mere country gentleman without fortune, at 
 a distance in the crowd in the days of his own fame and power, believed 
 him to be mad when he stated that he had been the King's favourite, and 
 had received permission to marry the granddaughter of Henri IV., with 
 all the property and titles of the House of Montpensier. 
 
 After ten years' imprisonment Lauzun was released, but not until 
 
LAUZTJN RELEASED 
 
 113 
 
 Madame de Montespan had induced Mademoiselle to give the dominion 
 of Dombes and the countship of Eu to the Due du Maine (then a child), 
 who possessed both after the death of the Princess. She made this 
 donation in the hope that the Comte de Lauzun would be recognised as her 
 husband, but she was mistaken. The King allowed her to bestow on this 
 secret and impecunious consort only her lands of Saint-Fargeau and Thiers, 
 with a considerable income, 
 which Lauzun regarded as in- 
 sufficient, in addition. She was 
 reduced to the condition of beino; 
 secretly his wife, and not being 
 well treated by him in public. 
 Unhappy at Court, unhappy in 
 her home, she died in 1693. 
 
 The Comte de Lauzun went 
 to England in 1688. Extra- 
 ordinary adventures were this 
 man's destiny. He escorted 
 Mary of Modena, the wife of 
 King James II., of England, 
 and her infant son, to France ; 
 he was made a duke, he held a 
 command in the Jacobite army 
 in Ireland with but little dis- 
 tinction, and returned with a 
 better reputation for his 
 adventures than for personal 
 
 character. He died in very old age, and forgotten, like all those who 
 have only great events in their history, but have not done great things. 
 
 MADAME DE MONTESPAN AS IRIS. 
 (From an anonymous painting in the Musee de Versailles.) 
 
 What a strange figure in the pictures of the time is this Gascon 
 younger son, who induced such a king as Louis XIV. to submit to all 
 his freaks ; this hero of romance, and sometimes of burlesque romance, in 
 a strictly-regulated Court and age. Saint-Simon has portrayed him with 
 spiteful sprightliness : — 
 
 " He was a little man, insipidly fair, well-built, with a haughty 
 
114 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 countenance full of intelligence, a striking but not an agreeable face, 
 according to what I have heard said by people of his time ; full of 
 ambition, caprice and fancies ; jealous of all, always striving to pass the 
 winning-post, never content with anything ; unlettered, without any charm 
 of wit, naturally morose, solitary, unsociable ; very lofty in his manner, 
 malicious and envious by nature, jealous and ambitious, nevertheless a 
 good friend when he was a friend, which was seldom, and a loyal kinsman ; 
 merciless to faults, ready to find out and expose them to ridicule, 
 extremely brave and also recklessly daring. A courtier equally insolent, 
 scornful, and supple, even to cringing servility, and full of resource, 
 industry, intrigue, and baseness in order to gain his ends ; dangerous to 
 Ministers as well, dreaded at Court by all, and given to cruel pointed 
 darts [of speech] which spared no one. 
 
 " He had come to Court young without any money, a Gascon 
 younger son — landed from his province under the name of Puyguilhem. 
 The Marechal de Grammont, his father's cousin-germane, took him to his 
 house. He was then in the highest favour at Court, and in the 
 confidence of the Queen-mother and Cardinal Mazarin ; he had the 
 regiment of Guards, with the reversion for the Comte de Guiche, his 
 eldest son, the pet of the Court and the ladies, and one of the foremost 
 in the good graces of the King, and also of the Comtesse de Soissons, 
 who was queen of the Court, and from whose side the King was rarely 
 absent. The Comte de Guiche introduced Puyguilhem there, and he 
 became in a very short time a favourite with the King, who created 
 the post of colonel of dragoons for him. 
 
 "The Due de Mazarin, who had already retired from Court in 1G69, 
 wished to resign his post as ({rand Master of Artillery. Puyguilhem was the 
 first to get wind of this, and asked the King for the appointment. The 
 King promised it, but under an injunction of secrecy. No announcement 
 was made, and Puyguilhem, after long waiting, being unable to guess the 
 origin of the mischief, resorted to an expedient so daring that, if it had 
 not been attested by all the Court of that period, it would be incredible. 
 He induced a waiting-woman to hide him in a room in the apartment of 
 Madame de Montespan ; from her conversation with the King he learned 
 that the opposition to his appointment came from Louvois. 
 
 " He was more fortunate than wise, and escaped discovery. When 
 Madame de Montespan came out, on her way to the theatre, where a 
 
LAUZUN SENT TO THE BASTILLE 
 
 115 
 
 ballet was to be rehearsed before the King, the Queen, and the whole 
 Court, Puyguilhem offered his hand, and asked her with an air of the 
 utmost respect and amiability, whether he might flatter himself that she 
 had deigned to speak for him to the King. She assured him that she had 
 not failed to do so. He drew nearer, and speaking into her ear, told her 
 she was a liar, a hussy, a jade, and repeated word for word the conversation 
 between herself and the King. Madame de Montespan was so overcome 
 that she had not strength to answer 
 by even a single word, and could 
 hardly gain the place she was going 
 to ; indeed on reaching the scene of 
 the rehearsal she fainted. 
 
 " Puyguilhem, on his side, 
 furious at the loss of the artillery, 
 espied an opportunity for a tete-a- 
 tete with the King and seized it. 
 He addressed him boldly, summoning 
 him to redeem his promise. The 
 King replied that he was not bound- 
 to do so, as he had given his word 
 under a pledge of secrecy, which 
 had been violated. On this Puy- 
 guilhem retired a few steps, turned 
 his back to the King, drew his 
 sword, broke the blade with his 
 foot, and exclaimed in a fury that 
 he would no longer serve a prince 
 who had so shamefully belied his 
 promise. The King, although in a 
 transport of anger, did what was perhaps the finest action of his life. He 
 turned instantly, opened the window, flung his cane out, said that he should 
 be sorry to have struck a man of quality, and walked away." 
 
 Lauzun was sent to the Bastille ; he came out Captain of the Guard. 
 In 1670 " the King, wishing to make a triumphal journey with the ladies, 
 gave the command of the whole affair to the Comte de Lauzun, with the 
 patent of a general. He fulfilled his task with much intelligence and 
 extreme gallantry and magnificence." His marriage with Mademoiselle 
 
 LOUIS XIV. IN ARMOUR, WITH THE RIBBON OF THE 
 ORDER OF SAINT-LOUIS. 
 
 (Anonymous portrait in the Musee de Versailles.) 
 
1 16 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 brought about a fresh quarrel between him and the King, and was not 
 happy. I have been told by Madame de Fontenelles, a clever and amiable 
 woman, very sincere, and of singular worth, that when she was at 
 Fontainebleau with Mademoiselle, M. de Lauzun came to spend some 
 time, and gave his w T ife reason for jealousy. Mademoiselle in a fit of 
 anger scratched his face and drove him from her presence. Madame de 
 Fiesque effected a reconciliation between them. Mademoiselle appeared at 
 one end of the gallery, he at the other, and he shuffled along the whole 
 
 length of it on his knees to 
 her feet. Scenes more or less 
 resembling these occurred after- 
 wards. 
 
 " He got weary of being 
 beaten, and in his turn beat 
 Mademoiselle soundly. This 
 happened several times, so that 
 at last, being tired of each 
 other, they quarrelled once for 
 all and never met again. 
 
 " He had perfect health 
 under a false appearance of 
 delicacy. He dined and supped 
 heartily every day on the best 
 and most delicate fare, eating 
 of everything, feast day or fast 
 day, according to his taste, 
 louis-auguste de Boi RBON, duc du MAi.Ni:. and with no discretion. On 
 
 (From a print by Hieu ami Lepautre.) . _ 
 
 one occasion, when he timed 
 with me after an illness, he ate so much fish, vegetables, and all sorts of 
 things, and could not be prevented, that we sent to his house in the 
 evening to inquire whether he had not suffered severely. He was found 
 at table, eating with excellent appetite." 
 
 i 
 
 The Marquise de Montespan was all powerful from the beginning of 
 the foregoing incidents. 
 
 Athenais de Mortemart, wife of the Marquis de Montespan, the 
 
THE MORTEM ART SISTERS 
 
 117 
 
 Marquise de Thianges, her elder sister, and her younger, for whom 
 she obtained the Abbaye de Fontevrault, were the handsomest women 
 of their time, and all three possessed intellectual gifts as well. The 
 Marechal Due de Vivonne, their brother, was one of the best read men 
 of the Court. It was to him that the King said one day, " But what 
 good does reading do ? " The Due de Vivonne, who was portly and 
 rosy-cheeked, replied, " Reading does for the mind what your partridges 
 do for my cheeks." 
 
 These four persons were universally admired for a singular talent in 
 
 A STATE COACH OF THE TIME OF LOUIS XIV. 
 (Henniu Collection.) 
 
 conversation, a mingling of humour, simplicity and refinement which was 
 called Vesprit des Mortemart. They all wrote with peculiar ease and 
 grace, a fact which proves how absurd is the story I have heard repeated 
 even yet, that Madame de Montespan was obliged to have her letters 
 written by Madame Scarron, and that the rivalry between them, in which 
 the latter was successful, arose from that cause. 
 
 Madame Scarron, afterwards Madame de Maintenon, possessed, it is 
 true, more of the cultivation that is acquired by reading ; her conversation 
 was more smooth, more insinuating. Art embellishes nature in her letters, 
 and their style is very elegant. But Madame de Montespan had no 
 occasion to borrow anybody's talent, and she was the King's favourite long- 
 before Madame de Maintenon was even presented to her. 
 
118 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 + 
 
 T + 
 
 Everybody at the Court praised the wit of Madame de Montespan, even 
 as Voltaire did, but all were afraid of it. " She was," says Saint-Simon, 
 " censorious and capricious, with much humour and a haughty superiority 
 from which no one was exempt, the King no more than any other. The 
 courtiers avoided passing under her windows, especially when the King 
 was with her. They said it was like being riddled with shot (passer par 
 les armes), and the saying became a proverb at Court. It is true that she 
 spared none, though frequently with no other purpose than to amuse the 
 King, and as she had infinite wit and facility, nothing was more dangerous 
 to its objects than the ridicule in which she excelled. With all this, 
 however, she loved her people and her kin, and did not neglect to serve 
 those whom she regarded with friendship. 
 
 " The Court of Madame de Montespan became the centre of the real 
 Court, the source of pleasure, fortune, the hopes and fears of ministers and 
 generals, and also of the humiliation of France. It was also the centre of 
 a particular kind of wit so keen and delicate, natural, and agreeable that 
 its character was unique. 
 
 " That charming and simple ' turn ' is still to be found among persons 
 brought up in the households of the Mortemart sisters, and who were 
 attached to them ; these may be recognised among a thousand in the most 
 ordinary conversation. 
 
 " Mademoiselle de Fontevrault (the Abbess) was the most witty of the 
 three, and probably the most beautiful. She was also highly and variously 
 informed, well versed in patristic theology, thoroughly acquainted with the 
 Scriptures, and learned in the classic languages. In the discussion of such 
 matters she always excelled her hearers. 
 
 " But, apart from this, although her intelligence could not be hidden, 
 she would not have been supposed to possess more learning than the 
 generality of her sex. She excelled in every kind of writing, and had a 
 special gift for the government of her Order and for making herself 
 beloved in it, while keeping it under strictest rule. 
 
 " Mademoiselle de Thianges domineered over her two sisters, and even 
 over the King, whom she amused more successfully than they. So long 
 as she lived she ruled him, and was treated with the greatest attention 
 and exceptional observance, even after Madame de Montespan had finally 
 retired from Court." 
 
A ROYAL PROGRESS 
 
 119 
 
 The triumph of the Marquise de Montespan was openly manifested 
 during the royal progress in Flanders in 1670. The ruin of the Dutch 
 was arranged in that journey, which was a continuous fete conducted with 
 the utmost pomp. 
 
 The King, who made all his military journeys on horseback, used a 
 glass coach on this occasion for the first time — post-chaises were not yet 
 invented. The Queen, Madame, and Madame de Montespan also occupied 
 
 that superb equipage, and when Madame de Montespan went out alone she 
 had two of the bodyguards at each door of her coach. Then came the 
 Dauphin with his suite, and Mademoiselle with hers. This was before the 
 fatal adventure of her marriage ; she had a peaceful share in all these 
 triumphs, and rejoiced to see her lover, the King's favourite, at the head of 
 his company of the Guards. The. finest furniture in the Garde-Meuble was 
 sent on in advance to the towns where the royal procession halted for the 
 night, and in each a masked or fancy ball was given, or a display of fireworks. 
 
 The whole of the King's military household accompanied, and the 
 whole of his domestic household preceded or followed him. The tables 
 
120 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIY 
 
 were laid as at Saint-Germain. The Court visited all the conquered 
 cities in this style. The principal ladies of Brussels and Ghent came to 
 behold the magnificent spectacle. The King invited them to his table 
 and made them presents; all the officers of the troops in garrison received 
 gratuities. On several occasions the cost of gifts amounted to fifteen 
 hundred louis-d'or a day. Madame, who had arranged for the alliance of 
 the two kings and the destruction of Holland, embarked at Dunkirk on 
 one of the ships belonging to the fleet of King Charles II., her brother, 
 with some members of the French Court. Madame was attended by 
 Mademoiselle de Keroual (de la Querouaille), afterwards Duchess of Ports- 
 
 A TABLE OF THE TIME OK LOUIS XIV. 
 
 (Mobilier National. — Chateau ile Fontainebleau.) 
 
 mouth, whose beauty equalled that of Madame de Montespan. No woman 
 has ever retained her beauty longer. We saw her when she was close upon 
 seventy ; her face, which had not faded with age, was still noble and pleasing. 
 
 Madame went to meet her brother at Canterbury, and came back in 
 all the glory of success. She was enjoying this when a sudden and painful 
 death removed her on the 30th June, 1070. The grief and consternation 
 of the Court were much increased by the mode of her death. It was 
 reported that the Princess had been poisoned. The English Ambassador 
 (Karl of Montagu) was persuaded of this, the Court did not doubt it, and all 
 Europe believed it. One of the former servants in the household of Monsieur 
 named to me the person who (according to him) had administered the poison. 
 :i This man," he said, " who was not rich, retired immediately afterwards 
 
THE DEATH OF MADAME 121 
 
 to Normandy, where he bought an estate, and he lived long there in 
 opulence. The poison," he added, " was diamond-powder, strewn on straw- 
 berries instead of sugar." 
 
 " The Court and the town believed that Madame had been poisoned 
 by chicory-water, as, after drinking some, she suffered terribly, and 
 
 CHIMNEY BACK AND DOGS OP THE TIME OF LOUIS XIV. 
 (Chateau de Fontainebleau. — Salon Francois l or .) 
 
 death-convulsions came on quickly. There was however no reason for this 
 general belief except human malignity and the love of the extraordinary. 
 The water could not have contained poison, seeing that Madame de 
 Lafayette and another person drank what remained in the glass without 
 feeling the slightest inconvenience. Diamond-powder is no more a poison 
 than coral-powder. Madame had been ill for a long time from abscess in 
 
 R 
 
122 THE CENTURY- OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 the liver ; she was very unhealthy, and had given birth to a shockingly 
 diseased child. Her husband, who was strongly suspected in Europe, 
 was not even accused of any black deed, either before or after this event, 
 and criminals who have committed only one crime are rare. The human 
 race would be too wretched were it as common to do atrocious things 
 as it is to believe them. 
 
 It was alleged that the Chevalier de Lorraine, a favourite of Monsieur, 
 
 who had been, imprisoned and exiled in 
 consequence of some culpable conduct of 
 his towards Madame, had taken this terrible 
 method of revenge. No attention was paid 
 to the fact that the Chevalier de Lorraine 
 was then in Kome, and that it is very 
 difficult for a Knight of Malta, aged twenty, 
 to procure from Eome the death of a 
 great princess in Paris. 
 
 To a weakness and an indiscretion of 
 the Vicomte de Turenne the origin of all 
 these odious rumours, which are even yet 
 revived with apparent pleasure, must un- 
 happily be traced. At sixty years of age 
 he was the lover and the dupe of Madame 
 de Coetquen, as he had been of Madame 
 de Longueville. He revealed the state 
 secret, which was kept from Monsieur, to 
 that lady ; she told it to the Chevalier de Lorraine, with whom she was in 
 love, and he informed Monsieur. This gave rise to the bitterest reproach 
 and jealousy in the prince's domestic life, and before Madame went on her 
 mission to England there was considerable trouble, which was redoubled on 
 her return. Monsieur's fits of passion and the quarrels of his favourites 
 with Madame's friends made his house a scene of confusion and misery. 
 A short time before her death Madame reproached Madame de Coetquen 
 in gentle and moving terms with the unhappiness she had caused. The 
 Marquise, kneeling by the side of her bed and shedding tears upon her 
 hand, replied in these lines from Venceslas — 
 
 J'allais . . . j'etais . . . l'amour a sur moi taut d'empire . . . 
 Je me confonds, Madame, et ne puis rien vous dire. 
 
 THE VICOMTE DE TURENNE. 
 
 (Portrait sketih by Lebrnu. 
 Mnsee de Versailles.) 
 
THE REQUIEM MASS FOR MADAME. 
 (From a print by Lepautre.) 
 
A POISON PANIC 
 
 125 
 
 The Chevalier cle Lorraine, who originated the dissension, was at first 
 sent by the King to Pierre-Bncise ; the Comte de Marsan, of the House 
 of Lorraine, and the Marquis (afterwards Marechal) de Villeroi were exiled. 
 The natural death of the unfortunate Princess was popularly believed to 
 be a crime committed in consequence of those measures. 
 
 The public were unfortunately in the suspicion of foul play by the 
 fact that about this time the crime of poison began to be known in 
 France. That cowardly kind of vengeance, which had not been practised 
 in the horrors of the civil war, by a singular fatality broke out in 
 France in the era of glory and pleasure, at a period which softened and 
 
 THE LOVES WEEPING AROUND THE COFFIN OF HENRIETTA OF ENGLAND. 
 (Composition by Lepautre, June 30, 1665.) 
 
 refined the national manners, even as it crept into Rome in the 
 palmiest days of the Republic. 
 
 Two Italians, one of them was named Exili, had been occupied for 
 a long time, in company with one Glaser, a German, in seeking what 
 is called the philosopher's stone. The two Italians lost the little that 
 they had, and endeavoured to repair their misfortune, which was due to 
 their folly, by crime. They sold poisons secretly. 
 
 The Grand Penitentiary of Paris learned through the confessional that 
 some deaths by poison had taken place, and he informed the Govern- 
 ment in general terms of the fact. The two Italians were suspected 
 and sent to the Bastille, where one of them died. Exili was kept in 
 prison without being convicted, and from thence he spread throughout 
 
12G 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Paris the secrets that cost the Civil Lieutenant d'Aubray and his family 
 their lives, and led to the institution of the court for the investigation of 
 poisoning cases, called La Chambre Ardente (Star Chamber). 
 
 These dreadful crimes had their origin in love. The Marquis de 
 Brinvilliers, whose wife was the daughter of the Civil Lieutenant, received 
 into his house a captain in his regiment named Sainte-Croix. The 
 
 Marquise acknowledged to her husband 
 that she found their handsome guest 
 very attractive ; but he persisted in 
 throwing her constantly into the society 
 of Sainte-Croix, and an intrigue was the 
 result. The Civil Lieutenant was so 
 severe and so imprudent as to solicit a 
 lettre de cachet, and to have the Captain 
 sent to the Bastille instead of having 
 him sent to his regiment. Unfor- 
 tunately Sainte-Croix was placed in the 
 same room with Exili. The Italian 
 taught him a sure mode of vengeance, 
 with the well-known terrible results. 
 The Marquise did not take the life of 
 her husband, who, knowing himself to 
 be much to blame, had treated her with 
 indulgence ; but in her thirst for 
 revenge she poisoned her father, her 
 two brothers, and her sister. In the 
 midst of all these crimes she practised 
 her religion, going frequently to confession ; and when she was arrested 
 at Liege a general confession, written by her own hand, was found. This 
 did not furnish proof against her, but it did furnish presumptive 
 evidence. It is untrue that she had made trial of her poisons in the 
 hospitals, as the people said, and as it is stated in " Causes Celebres," a 
 work written by a lawyer without clients, and made up for the people ; 
 but it is true that she and Sainte-Croix had secret dealings with persons 
 who were afterwards accused of poisoning crimes. She was burned in 1676, 
 having previously been beheaded But the crime of poisoning infected 
 Paris from 1670, when Exili began to make poisons, until 1680. 
 
 THE CIVIL LIEUTENANT D AUBRAY, FATHER OF 
 MADAME DE BHIN VILLI EHS. 
 (Portrait from life by Nanteuil.) 
 
LA VOISIN 
 
 127 
 
 Voisin, Vigoureux, a priest named Le Sage and others trafficked 
 in the secrets of Exili, under the pretext of amusing curious and weak- 
 minded persons by producing apparitions. The crime was believed to be 
 more wide-spread than it really was. The Star Chamber was established 
 
 THE PORTRAIT, THE CRIMES, AND THI3 SORCERIES OF LA VOISIN. 
 (A popular print, February 22, 1680.) 
 
 at the Arsenal, near the Bastille, in 1680. The greatest personages were 
 cited thither, among others two nieces of Cardinal Mazarin, the Duchesse 
 de Bouillon, and the Comtesse de Soissons, mother of Prince Eugene. 
 
 The Duchesse de Bouillon was summoned merely as a matter of form, 
 and accused of no worse than foolish curiosity, too general at the time, 
 but not an affair of justice. The old custom of consulting soothsayers, 
 
128 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 having horoscopes drawn, and employing love-philters and charms was 
 still retained among the people, and even among the first personages of 
 the kingdom. 
 
 We have already remarked that at the birth of Louis XIV. Morin, 
 the astrologer, had been brought into the very room of Anne of Austria 
 to draw the horoscope of the heir to the crown. We have seen the 
 Due d'Orleans, Regent of France, prying into the imposture that bewitched 
 the whole of the ancient world ; and all the philosophy of the celebrated 
 Comte de Boulainvillers failed to cure him of that delusion. It was 
 very pardonable in the Duchesse de Bouillon and the other ladies who 
 shared the prevalent weakness. Le Sage and the two women, Voisin and 
 
 Vigoureux, made an income 
 out of the curiosity of the 
 ignorant, who were very 
 numerous. They predicted the 
 future, they called up the devil. 
 If they had stopped there they 
 would have appeared in the 
 Star Chamber as objects of 
 ridicule only. 
 
 La Reynie, one of the 
 presidents, was so ill advised 
 as to ask the Duchesse de 
 Bouillon whether she had seen 
 the devil. The Duchess replied that she was looking then at him ; that 
 he was very ugly, and disguised as a Councillor of State. The examination 
 proceeded no farther. 
 
 The affair of the Comtesse de Soissons and the Marechal de Luxembourg 
 was more serious. Le Sage, Voisin, Vigoureux, and other accomplices were 
 in prison, charged with having sold poisons which were called " La Poudre 
 de Succession " ; they accused all who had come to consult them. The 
 Comtesse de Soissons was one of these. The King condescended to say 
 to the Princess that he advised her to retire if she knew herself to be 
 guilty. She replied that she was innocent, but that she did not like being 
 examined by a court of justice. Subsequently she withdrew to Brussels, 
 where she died at the close of 1708, when her son Prince Eugene avenged 
 her by his many victories and his triumph over Louis XIV. 
 
SORCERY 
 
 129 
 
 Francois Henri de Montmorenci-Boutteville, duke, peer and Marshal 
 of France, who united the great name of Montmorenci to that of the 
 imperial House of Luxembourg, and was already famous in Europe as a great 
 captain, was denounced to the Star Chamber. One of his men of business 
 named Bonard, wanting to recover some important papers that had been 
 lost, applied to Le Sage to enable him to find them. Le Sage began by 
 requiring him to go to confession and to visit three different churches, 
 where he was to recite three 
 psalms for nine successive 
 days. 
 
 Notwithstanding the con- 
 fession and the psalms, the 
 papers were not found ; they 
 were in the hands of a woman 
 named Dupin. Bonard, in the 
 presence of Le Sage, went 
 through a kind of incantation. 
 Dupin did not give up any- 
 thing. Bonard in despair got 
 a fresh power of attorney from 
 the Marshal, and between the 
 text and the signature were two 
 lines in a different handwriting, 
 by which the Marshal gave 
 himself to the devil. 
 
 Le Sage, Bonard, Voisin, 
 Vigoureux, and more than forty 
 accused persons having been 
 confined in the Bastille, Le 
 Sage deposed that the Marshal 
 had addressed himself to the devil and to him to procure the death of 
 Dupin, who would not restore the papers ; their accomplices added that 
 they had assassinated Dupin by his orders, had then cut the body into four 
 quarters and thrown it into the river. 
 
 These accusations were equally improbable and atrocious. The Marshal 
 had right of trial before the Court of Peers ; both the Parliament and 
 the Peers ought to have claimed their right to try him : they did not do 
 
130 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 this. The accused presented himself at the Bastille — a step which proved 
 his innocence of the alleged assassination. 
 
 Louvois, the Secretary of State, who had no liking for the Marshal- 
 Duke, had him confined in a sort of dungeon six and a half feet long, 
 where he became very ill. He was examined on the second day, and 
 then left for five weeks without continuation of his trial — a cruel injustice 
 
 to an accused person of any 
 sort, but still more unwarrant- 
 able in the case of a peer of 
 the realm. He wished to write 
 to the Marquis de Louvois to 
 complain of this, but he was 
 not permitted. At length his 
 examination was resumed. He 
 was asked whether he had 
 not given bottles of poisoned 
 wine for the purpose of killing 
 Dupin's brother and a woman 
 who lived with him. It seemed 
 very absurd that a Marshal of 
 France, who had commanded 
 armies, should want to poison 
 a petty tradesman and his 
 mistress, having nothing what- 
 soever to gain by so great 
 a crime. 
 
 At last he was confronted 
 with Le Sage and another priest 
 named d'Avaux, and accused of 
 having practised sorcery with them to procure the death of more than 
 one person. 
 
 The whole origin of his misfortune was his having once seen Le 
 Sage, and asked him for certain horoscopes. 
 
 Among the horrible imputations upon which the prosecution was 
 founded, was a statement by Le Sage that the Marshal had made a 
 compact with the devil in order to marry his daughter to the son of the 
 Marquis de Louvois. The accused answered — 
 
 A GIPSY TELLING HIS FORTUNE TO A SOLDIER. 
 (From a print by K. Leclerc, taken from Des conditions de la vie 
 humaine.") 
 
MONTMORENCI 
 
 131 
 
 " When Mathieu de Montmorenci wedded the widow of Louis le 
 Gros, he did not address himself to the devil, but to the States-General : 
 they declared that the marriage was necessary to secure the support of 
 the Montmorencis for the King, who was a minor." 
 
 This was a proud answer, and not that of a guilty man. The trial 
 lasted fourteen months. No judgment was given either for or against 
 the Marshal. Voisin, Vigoureux 
 and her brother were burned 
 in the Place de la Greve, to- 
 gether with Le Sage. The 
 Marechal de Luxembourg went 
 into the country for a few 
 days and afterwards returned 
 to Court in his capacity of 
 Captain of the Guard, without 
 seeing Louvois, and without the 
 King's having spoken a word 
 to him of all that had passed. 
 We know that subsequently he 
 had the command of the army 
 — for which he had not asked — 
 and that his many victories 
 imposed silence on his enemies. 
 
 We may judge what terrible 
 rumours were set going in Paris 
 by all these accusations. The 
 punishment of Voisin and her 
 accomplices by fire put an end 
 to the pursuit of criminals and 
 to the crime of poisoning. That 
 abomination was practised by 
 
 only a few individuals ; it did not corrupt the humane morals of the nation, 
 but it left behind it in the public mind a dangerous tendency to suspect 
 natural deaths of having been violent. Thus the same miserable fate that 
 was popularly believed to have befallen Madame was afterwards believed to 
 have befallen her daughter, Marie Louise, who was married to the King of 
 Spain, Carlos II., in 1679. The young Princess set out for Madrid with 
 
 A CRIMINAL GOING TO EXECUTION. 
 (From a contemporary drawing.) 
 
132 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 reluctance. Mademoiselle had often said to Monsieur, the King's brother, 
 " Do not take your daughter to Court so frequently ; she will be unhappy 
 elsewhere. Marie Louise wished to marry Monseigneur [the Dauphin]. 
 " I make you Queen of Spain," said the King to her ; " what more could 
 I do for my daughter ? " " Ah," she answered, " you could do more for 
 your niece." She was taken away from this world in 1GG9, at the same 
 
 age as her mother. It was re- 
 garded as beyond question that 
 the Austrian Council of Carlos 
 II. wanted to get rid of her 
 because she loved her own 
 country, and might prevent the 
 King her husband from declar- 
 ing himself on the side of the 
 allies against France. A so- 
 called antidote was even sent 
 to her from Versailles ; a very 
 uncertain precaution, for a 
 medicine that can cure one 
 kind of malady may aggravate 
 another, and there is no such 
 thing as a universal counter- 
 poison. The pretended antidote 
 arrived after the young Queen's 
 death. In the Memoirs com- 
 piled by the Marquis de Dangeau 
 it is stated that Louis XIV., 
 being at supper, said : " The 
 Queen of Spain has died, poisoned in an eel-pie ; the Comtesse de Pernitz, 
 and the two waiting- women, Zapata and Nina, who ate after her, have died 
 of the same poison." 
 
 After I had read this strange anecdote in the manuscript Memoirs, 
 said to have been carefully compiled by a courtier who was hardly 
 ever away from Louis XIV. during forty years, I still remained in doubt 
 on this matter. I inquired of former servants of the King whether he, 
 who was always reticent of speech, had ever uttered words so imprudent. 
 They assured me that nothing could be more false. I asked the Duchesse 
 
 MARIE LOUISE D'ORLICANS, DAUGHTER OF MONSIEUR, 
 QUEEN OF SPAIN. 
 
 (From a print by Vischer.) 
 
THE PRINCESS PALATINE 133 
 
 de Saint-Pierre, who had just come from Spain, whether it was true that 
 those three persons had died with the Queen. She gave me attested 
 evidence that all three had long survived their mistress. In short I learned 
 that these Memoirs of the Marquis de Dangeau were only news-letter 
 history (nouvelles a la main), sometimes written by one of his servants ; 
 and I can answer for it that the fact is often perceptible in the style, 
 the falsehoods, and the trivialities which abound in the collection. After 
 
 COMPOSITION BY BERAIN FOR A FUNERAL CEREMONY. 
 
 this digression we must revert to the events that ensued at Court on the 
 death of the English Princess. 
 
 A year after the death of Madame she was succeeded by the Princess 
 Palatine, who became the mother of the future Due d' Orleans, afterwards 
 Regent. She had to renounce Calvinism in order to marry Monsieur, but 
 she always entertained a secret respect for her former religion — a sentiment 
 difficult to renounce when it has been impressed upon the heart in 
 childhood. 
 
 A change was then made in the Queen's establishment : twelve ladies 
 of the palace were substituted for the twelve maids of honour, and since 
 then this arrangement of the household of the Queen has been maintained. 
 The new establishment rendered the Court circle more full and magnificent 
 
134 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 by the residence of the husbands and kinsmen of those ladies there ; 
 society became more numerous, and larger expenditure prevailed. 
 
 The Dauphine, a Bavarian Princess, contributed in the beginning to 
 the brightness and vivacity of the Court. 
 
 Madame de Montespan was still treated with great friendship and 
 consideration, but this did not console her. The King, who was sorry 
 to cause her such violent grief, had already found the gentle manners 
 
 THE ROYAL PALACE OF VERSAILLES IN 1674 : PRINCIPAL FRONT. 
 (From a print by Israel Silvestre.) 
 
 and conversation of Madame de Maintenon more to his mind. The Court 
 was in suspense between the three rivals, Madame de Montespan, 
 Mademoiselle de Fontanges, and Madame de Maintenon, whose society 
 was becoming necessary to his troubled soul. It is to the credit of 
 Louis XIV. that none of these affairs had any influence on general 
 business, and that the Government did not suffer in the least from the 
 causes that disturbed the Court. I regard this as a proof of the King's 
 greatness of mind, and would even hold that these Court intrigues, having 
 nothing to do with the State, ought not to come into history at all, were 
 it not that everything in the great century of Louis XIV. is interesting, 
 
MADAME DE MAINTENON 
 
 135 
 
 and that so many historians have treated of these matters, mostly to 
 misrepresent them. 
 
 The youth and beauty of Mademoiselle de Fontanges, the birth of 
 her son in 1680, and the title of duchess which she had received, excluded 
 Madame de Maintenon from the first place in the King's favour ; but the 
 Duchesse de Fontanges and her son 
 died in 1681. 
 
 The Marquise de Montespan had 
 no longer an avowed rival, but she 
 had lost her hold on the King's affec- 
 tions ; he was tired of her and her 
 complaining. Madame de Maintenon, 
 who felt the secret power that she 
 was gaining day by day, conducted 
 herself with art and discretion. During 
 this time of her growing favour, and 
 while Madame de Montespan was 
 nearing her fall, these two rivals met 
 every day, sometimes with concealed 
 dislike, at others in a transient in- 
 timacy, induced by the necessity of 
 speaking to one another and the 
 
 . LOVE AT THE CHATEAU. 
 
 WearmeSS Of Constraint. ihey agreed (Composition by Leclerc for the Lorraine series.) 
 
136 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 that each should write memoirs of all that was going on at Court. The 
 respective works did not make much progress. Madame de Montespan 
 used to read aloud passages from hers to her friends in the last years 
 of her life. Religion had also intervened ; the King's conscience was 
 awakened, and this made the position of Madame de Maintenon more 
 secure, and that of Madame de Montespan more hopeless. This 
 
 embarrassing state of things lasted 
 until 1685, the memorable year of 
 the revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes. Then far different scenes 
 were beheld : on one side despair and 
 the flight of a portion of the nation, 
 on the other fresh fetes at Versailles, 
 Trianon and Marly built, and gardens 
 — in which the resources of art were 
 exhausted— laid out. The last 
 triumph of Madame de Montespan, 
 prior to her withdrawal from Court, 
 was the marriage of Mademoiselle 
 de Nantes, her daughter by the 
 King, with the Due de Chartres, 
 afterwards Regent of the kingdom, 
 and the marriage of the Due du 
 Maine, her son, with Louise Benedicte 
 de Bourbon, granddaughter of the 
 great Conde and sister of the Due 
 de Chartres, a princess renowned for 
 her talents and her artistic tastes. 
 (1685.) In honour of the marriage of the Due de Chartres and 
 Mademoiselle de Nantes, but before its celebration, the Marquis de 
 Seignelay (Colbert) gave a fete, worthy of Louis XIV., in the gardens at 
 Sceaux, which Le Notre had laid out and planted as tastefully as those of 
 Versailles. There the idyl of La Paix, composed by Racine, was performed. 
 A tournament was held at Versailles, and after the marriage the King dis- 
 played his magnificence in a fashion which had been originated by Mazarin 
 in 1656. In the great salon at Marly four stalls were set up, laden with 
 all the richest and rarest products of Parisian industry. These four stalls, 
 
 LOUIS XIV. AT THE FEET OF MADEMOISELLE 
 DE FONTANGES. 
 (From a satirical print early in tlie eighteenth century.) 
 
A LOTTERY WITH NO BLANKS 
 
 13? 
 
 which formed superb decorations, represented the four seasons of the year. 
 Madame de Montespan held one stall with Monseigneur [the Dauphin] ; 
 Madame de Maintenon, her rival, held a second with the Due du Maine ; 
 the bride and bridegroom each held one ; the Duke with Madame de 
 Thiange, and the Duchess, whom decorum forbade to hold hers with a 
 man on account of her extreme youth, was with the Duchesse de 
 Chevreuse. The ladies and gentlemen nominated for the " voyage " drew 
 lots for the jewellery laid out on the stalls. Thus the King made presents 
 to all the Court in a manner worthy of a King. Cardinal Mazarin's lottery 
 was less ingenious and less 
 splendid. The Roman Emperors 
 had indeed previously adopted 
 the custom of lotteries, but none 
 of them combined their mag- 
 nificence with equal gallantry. 
 
 After the marriage of her 
 daughter, Madame de Montespan 
 appeared no more at Court. 
 She lived in Paris with great 
 dignity. She had a large 
 revenue, but it was for life 
 only, and the King allowed 
 her a monthly pension of one 
 thousand louis-d'or. Every 
 year she went to Bourbon to 
 take the waters, and there she 
 made marriages for the young 
 girls of the neighbourhood, to 
 Bourbon in 1707. 
 
 A year after the marriage of Mademoiselle de Nantes with the Due 
 de Chartres, the Prince de Conde died at Fontainebleau, at the age of 
 sixty-six, of an illness aggravated by the exertion he made in visiting 
 the young Duchess, who had small-pox. We may judge by this action, 
 which cost him his life, whether he regarded the marriage of his grandson 
 with the daughter of the King and Madame de Montespan with the 
 repugnance that has been imputed to him by the lying newsmongers with 
 whom Holland swarmed. 
 
 JEAN BAFTISTE DE COLBERT, MARQUIS DE SEIGNELAY, 
 MINISTER SECRETARY OF STATE. 
 (Portrait by CI. Lefebvre.— Musee de Versailles.) 
 
 whom she gave dowries. She died at 
 
138 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 After the marriage of the daughter and the total eclipse of the 
 mother, Madame de Maintenon gained such ascendency over the now 
 scrupulous King that he married her privately, on the 22nd of October, 
 1G85, by the advice of Pere La Chaise, in a little chapel at the far end 
 of the apartment afterwards occupied by the Due de Bourgogne. 
 
 There was no contract, no stipulation. The Archbishop of Paris, 
 Harlay de Chanvalon, married them ; the confessor was present ; Montchev- 
 reuil and Bontems, first valets de chambre, were the witnesses. Louis XIV. 
 
 THE CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES IN 1674. 
 (.South front, Orangery Terrace, and Piece d'Eau des Suisses. From a print by Israel Silvestre.) 
 
 was then in his forty-eighth year, and Madame de Maintenon was in her fifty- 
 second. The King, famous and glorious, tempered the cares of government 
 with the blameless happiness of private life ; his marriage did not bind 
 him to anything unworthy of his rank. It was left an open question by 
 the Court whether Madame de Maintenon was or was not married; she was 
 respected as the King's chosen companion without being treated as Queen. 
 
 Madame de Maintenon was a granddaughter of Theodore Agrippa 
 d'Aubigne, gentleman of the bed-chamber in ordinary to Henri IV. His 
 father, Constant d'Aubigne, desiring to settle in the Carolinas, had addressed 
 himself to the English, and was imprisoned for that offence in the Chateau 
 
THE D'AUBIGNE FAMILY 
 
 139 
 
 Trompette. The daughter of Cardillac, the Governor — a gentleman of 
 Bordeaux — contrived his escape. Constant d'Aubigne married his benefactress 
 in 1627 and took her to South Carolina. On his return to France with 
 her some years after, they were both imprisoned at Niort in Poitou by an 
 order of the Court. In that prison Francoise d'Aubigne, who was destined 
 to experience all the frowns and all the smiles of fortune, saw the light 
 in 1635. She was taken to 
 America in her third year, and 
 back to France in her twelfth, 
 brought up with excessive 
 strictness by her kinswoman, 
 Madame de Neuillant, mother 
 of the Duchesse de Navailles, 
 and was glad to marry Paul 
 Scarron in 1651. Scarron was 
 descended from an old family 
 of the parliament class which 
 boasted distinguished alliances, 
 but he made a profession of 
 jesting, and this degraded him 
 while it made him popular. 
 He was ugly and not par- 
 ticularly well off ; neverthe- 
 less it was very lucky for 
 Mademoiselle d'Aubigne that 
 he married her. She abjured 
 Calvinism, the religion of her 
 ancestors, before her marriage. 
 Her beauty and wit were promptly recognised. She was sought by the 
 most distinguished members of society in Paris ; and this was the happiest 
 period of her life. Scarron died in 1660, and she petitioned the King, 
 through her friends at Court, for the continuance of a small pension of 
 fifteen hundred livres which Scarron had enjoyed. Her solicitations were 
 made in vain for a long time, but at last the King gave her a pension of 
 two thousand livres, and said to her : " Madame, I have kept you waiting- 
 very long ; but you have so many friends that I wanted to have the sole 
 credit with you," 
 
 BALLET OF " LA JEUNESSE, " 1680. 
 
 (One of the last danceil iu the Gardens of Versailles. From a 
 print in the Hennin Collection.) 
 
140 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 This was told me by Cardinal de Fleury, who liked to repeat it, 
 because he said that Louis XIV. had paid him the same compliment when 
 giving him the . bishopric of Fre'jus. 
 
 Nevertheless it is proved by letters from Madame de Maintenon herself 
 that she owed this small favour, which placed her above absolute poverty, 
 
 A LOUIS XIV. SALON. 
 (From La Mode aux Escrans—an enigmatical engraving on the use of the hand-screen.) 
 
 to Madame de Montespan. Some years later she was selected for the 
 confidential post of " governess " to the Due du Maine. 
 
 The child was born with a deformed foot, and when he was two years 
 old D'Aquin, first physician to the King, and in his confidence, recommended 
 the Barege waters for him. A trustworthy person was required, and the 
 
A BALL "1 LA FRAN9AISE" IN 1682. 
 (From an Almanac of the time,) 
 
THE PROMOTION OF MADAME SCARRON 143 
 
 King bethought him of Madame Scarron. The Marquis de Louvois made 
 a private expedition to Paris in order to offer the post to her. From 
 that time forth she had charge of the Due du Maine, being appointed to 
 it by the King, not, as it has been stated, by Madame de Montespan. She 
 corresponded with the King directly. Her letters pleased him greatly. This 
 was the origin of her good fortune ; her personal merit did all the rest. 
 
 The King, who could not bear her at first, passed from aversion to 
 confidence, and from confidence to love. Those letters of hers which we 
 
 THE ROYAL LOTTERY IN 1679 : THE COURTIERS PLAYING. 
 (Cabinet of Prints.) 
 
 have are of great value. The combination of religion and gallantry, 
 dignity and weakness, which so often exists in the human heart, is fully 
 revealed by them as it existed in the heart of Louis XIV. Madame de 
 Maintenon appears to have been equally ambitious and devout, free from 
 any struggle between ambition and devotion in her mind and conscience. 
 In entire good faith she called religion to the aid of her elderly attractions 
 in supplanting her benefactress, now her rival. The strange relations 
 between the two — the contest of affection and scruple on the part of the 
 King, of ambition and piety of the lady — seem to have existed from 1681 
 to 1685, when their marriage took place. 
 
144 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XlV 
 
 Her elevation meant retirement for Madame de Maintenon. She lived 
 entirely in her apartment, which was on the same floor as the King's ; her 
 only visitors were two or three ladies, who, like herself, had withdrawn 
 from society, and even these she saw but seldom. The King came to her 
 apartment every day after his dinner, before and after the Court sujjper, 
 and remained until midnight. He received his Ministers and transacted 
 business with them there, while Madame de Maintenon either read or worked, 
 showing no readiness to talk of affairs of State — often appearing ignorant 
 
 THE LAEGE CHAPEL OF THE CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES. 
 
 (From a print representing a ceremony of tlie Chevaliers <lu Saiut-Esprit, 1681). — This chapel was iu the space now 
 occupied by the Salon d'Hercule, ami was abolished when Louis XIV. built the new church. 
 From a print iu the Henuiu Collection.) 
 
 of them ; putting far from her anything like intrigue and cabal ; much more 
 desirous to please him who governed than to govern, and economising her 
 influence by using it only with extreme circumspection. She did not avail 
 herself of her position to secure all the great dignities and posts for her 
 own people. Her brother, the Comte d'Aubigne, a former lieutenant- 
 general, was not even a Marshal of France. The order of the Saint-Esprit 
 and a private share in the revenue receipts formed his only wealth. He said 
 one day to the Marechal de Vivonne, brother of Madame de Montespan, " I 
 have had my marshal's baton in ready money." 
 
A NEUTRAL-TINTED CHARACTER 
 
 145 
 
 LIFE AT THE COURT, 1694 : THE ROYAL FAMILY AT A CONCERT. 
 (Print by Trouvain in the series of the Appartements Eoyaux.') 
 
 The lands of Maintenon, which she had purchased with the King's 
 gifts, were her sole possessions. She hoped the public would overlook her 
 elevation for the sake of her 
 disinterestedness. The second 
 wife of her cousin the Mar- 
 quis de Villette — afterwards 
 Countess of Bolingbroke — 
 never could obtain anything 
 from her. I have frequently 
 heard her say that she had 
 reproached Madame de Main- 
 tenon with doing so little for 
 her own family, and said to 
 her angrily, " You want to 
 enjoy your moderation, and 
 that your family should suffer 
 for it." Madame de Maintenon would not do anything that could ruffle 
 the King. She did not even venture to support Cardinal de Noailles 
 against Pere Le Tellier. She was very friendly to Eacine, but her friendship 
 was not even sufficiently courageous to protect him against the passing anger 
 of Louis XIV. He had been talking to her one day of the poverty of the 
 people in 1698 — poverty which was then exaggerated, but really did become 
 extreme afterwards — and she induced her friend to write a statement of the 
 evil and the remedy for it. The King having read this document and spoken 
 
 angrily concerning it, Madame 
 de Maintenon was so weak 
 as to name the author, and 
 also to refrain from defending 
 him. Eacine's weakness was 
 greater still : he was so over- 
 whelmed with grief that he 
 eventually died of it. 
 
 As she was incapable of 
 serving, so she could not 
 injure anybody deliberately. 
 The Abbe de Choisy tells us 
 that Louvois went on his 
 
 LIFE AT THE COURT : THE KING'S CHILDREN AT THE 
 GAME OF " TROU-MADAME " (PIGEON HOLES). 
 (Print by Trouvain.) 
 
146 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 knees to entreat the King not to marry Scarron's widow. Madame de 
 Maintenon was informed of the fact ; yet not only did she pardon Louvois, 
 but she would pacify the King when the Minister's rough humour made 
 him angry. 
 
 Louis XIV. found an agreeable and submissive consort in Madame 
 de Maintenon. One sole ostensible distinction marked her secret eleva- 
 tion ; it was that at Mass she occupied one of the two small gilded 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF THE DUC DE BOURGOGNE. 
 (From an engraving by Larmessin.) 
 
 galleries hitherto reserved for the King and Queen only. The piety 
 which she had imparted to the King, and which she had employed to secure 
 her marriage, by degrees became a real and profound sentiment. It had 
 age and ennui to strengthen it. She had brought several young ladies 
 of quality together to be educated at Noisy, and the King handed over 
 the revenues of Saint-Denis to the budding community. Saint-Cyr was 
 built at the back of the park of Versailles in 1686. She then regularly 
 constituted that establishment, arranged the rules with Godet Desmarets, 
 Bishop of Chartres, and herself acted as Lady Superior of the convent. She 
 frequently went there^ to pass a few hours, and when I say it was ennui 
 
A ROOM IN THE CHATEAU DE FONTAINEBLEAU, USED ( yBY LOOIS XIV. AND MADAME DE MAINTENON IN 1685, 
 DECORATED WITH THE ARMS OF THE KING — THE SUN AND THE L.-L. INTERTWINED. 
 
INEXORABLE ENNUI 
 
 149 
 
 that took her there I only repeat her own statement. She wrote as 
 follows to Madame de La Maisonfort, who is referred to later in the 
 chapter on " Quietism " : — 
 
 " Why can I not give you my experience ? Why can I not make 
 you see the ennui that devours the great, and the trouble it gives them 
 to fill up their days ? Do you not see that I am dying of ennui, in 
 the midst of hardly imaginable good fortune ? I have been young and 
 handsome, I have tasted of pleasure, and I have been loved every- 
 where. At a more mature age I passed years in intellectual intercourse. 
 I have come to favour, and I protest to you, my dear daughter, that 
 all these conditions leave a 
 hideous void." If anything 
 could cure ambition it would 
 assuredly be that letter. And 
 yet Madame de Maintenon 
 had no other trouble than the 
 monotony of the life she led 
 with a great king. " I cannot 
 bear it any longer," she said 
 to her brother the Comte 
 d'Aubigne. " I wish I were 
 dead." His well-known answer 
 was, " Do you then mean to 
 marry God the Father ? " 
 
 On the King's death she retired to Saint-Cyr. It was surprising 
 that the King had secured hardly anything to her. He only recommended 
 her to the good offices of the Due d' Orleans. She would accept only a 
 pension of eighty thousand livres, which was punctually paid until her 
 death on the 15th of April, 1719. 
 
 The Court became less lively and more serious after the King began 
 to lead a more retired life with Madame de Maintenon, and after his very 
 severe illness in 1686 he lost his liking for the grand festivities which 
 
 O O 
 
 had previously marked each year of his reign. The art of surgery, although 
 it made more progress in France during that reign than in all the rest 
 of Europe, was not acquainted with fistula, the malady by which 
 the King was assailed. Cardinal de Richelieu had died of the same 
 disease for want of proper treatment. The King's danger aroused all 
 
150 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 France. The churches were crowded with people, who prayed for his 
 recovery with tears. 
 
 The King's first physician, Felix, went to all the hospitals to visit 
 patients who were in the like danger ; he consulted the best surgeons, 
 and in concert with them he invented instruments which abridged the 
 necessary operation and rendered it less painful. The King bore it without 
 
 a murmur. He transacted busi- 
 ness the same day with his 
 Ministers, who came to his 
 bedside, and, lest the news 
 of his danger should disturb 
 the European Courts, he gave 
 audience to the ambassadors 
 on the following day. He also 
 royally rewarded Felix by the 
 gift of an estate worth more 
 than fifty thousand crowns. 
 
 After this period the King 
 attended the plays no more. 
 The Dauphine, who had become 
 melancholy and was falling into 
 a decline which proved fatal 
 in 1690, withdrew from every 
 kind of entertainment, and 
 secluded herself in her apart- 
 ment. She loved learning, 
 she had even written verse ; 
 but in her depression she cared 
 for nothing but solitude. 
 The revival of the tastes for things intellectual was due to the 
 convent of Saint-Oyr. Madame de Maintenon requested Racine, who had 
 then renounced the stage for Jansenism and the Court, to write a tragedy 
 for representation by her nieces. She wished for a biblical subject. 
 Racine composed Esther, and the piece was afterwards acted several 
 times before the King at Versailles in the winter of 1689. Prelates and 
 Jesuits hastened to obtain leave to witness this singular play. Esther had 
 a marked and universal success, yet Athalie, acted by the same persons 
 
 " DEMOISELLES DE SAINT-CYR " IN 1686: PUPILS 
 IN THE THIRD CLASS. 
 (Fruiii an engraving by foumart.) 
 
RACINE'S PLAYS AT SAINT-CYR 151 
 
 two years later, had none. The contrary was the case when the two 
 pieces were produced in Paris after the author was dead and the day of 
 partiality was over. Athalie, in 1717, was received, as it deserved, with 
 warm admiration, and Esther, in 1721, with such coldness that it was not 
 again played. It is easy to fathom the cause of this apparent caprice of 
 judgment. The courtiers who had flattered Madame de Maintenon by 
 recognising her in Esther, and 
 had gratified their malignity by 
 identifying Madame de Monte- 
 span with Vashti, M. de Louvois 
 with Haman, and the Huguenots 
 with the proscribed Hebrews, 
 were no more, and the impartial 
 public found nothing in Esther 
 to arouse their interest or enlist 
 their sympathy. 
 
 These entertainments were 
 revived for the education of the 
 young Duchesse de Bourgogne, 
 Adelaide of Savoy, who had 
 been brought to France at the 
 age of eleven years. 
 
 It is one of the contra- 
 dictions in our national manners 
 that, on the one hand, a certain 
 disreputability still attaches to 
 
 "DAME RELIGIKOSE " OP SAINT-OYK. 
 (From a print by Bouriart.) 
 
 the other such performances 
 
 have ever been regarded as the most fitting and noble recreation for royal 
 personages. A little theatre was now set up in the apartment of Madame 
 de Maintenon. The Duchesse de Bom-gome and the Due d'Orleans acted in 
 plays with such persons of the Court as had dramatic talent. Baron, the 
 famous actor, gave them lessons and himself acted with them. Most of the 
 tragedies written by Duche, the King's valet de ckambre, were composed for 
 this theatre, and the Abbe Genest, chaplain to the Duchesse d'Orleans, 
 composed plays for the Duchesse du Maine, which were performed by 
 the Princess and her circle. 
 
 plays acted in publ 
 
152 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 The Duchesse de Bourgogne advanced rapidly in graces of person and 
 character. The praise that was bestowed upon her sister in Spain inspired 
 her with emulation and quickened her desire to please. She was not a 
 beauty, but in her eyes there was a look like her son's (Louis XV.) ; she 
 had a fine figure and the grand air. She had good abilities and an extreme 
 desire to win the approbation of all. She was, like Henrietta of England, 
 the idol and the model of the Court, with higher rank ; she stood near 
 the throne. France expected from the Due de Bourgogne government such 
 as the sages of antiquity prescribed, but also that its austerity would be 
 tempered by the graces of the Princess ; these were more admired and popular 
 than the philosophy of her husband. All the world knows how grievously 
 
 THE VILLAGE WEDDING : BALL AND MASQUERADE DANCED AT VERSAILLES BY THE GRAND DAUPHIN 
 
 AND THE COURTIERS IN 1683. 
 (From a print of the period.) 
 
 those hopes were disappointed. It was the fate of Louis XIV. to lose 
 all the members of his family in France by premature deaths : his wife 
 at forty-five ; his only son at fifty, and a year after the death of the 
 Grand Dauphin, the Dauphin Due de Bourgogne, his wife, and their eldest 
 son, the Due de Bretagne, were laid in the same tomb at Saint-Denis, 
 in April 1712, while their youngest child, an infant, was lying at the 
 gates of death. The Due de Berry, brother of the Due de Bourgogne, 
 and his infant daughter, followed them only two years later. 
 
 Of all these grievous bereavements the King was most deeply afflicted 
 by the death of the Duchesse de Bourgogne. He had been greatly pleased 
 with her when she came to France, as a little girl, in 1696. 
 
MADAMii DE MAINTENON AND HER NIECE, MADEMOISELLE D'aUBIGN^, WITH 
 SAINT-CTR IN THE DISTANCE. 
 
 (From tbe original painting by Ferdinand, preserved at Saint-Cyr, at present in the Mnsee de Versailles.) 
 
THE YOUNG DAUPHINE 
 
 155 
 
 " I led her," he wrote to Madame de Maintenon, " through the 
 crowd, letting her be seen now and then by • having the lights helcV close 
 to her face. She went through 
 this march with grace and 
 modesty. At length we reached 
 her room, where there was a 
 crowd and heat fit to kill us. 
 I showed her to those who 
 came up, and observed her in 
 every way so that I might 
 tell you what I think of her. 
 She has the best air and the 
 best figure I have ever seen, 
 is beautifully dressed, her hair 
 as well ; her eyes are full of 
 life and very fine, the lashes 
 dark and admirable ; she has a 
 very smooth complexion, red 
 and white as could be wished ; 
 also a great quantity of beau- 
 tiful fair hair ; she is thin, as 
 she ought to be at her age ; 
 her mouth is very red, thick 
 lips, teeth long, white, and very 
 irregular, hands well shaped, 
 but of the colour of her age. 
 She curtsies badly, rather in 
 the Italian style, and there is 
 something of the Italian in her 
 face, but she pleases, and I 
 have seen it in the eyes of 
 everybody. As for me, I am 
 altogether pleased. Speaking 
 to you as I do always, I think 
 
 she is just what is to be wished ; I should be sorry if she were more beautiful. 
 Everything is pleasing except the curtsey. I will tell you more about her 
 after supper. I forgot to say that she is short rather than tall for her age." 
 
 THE GRAND DAUPHIN AND HIS FAMILY. 
 
 (Copy by Delutel (1692) of tbe picture by Mignard at the Louvre 
 ilusee de Versailles — tbe Queen's Guard-Eoorn.) 
 
156 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 This early impression grew into real 
 affection ; the little Duchess completely 
 won the King's heart. She spared 
 no pains, according to Saint-Simon, 
 to accomplish that victory. He 
 draws a charming picture of her. 
 
 " In public she was serious, cir- 
 cumspect, respectful, and on timidly 
 Sfood terms with Madame de Main- 
 tenon, whom she called ' aunt,' as a 
 pretty way of blending rank and re- 
 gard. In private she flitted about 
 Madame de Maintenon and the King, 
 prattling, romping, laughing, now perched 
 upon the arm of the chair of one or the 
 
 LOUIS XIV. ALL-l'OWLKEUL ON LAND AND ON SEA. 
 
 (From au allegorical print by Chevanli.) 
 
 PRINT IN HONOUR OF LOUIS XIV. 
 (The virtues are the rays of the king, " who 
 on the earth is railiant like the 
 sun in the skies.") 
 
 other, anon sitting on their 
 knees, or hanging round their 
 necks. She kissed and caressed 
 them, rumpled their laces, 
 chucked them under the chin, 
 teased them, rummaged their 
 tables, their papers, and their 
 letters, reading the latter some- 
 times in spite of them, if 
 she saw they were in a good 
 humour. 
 
 " One evening at Fontaine- 
 bleau, when all the princesses' 
 ladies were in the same cabinet 
 with her and the King after 
 supper, she had been jabbering 
 in all sorts of languages, and 
 playing a hundred childish 
 tricks to amuse His Majesty, 
 who was highly pleased, when 
 
THE YOUNG DAUPHINE 
 
 157 
 
 THE GRAND DAUPHIN. 
 
 (Medallion from the little figure in wax belonging 
 to Baron Jerome Pichon.) 
 
 It was then with intent that 
 she taught Louis XIV. the art 
 and the happiness of being a 
 grandfather. The lesson was 
 wonderfully successful. " The 
 King could not do without her. 
 Everything was amiss with him 
 when the pleasure parties which, 
 in his tenderness and considera- 
 tion for her, he would not allow 
 her to forego, took her away 
 from him ; and even at his public 
 supper, on the rare occasions 
 when she was not present, there 
 seemed to be a cloud of gravity 
 and silence over the Kino-. 
 "Whatever taste she may have 
 had for those entertainments, 
 she was very sparing of them, 
 and always took care to have 
 
 she suddenly observed that Madame la Duchesse 
 and the Princesse de Conti looked significantly 
 at each other and shrugged their 
 shoulders with an air of contempt and 
 disdain. The King having risen and 
 gone as usual into a back room to 
 feed his dogs before wishing the prin- 
 cesses good-night, the Dauphine took 
 hold of Madame de Saint-Simon with 
 one hand and Madame de Levi with 
 the other, and indicating the two 
 ladies who were only a few steps off, 
 by a nod, she said : ' Did you see, did 
 see ? I know that there was no common- 
 sense in anything I said or did, and that it 
 is odious. But he must have a stir about 
 him, and these things amuse him.' " 
 
 THE DUC DE BOURGOGNE IN THE ARMS OF HIS NURSE. 
 (From a popular print.) 
 
158 THE CENTURY OP LOUIS XIV 
 
 herself £ commanded.' She scrupulously saw the King on going and 
 returning, and if a ball in winter or a late party in summer kept her out at 
 night, she arranged matters so as to he with him so soon as he was awake, 
 that she might amuse him with a description of the entertainment. 
 
 "Judged by rule, she was ugly ; with drooping cheeks, an inexpressive 
 nose, too prominent a forehead, thick lips, dark chestnut hair and eyebrows, 
 
 LOUIS XIV. IN 1698, SURROUNDED BY ALL THE MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY. 
 (Print by Marietta for an Almanac. "The glorious and flourishing state of the family of France.") 
 
 the most speaking and beautiful eyes in the world, few teeth, and those 
 decayed — herself the first to talk and laugh about them — the most beautiful 
 skin and complexion, the bust small but admirable, the throat long, with 
 just a touch of goitre, which was not unbecoming, a gay, graceful and 
 majestic carriage of the head, and the same to be said of her look, a 
 most expressive smile, a long, rounded, supple, perfectly-formed waist, 
 and a goddess-mark [dimple] in the cheeks. She was charming to the 
 last degree. 
 
THE YOUNG DAUPHINE 
 
 159 
 
 THE DUCHESSE DE 
 BOURGOGNE. 
 
 (Marble bust by Coysevox, 
 from nature. — Musee 
 de Versailles.) 
 
 to cost her 
 
 " The Graces were new born in her steps, in all 
 her ways, and in her most ordinary discourse. Her 
 manner, always simple and natural, often almost 
 childish, but full of intelligence, 
 charmed all with ease that so be- . 
 longed to her that it communicated 
 itself to all who approached her, 
 . . . gentle, shy but adroit, and so 
 kind that she shrank from giving 
 the least pain to anyone, and, with 
 all her liveliness and trifling, very 
 capable of sound views and well con- 
 sidered judgments. 
 The irksome con- 
 straint [of her life], 
 though she felt its 
 full weight, seemed 
 nothing. It was 
 
 THE DUCHESSE DE 
 BOURGOGNE. 
 (From a gold medal, 1101.) 
 
 natural to her to be obliging to 
 everyone ; her kindness came 
 from the heart, she felt it even 
 for her Court. 
 
 " She desired to please the 
 most useless and insignificant per- 
 sons, but she never seemed to be 
 trying to do so. One was tempted 
 to believe that she was entirely and 
 solely engrossed by those with 
 whom she was. Her youthful, 
 bright, active spirits animated 
 everything, and her nymph-like 
 lightness carried her about like 
 the whirlwind which fills leagues 
 of space all at once, and gives 
 everything within - them life and 
 movement. She adorned the 
 plays, was the soul of the fetes, 
 
 THE DUCHESSE DE BOURGOGNE AS A HUNTRESS. 
 (Marble statue by Coysevox. — Musee du Louvre.) 
 
160 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 the pleasure parties and the balls, where the accuracy and perfection of 
 her dancing charmed the company. She liked card-playing, was amused 
 even by games played for low stakes, for everything amused her ; 
 she preferred the high, however, and was the most strict, exact and clever 
 player in existence, dealt the cards in an instant, and was equally ready 
 and pleased to read serious hooks aloud in the afternoons, and discuss them 
 
 THE FASHIONABLE DOCTOR IN HIS CONSULTING-ROOM. 
 (From an Almanac »f the time.) 
 
 while she worked with her ' serious ladies,' as the elder ladies of the 
 palace were called. She spared nothing, not even her health, she forgot 
 nothing-, not even the smallest things, in order to win Madame de 
 Maintenon, and with her the King." 
 
 The depth of the anguish caused by the death of this bewitching 
 1 icing to the King, his family, and all the Court may he readily conceived. 
 "With the charming princess all joy, pleasure, amusement and charm of 
 every sort vanished. Thick darkness covered the face of the Court. Never 
 was princess so regretted, never was one so worthy of regret." This funeral 
 oration by Saint-Simon is equal to the famous " Madame se meurt " 
 
DARK SUSPICIONS 
 
 161 
 
 of Bossuet : " The involuntary and secret bitterness of it [her loss] has 
 remained, with a void that never has been filled." 
 
 This period of sorrow left so deep an impression on the hearts of all 
 that even in the minority of Louis XV. I have met persons who could 
 not speak of those deaths with- 
 out shedding tears. The most 
 to be pitied among all who 
 had to mourn them, was the 
 child whose inheritance of the 
 throne seemed very near. 
 
 The same suspicion that 
 had been aroused by the death 
 of Madame and that of Marie- 
 Louise, Queen of Spain, was 
 revived in full force. The 
 excessive grief of the public 
 would have almost excused the 
 calumny, had it been excusable, 
 but there was delirious folly in 
 the notion that so many royal 
 persons could have perished by 
 a crime which left the only one 
 with power to avenge them 
 alive. The malady that carried 
 off the Dauphin Due de Bour- 
 gogne, his wife and his son, was 
 measles — epidemic at the time, 
 people had died of it in Paris. 
 
 J /ulipoe d Or/ea/u (Due d& C 
 
 I , ■■ Jtu/jac cftt el£4)u$ ?Vr/fa/i«uj£fi</ /tut Q> waiter 
 
 'Jit J'f&pritjxtr a- (AoyJouu fe C/rand. lc 'x m "Jum i6Zt 
 
 In less than a month five [^hundred 
 The Due de Bourbon, grandson of the 
 
 Prince de Conde, the Due de La Tremouille, Madame de la Vrilliere, 
 and Madame de Listenay were attacked with it at the chateau. The 
 Marquis de Gondrin, son of the Due d'Antin, died of the disease in two 
 days. All France was stricken by the epidemic. In Lorraine it carried 
 off the elder brother of Francois, Due de Lorraine, who was destined 
 to be an emperor in the future and to restore the House of Austria. 
 Nevertheless it was enough for a doctor named Boudin, an ignorant and 
 
162 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 AN ALCHEMISTS LABORATORY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (From a print taken from Illustres Proverbes by Lagniet.) 
 
 dissipated man, to say, " We understand nothing about such maladies." 
 This was enough, I say, to set calumny off* on an unchecked course. 
 
 Philippe, Due d'Orleans, the 
 King's nephew, had a laboratory, [ f% 
 and studied chemistry, with j 
 several other arts. Here was 
 an indisputable proof. The 
 public excitement was not to 
 be believed except by those 
 who witnessed it, and these 
 absurd suspicions would have 
 been handed down to posterity 
 by various writers and in so- 
 called histories of Louis XIV. 
 had not well-informed persons taken care to destroy them. I say for 
 myself that, having been aware at all times of the injustice of men, I 
 made diligent search into the truth. This is what I have heard repeatedly 
 from the Marquis de Canillac, one of the most honest men in the kingdom, 
 
 and in intimate relations with 
 the suspected Prince, of whom 
 he has since great reason to 
 complain. The Marquis de 
 Canillac went to see him at 
 the Palais Royal in the midst 
 of this public outcry. He 
 found him lying on the floor, 
 shedding tears, crazy with grief. 
 His chemist, Homberg, went to 
 the Bastille to give himself 
 up ; but no order to receive 
 him had been given, and he 
 was refused. In the excess 
 of his trouble, the Prince him- 
 self (who could believe it?) 
 demanded to be sent to prison. 
 guy patin. He required that his innocence 
 
 (a type of the Paris doctor.— From a prim by Massou.) should be formally established, 
 
RUMOUR ON 
 
 THE 
 
 WING 
 
 163 
 
 and his mother [the Princess Palatine] joined in his demand for this cruel 
 justification. The lettre de cachet was despatched, but it was not signed, 
 and the Marquis de Canillac only, amid the perturbation, retained sufficient 
 coolness to realise the consequences of so desperate a step. He induced 
 the mother of the prince to oppose that ignominious letter. The monarch 
 who granted, and his nephew who demanded it were equally unfortunate. 
 
 Voltaire does right in defending the Due d' Orleans against these unjust 
 suspicions. Saint- Simon also has done the same from motives of friendship 
 and fairness. He writes as follows respecting the credit given by the 
 public to the accusations against the Duke : "I learned that what began to 
 leak out concerning the Duke, the covert hints, the whispered secret, no 
 longer remained in those conditions. The rumour rapidly reached the Court, 
 Paris, the provinces, the most remote corners of the kingdom, isolated 
 monasteries, the most empty and sterile solitudes, finally, every foreign 
 country and every European people." 
 
 CARD OF INVITATION TO A FUNERAL IN THE 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (Cabinet of Prints, Hermiu Collection.) 
 
ADVERTISEMENT OF THE ALMANAC FOR 1713. 
 (Reproduction of Demortain the printseller's advertisement. Heunin Collection, Bibliotneque Nationale.) 
 
WISDOM TRIUMPHS OVER DESTINY. 
 (From a composition and engraving by Reguesson.) 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE DECLINE OF THE REIGN: 
 THE KING'S OLD AGE AND DEATH. 
 
 OUIS XIV. concealed his grief in public ; lie 
 allowed himself to be seen as usual, but in 
 private he was overwhelmed by affliction, and 
 suffered from convulsions. He had to bear all 
 these domestic bereavements just after a disastrous 
 war, before peace was secure, and at a time of great 
 poverty throughout his kingdom, but he was never 
 known to sink under the burden of his woes. 
 
 The rest of his life was sad. The bad condition 
 of the finances, which he could not remedy, alien- 
 ated the people from him, and his confidence in Le Tellier, the Jesuit, 
 completed their estrangement. It is worthy of remark that the public, 
 who forgave him his mistresses, never forgave him his confessor. In 
 the three closing years of his life he lost in the estimation of the greater 
 number of his subjects all that he had won during the great and memorable 
 years of his reign. 
 
 LOUIS XIV. IN 1690. 
 (From a silver crown, with the 
 eight L's crowned.) 
 
166 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 He had lost almost all his children, and his attachment to his 
 legitimatised sons, the Due du Maine and the Comte de Toulouse, led 
 him to declare them and their descendants heirs to the crown, in default 
 of the princes of the Mood, by an edict which was registered without 
 any remonstrance in 1714. He thus tempered the severity of the conven- 
 tional laws, which deprive children born out of wedlock of the right to 
 
 (From the satirical Dutch caricature, "Tel horauie, tel discours." La Fin des Bois orgueitteux.) 
 
 paternal inheritance, by the natural law. Kings can dispense from the 
 former, and the King believed he could do for his own blood the same 
 that he had done for several of his subjects. Above all, he believed he 
 could effect a settlement for two of his children, such as the Parliament had 
 passed without opposition in the case of the princes of Lorraine. After- 
 wards, in 1715, he raised the rank of his natural sons to equality with that 
 of the princes of the blood. The suit instituted against the legitimatised 
 
BAREFACED TIME-SERVERS 
 
 167 
 
 princes is well known. The 
 latter were confirmed for them- 
 selves and their children in the 
 honours conferred upon them 
 by Louis XIV. The destiny 
 that awaits their posterity will 
 depend on time, merit and 
 fortune. 
 
 About the middle of the 
 month of August, 1715, Louis 
 XIV. was attacked, on his 
 return from Marly, by the 
 malady that proved fatal. His 
 legs swelled and 
 supervened. The 
 Ambassador, the Earl of Stair, 
 made a bet that the King would 
 not outlive the month of Sep- 
 tember. The Due d'Orleans, 
 who had been absolutely for- 
 saken during the Marly voyage 
 courtiers 
 
 gangrene 
 English 
 
 LOUIS XIV. IN OLD AGE. 
 
 (From the wax medallion by Beuoist, in the King's chamber, 
 Chateau de Versailles.) 
 
 was immediately surrounded by all the 
 Then, during the King's last days a quack doctor gave him 
 
 an elixir which restored his 
 strength for the time. The 
 patient was able to eat, and 
 the quack asserted positively 
 that he would recover. That 
 moment the crowd about the 
 Due d'Orleans melted away. 
 " If the King eats a second 
 time," said the Duke, " we 
 shall no longer have anybody." 
 But the malady was mortal. 
 Measures were taken for sivinp- 
 the absolute regency to the Due 
 d'Orleans. The King had left 
 
 THE EDUCATION OP THE CHILDREN OP PEANCE. & 
 
 (Aquatint engraving.— Cabinet of Prints.) it to him by his will (deposited 
 
168 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 with the Parliament), to a very limited extent, or rather he had simply 
 constituted him head of a council of regency, in which he would have 
 had only the casting vote. And yet he said to the Duke, " I have secured 
 to you all the rights which your birth gives you." The fact was he did 
 not believe there existed a fundamental law which would give unlimited 
 power during a minority to the heir-presumptive of the kingdom. He 
 imagined that having been implicitly obeyed in his lifetime so he should 
 be after his death, and he did not remember that the will of his own 
 father had been broken. 
 
 EXCESSES COMMITTED BY THE FRENCH IN THE PALATINATE. 
 (Satirical Dutch print ou the Evils of War.) 
 
 (1st September, 1715.) The grand composure with which the King 
 awaited the approach of death is known to all. He said to Madame de 
 Maintenon, " I had thought it was more difficult to die," and to his servants, 
 " Why do you weep ? Did you think I was immortal ? " And he gave his 
 orders about many things, including his funeral, quite tranquilly. 
 
 His courage on this supreme occasion was free from the ostentation 
 that had characterised Louis XIV. all his life long, and it extended 
 even to an acknowledgment of his faults. His successor faithfully pre- 
 served in writing, and placed at the head of his bed, the remarkable words 
 which the dying monarch addressed to him, holding him in his arms. 
 Those words have not been correctly reported in the histories ; they are 
 faithfully set down here : — 
 
THE DYING KING'S COUNSEL 
 
 171 
 
 " You will shortly be king of 
 a great kingdom. What I most 
 strongly urge upon you is never 
 to forget your obligations to 
 God. Remember that to Him 
 you owe all that you are. 
 Try to keep peace with your 
 neighbours. I have been too 
 fond of war ; do not imitate 
 me in that, or in the too 
 great spending of money. Take 
 counsel in all things, and seek 
 to learn the better way that 
 you may always follow it. Relieve your people as soon as you can, and 
 do what I have had the misfortune to be unable to do myself." 
 
 This admonition does not bear out the imputation of narrow-minded- 
 ness that is cast by several 
 
 LACE COVERLET OE THE BED OF LOUIS XIV., STILL 
 IN ITS PLACE. 
 (Chateau <le Versailles.) 
 
 the 
 
 memory 
 
 of 
 
 DUTCH CARICATURE: LOUIS XIV. DYING IN THE ARMS OF 
 PRIESTS AND WOMEN. 
 (Cabinet of Prints.) 
 
 writers upon 
 Louis XIV. 
 
 Although the King had 
 been truly great both in his 
 life and death, he was not 
 regretted as he deserved to be. 
 The love of novelty, the ap- 
 proach of a period of minority, 
 in which each one foresaw a 
 fortune, the quarrel of the 
 Constitution, with the enmities 
 created by it, all combined to 
 cause the news of his death 
 to be received with indifference. 
 The same people who had prayed 
 with tears for the recovery of 
 their King in 1686, followed 
 his funeral procession with far 
 other demonstrations. It is 
 related that the Queen, his 
 
172 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 mother, said to him one day, in his early youth, " My sou, he like your 
 grandfather, and not your father." The Kino- asked why, and she replied, 
 " Because at the death of Henri IV. people cried, but at the death of 
 Louis XIII. they laughed." 
 
 Although he has been reproached with some mean actions, with harshness 
 in his zeal against Jansenism, with haughty treatment of foreigners when 
 successful, with his many love affairs, his extreme severity in personal 
 matters, with wars that, nevertheless, were lawfully undertaken, with the 
 
 LOUIS XIV. LYING IN STATE. 
 (From a popular print of 1715.) 
 
 burning of the Palatinate and the persecution of the reformed sects, his 
 great qualities and his actions weigh more heavily than his faults, when 
 finally placed in the balance. Time, which ripens the judgments of men, 
 has set the seal to his reputation, and, notwithstanding all that has been 
 written against him, his name will never be spoken without respect, and 
 will be always associated with an ever-memorable century. If we regard 
 this prince in private life we find him too full of his own greatness, it 
 is true, but affable, giving his mother no share in the government, but 
 
WHAT THE KING DID NOT SAY 
 
 173 
 
 fulfilling all the duties of a son towards her, 
 observing all the externals of propriety in his 
 behaviour to his wife ; a good father, a good 
 master, diligent in his Cabinet, exact in affairs, 
 thinking justly, speaking well and kindly, with 
 dignity. 
 
 Louis XIV. never uttered the words 
 that have been put into his mouth when 
 the First Gentleman of the Bed-chamber 
 and the Grand Master of the Wardrobe 
 were contesting the honour of waiting on 
 him : " What does it matter which of my 
 valets serves me ? " So coarse a speech 
 
 Icy est le Cokfjde Louis -i* par 
 
 LA GRACE DE DlEuKoY DeFrANCE 
 
 et de Navarre tre's Chrestien; 
 
 DECEDe' ENSON ChAvSTEAU de 
 
 Versailles le premier j o ur db 
 »Septembrx 1715- „\. 
 
 .R.E CjVIE <S. CAT IN PACE ' 
 
 FAC-SIMILE OF THE MEMORIAL TABLET OP 
 LOUIS XIV. AT SAINT-DENIS. 
 
 could not have come from the lips of so 
 polite and attentive a man as he, and is incompatible with the question 
 he put one day to the Due de La Rochefoucauld on the subject of his 
 debts : "Why do you not speak to your friends ? " A very different 
 saying indeed, and worth much had it stood alone, but it was accompanied 
 by a gift of fifty thousand crowns. 
 
 It is not true either that he wrote to the Due de La Rochefoucauld : 
 " I congratulate you, as your friend, upon the post of Grand Master of 
 
 the Wardrobe, 
 which I give you 
 as your King." 
 The praise of 
 this letter by 
 some historians 
 shows that they 
 have failed to 
 perceive the want 
 of delicacy, nay, 
 more, the rude- 
 ness, of remind- 
 ing one whose 
 master one is of 
 that mastery. 
 Rose, his Cabinet 
 
 FUNERAL OF LOUIS XIV. AT SAINT-DENIS. 
 (From an engraving of the period.) 
 
174 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Secretary, wrote that letter, and the King had the good taste to prevent its 
 being sent. That same good taste made him suppress the boasting 
 inscriptions composed by Charpentier, of the Academie Francaise, for the 
 pictures by Lebrun in the gallery of Versailles: The Incredible Passage of 
 the Rhine, The Marvellous Taking of Valenciennes, etc. The King felt that 
 
 The Passage of the Rhine, The 
 Taking of Valenciennes, were 
 more eloquent. 
 
 Some sayings of Louis XIV. 
 have been collected, but they 
 do not amount to much. It is 
 related that when he resolved 
 to abolish Calvinism in France 
 he said: " My grandfather liked 
 the Huguenots, and did not 
 fear them ; my father did not 
 like and did fear them ; I 
 neither like them nor fear 
 them." Having given the place 
 of First President of the Par- 
 liament of Paris to M. de 
 Lamoignon, then Master of 
 Requests (reporter of petitions 
 to the Council of State), he 
 said to him : " Had I known a 
 better man and a more worthy 
 subject I would have chosen 
 him." He used almost the 
 same words to the Cardinal de 
 Noailles when he made him Archbishop of Paris. It is alleged that an 
 indiscreet preacher pointed to him one day at Versailles, and that 
 Louis XIV. merely observed : " I like, father, to take my share of a 
 sermon, but I do not like to be given it." * 
 
 He alw T ays expressed himself elegantly and with precision, being 
 careful to speak as well as to act like a sovereign in public. When the 
 
 THE "GALERIE DES GLACES " AT VERSAILLES, AS IT WAS AT THE 
 MOST GLORIOUS PERIOD OF THE REIGN. 
 (From a print by Sebastieu Jjeclerc.) 
 
 * The phrase is, " Mon pere, j'aime bien a prendre ma part d'un sermon, maisje n'aime 
 pas qu'on me la fasse." 
 
ENIGMATIC PRINT TO THE PKAISE OF LOUIS XIV. 
 (Composition by Sebastien Leclerc, in honour of the first twenty-four years of the King's reign.) 
 
THE CHARACTER OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 177 
 
 BALUSTRADE IN CARVED AND GILDED WOOD IN FRONT OF THE BED OF LOUIS XIV. 
 (Chateau de Versaille?.— The King's bedchamber.) 
 
 Due d'Anjou was leaving Franee to reign in Spain, the King said to him, 
 to mark the union which was thenceforth to exist between the two nations, 
 " There are no more Pyrenees." 
 
 His character is most clearly to be discerned in the following memo- 
 randum, which is written entirely by his own hand : — 
 
 " Kings are frequently obliged to do things against their inclination, 
 and that are hurtful to their good disposition. They ought to love 
 giving pleasure, but it is often needful that they should chastise, and the 
 interest of the State must come first. One ought to force one's inclination, 
 and not put oneself in a condition to incur self-reproach in anything of 
 importance that one might do better ; but some private interests have 
 prevented me from this, and 
 have turned aside the views 
 I ought to have taken for the 
 greatness, the good, and the 
 power of the State. There are 
 frequently painful situations to 
 be encountered, delicate points 
 to be solved ; and one's ideas 
 are confused. So long as that 
 is the case one may refrain 
 
 LOUIS XIV. IMPRESSES THE SEAL. 
 (From a; print by S. Leclerc.) 
 
 2 A 
 
178 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 from coming to a determination, but so soon as the mind is made up upon 
 a matter, and that one lias seen the best thing to do, that course must be 
 pursued. By doing this I have often succeeded in what I have undertaken. 
 The mistakes I have made, and which have given me infinite pain, have 
 been due to over-complacency and to my having yielded too carelessly to 
 the opinions of others. Nothing is so dangerous as weakness, of whatever 
 kind it may be. To command others one must raise oneself above them, 
 and after having heard all that comes from every side, arrive at a decision 
 by one's own judgment with an untroubled mind, taking care neither 
 to command nor to do anything that is unworthy of oneself, of the 
 character that one bears, or of the greatness of the State. Princes who 
 
 have good intentions, and have 
 gained a knowledge of affairs, 
 whether by experience, or by 
 study and great application, 
 have to assert themselves in 
 so many different matters that 
 they ought to be capable of 
 both special care and universal 
 from siam. application. A king must 
 
 (From a contemporary print published by Nolin.) guard against himself, mistrUSt 
 
 his inclination, and be always on the watch against his own disposition. 
 The business of a king is great, noble and gratifying, when one feels 
 capable of worthily fulfilling all the obligations it involves, but it is not 
 exempt from trouble, fatigue, and disquiet. Uncertainty is sometimes 
 most distressing, and when reasonable time has been passed in examining 
 a matter a resolution must be taken, and the line one believes to be the 
 best followed. 
 
 " While keeping the State in view one works for oneself ; the good 
 of the one makes the glory of the other. When the former is prosperous, 
 exalted, and powerful, he who is the cause of this may be proud, and enjoy 
 all that is most agreeable in life more fully than his subjects on his own 
 account and theirs. When one has made mistakes, the fault should be 
 repaired as soon as possible, and no consideration, not even that of kindness, 
 be allowed to prevent this. 
 
 "In 1671, a man died who held the position of Secretary of State, 
 having the foreign department. He was a capable man, but not without 
 
 AUDIENCE GIVEN BY THE KING TO THE AMBASSADORS 
 
EIGHT SIDE OF THE BEDCHAMBER OF LOUIS XIV. IN 1701. 
 (Chateau de Versailles ) 
 
THE KING'S MISTAKE 
 
 181 
 
 defects. He had not failed, 
 however, to fulfil the duties of 
 that very important post. 
 
 " I gave some time to con- 
 sidering whom I should appoint 
 in his place, and after I had 
 examined the matter well, I 
 decided that a man who had 
 served long in the embassies 
 would be the best to fill it. 
 
 " He was then summoned to 
 me. My choice was approved 
 by everybody — which does not 
 always happen. I put him in 
 possession of that post on his 
 arrival. I knew him only by 
 reputation and by the commis- 
 sions I had entrusted to him, 
 and these he had always 
 executed well ; but the new 
 employment which I gave 
 
 LOUIS XIV. IN ARMOUR. 
 (From a portrait by Rigaud. — Musee de Versailles.) 
 
 FRENCH COURTESY. 
 
 (Frontispiece of a book published 
 .under this title in Germany, 
 in 1658.) 
 
 him proved too great and wide-reaching for him. I 
 have not profited fully by the advantages I might 
 have had, and this through kindness. At last I 
 had to order him to retire, because nothing that 
 was done through him was done with the grandeur 
 and the force that ought to attend the execution .of 
 the orders of a king of France. If I had decided 
 earlier on removing him I should have avoided 
 the inconveniences that have arisen, and been free 
 from self-reproach for complacence towards him 
 that may have done the State harm. I have 
 entered into this detail as an example of what I 
 have previously said." 
 
 This precious document, unknown until now, 
 is a testimony to the King's uprightness and 
 magnanimity bequeathed to posterity. We may 
 
182 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 even point out that lie is too severe upon himself ; that lie was not to 
 blame with regard to M. de Pomponne, since the services and reputation 
 of that Minister were sufficient reasons for selecting him, and the Kino's 
 decision had received general approval. If he blames himself for the 
 appointment of M. de Pomponne, who had the good fortune to serve in a 
 time of great prosperity, what ought he not to say about M. de Chamillart, 
 whose ill-fated ministry was so universally condemned ? 
 
 THE JOY OF THK FRENCH IN THE RESTORATION OF PEACE UNDER THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 (From au Almanac of the time.) 
 
 The following forms a part of the King's instructions to his grandson, 
 Philip V., on his departure to assume the crown of the Spains. He 
 wrote them in haste, and with negligence that allows more of his mind 
 be seen than would be revealed by a studied exhortation. In these 
 counsels we see the father and the Kino- : — 
 
 " Love the Spaniards, and all subjects attached to your crowns and 
 to your person. Do not prefer those who shall flatter you most ; but 
 esteem such as will risk your displeasure for the sake of the right. 
 These are your true and real friends. 
 
SOUND ADVICE 183 
 
 " Make your subjects happy, and with a view to this do not make 
 war unless you are forced to do so, and have well considered and 
 weighed the reasons for it in your Council. 
 
 " Endeavour to put order into your finances ; watch over the Indies 
 and over your fleet ; study commerce ; live in close union with France ; 
 
 THE DUC D'AUMALE DECLARED KING OP SPAIN BY LOUIS XIV 
 (From an Almanac of liOl.) 
 
 there is no such benefit to our two powers as that union which nothing- 
 can resist. 
 
 " If you are constrained to make war, put yourself at the head of 
 your armies. 
 
 " Occupy yourself with the reconstruction of your forces everywhere, 
 and begin with those in France. 
 
 "Never neglect your business for your pleasure, but set a rule for 
 yourself which will give you time for liberty and diversion. 
 
184 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 " There is no more innocent amusement than hunting, and a liking 
 for a country-house, provided that you do not spend too much upon it. 
 
 " Give great heed to business during its discussion ; listen attentively 
 in the first place, without forming a decision. 
 
 " When you have gained more knowledge, remember that it is for you 
 to decide ; but whatever experience you may have, always listen to all 
 the opinions and all the arguments of your Council before making up 
 your mind. 
 
 " Do all that you possibly can to acquire a thorough knowledge of 
 the most important people, so that you may use them at need. 
 
 " Endeavour that your viceroys and governors may always be 
 Spaniards. 
 
 " Treat everybody well ; never say unpleasant things to anyone ; but 
 specially distinguish persons of quality and merit. 
 
 " Let it be seen that you are grateful to the late King, and to all 
 those who were in favour of your being chosen to succeed him. 
 
 " Place great confidence in Cardinal Porto-Carrero, and show him how 
 highly you esteem the course he has pursued. 
 
 " I think you ought to do something considerable for the Ambassador 
 who has had the happiness to come for you, and to be the first to 
 salute you in the capacity of your subject. 
 
 " Do not forget Bedmar, who possesses merit, and is capable of 
 serving you. 
 
 " Place complete reliance on the Due d'Harcourt ; he is an able man 
 and an honest man, and will give you counsel for your own sake only. 
 " Keep all the French in order. 
 
 " Treat all your servants well, but do not treat them with familiarity, 
 and still less with confidence. Use their services while they behave 
 well, but send them away at the least fault they may commit, and 
 never support them against the Spaniards. 
 
 " Have no intercourse with the Queen-Dowager beyond that which is 
 indispensable. Manage so that she leaves Madrid but does not go out of 
 Spain. And observe her conduct wherever she may be, and prevent her 
 from having anything to do with affairs. Hold those who shall see too 
 much of her as suspect. 
 
 " Continue to love your kindred. Eemember the pain it has given them 
 to part with you. Preserve close relations with them in great things and 
 
SOUND ADVICE 185 
 
 in small. Ask us for whatsoever you may require or desire to have that 
 is not in your own house ; we will do the same with you. 
 
 " Never forget that you are French, and what may happen to you. 
 When you shall have secured the succession to Spain by children, visit 
 your kingdoms, go to Naples and to Sicily, thence to Milan, and come 
 into Flanders ; this will give an opportunity of seeing us again. In the 
 meantime, visit Catalonia, Aragon, and other places. See what can be 
 done for Ceuta. 
 
 " Throw some money to the people when you arrive in Spain, 
 especially on entering Madrid. 
 
 " Do not appear displeased at the extraordinary-looking people you 
 will see. Do not ridicule 
 them. Each country has its 
 own particular manners, and 
 you will soon be accustomed to 
 the things that surprise you most 
 in the beginning. 
 
 " Avoid as much as you can 
 bestowing favours on those who 
 give money in order to obtain 
 them. Give suitably and 
 liberally, and do not re- 
 ceive presents unless they 
 are trifles. If occasionally 
 
 yOU Cannot aVOid receiv- (Mobilier National, Chateau de Foutamebleau.) 
 
 ing presents, make more 
 
 considerable gifts to those who have bestowed them, after having allowed 
 a few days to pass. 
 
 " Have a casket [safe] to hold your own private belongings, and let 
 none but yourself have the key. 
 
 " I conclude by a most important part of the advice that I have to 
 give you. Do not allow yourself to be governed. Be master ; never have 
 a favourite or a prime minister. Consult and listen to your advisers, but 
 decide for yourself. God, who has made you king, will give you the wisdom 
 that is necessary for you, so long as you shall have good intentions." 
 
 Louis XIV. had more rectitude and dignity than ready wit, and 
 besides, a king is not required to say memorable things, but to do them. 
 
 CABINET BY BODLE. 
 
186 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 He could say pleasant things, and he had made a habit of saying them. 
 Between him and his courtiers there existed a continual exchange of all 
 the favours that majesty may bestow without lowering itself, and all that 
 eagerness to serve and to please may suggest without an appearance of 
 servility. The King's politeness and attention to women encouraged both 
 on the part of the courtiers, and he never lost an opportunity of 
 
 saying those things to men 
 which gratify self-com- 
 placency while they excite 
 emulation, and leave a lasting 
 remembrance. 
 
 One day at the public 
 supper, the Duchesse de Bour- 
 gogne, then very young, 
 observed an officer who was 
 remarkably ugly, and audibly 
 made several jesting comments 
 upon his appearance. ' ' I consider 
 him, Madame," said the King, 
 speaking more loudly than she 
 had spoken, " one of the hand- 
 somest men in my kingdom, 
 for he is one of the bravest." 
 
 A certain general, rather 
 blunt of speech, and whose 
 temper had not been improved 
 even by the Court of Louis 
 XIV., had lost his arm in action, and complained to the King, who had 
 already recompensed him, so far as a man can be recompensed for a 
 lost arm. " I wish I had lost the other also," said he, " and no longer 
 had to serve your Majesty." " I should be very sorry if you had, for 
 your sake and my own," replied the King. He so carefully avoided 
 saying disagreeable things — which are deadly darts in the mouth of a 
 prince — that, unlike private individuals who indulge in the cruel and 
 harmful kind every day, he did not allow himself even the most innocent 
 and gentle sort of jesting. 
 
 He took pleasure in ingenious things, impromptus, and songs, and 
 
LITTLE WITTICISMS BY THE KING 
 
 189 
 
 sometimes on the instant he would make little parodies like the following 
 on popular airs : — 
 
 Chez mon cadet de frere, 
 Le chancelier Serrant 
 N'est pas trop necessaire ; 
 Et le sage Boifranc 
 Est celui qui sait plaire. 
 
 THE BALL-ROOM IN THE GARDENS OF VEESAILLES, CONSTRUCTED IN 1680. 
 (Drawn by Bondier from Nature.) 
 
 He dismissed the Council on one occasion with another :— 
 
 Le conseil a ses yeux a beau se presenter, 
 
 Sitot qu'il voit sa chienne, il quitte tout pour elle ; 
 
 Rien ne peut l'arreter 
 
 Quand la chasse l'appelle. 
 
 His letter to the Archbishop of Rheims concerning the Marquis de 
 Barbesieux, although written in an extremely careless style, does more 
 honour to his character than the most ingenious ideas would have done 
 to his wit. He had given the post of Secretary of State for War to the 
 
190 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 marquis ; it had formerly been filled by the Marquis de Louvois, his 
 father, and, having reason to be displeased with the conduct of his new 
 Secretary of State, he wished to correct but not to mortify him. With this 
 purpose he wrote to the Archbishop of Eheims requesting him to warn 
 his nephew. His words are those of a master fully informed of everything, 
 but also those of a father. 
 
 " I know," he says, " what I owe to the memory of M. de Louvois ; 
 but if your nephew does not alter his conduct I shall be forced to 
 
 come to a resolution. I shall be sorry for this, but it 
 must be done. He has talents, but he does not make 
 a good use of them. He too frequently gives suppers 
 to the princes instead of doing his work ; he neglects 
 business for pleasure ; he keeps the officers waiting in 
 his ante-room too long ; he speaks to them haughtily, 
 and sometimes harshly." 
 
 So much I can recall of the letter, which I 
 have seen in the original. It shows plainly that 
 Louis XIV. was not governed by his Ministers, as 
 was supposed, and that he knew how to govern 
 them. 
 
 He loved praise, and it is desirable that a king 
 should love praise, because he will then endeavour to 
 deserve it. But Louis XIV. did not always accept 
 praise when it was overdone. Our Academy, which 
 duly informed him ' of the subjects proposed for its 
 prizes, laid before him this one : "Of all the King's 
 virtues which is to be preferred ? " The King's face flushed, and he refused 
 to sanction the subject. 
 
 He endured the prologues written by Quinault ; but that was in the 
 noon-day of his glory, when the intoxication of the nation excused his own. 
 
 If Corneille had said to one of the courtiers in the presence of Cardinal 
 de Richelieu, " Tell the Cardinal that I am a better judge of verse than 
 he," the Minister never would have forgiven him ; Despreaux, however, 
 said exactly that in a loud tone of the King, when some verses which 
 His Majesty aj)proved and he condemned were in discussion. " He is 
 right," said the King, " he is a better judge than I." The Due de 
 Vendome had a follower named Villiers, one of those men of pleasure, 
 
 MARBLE VASE. 
 (Gardens of Versailles.) 
 
VILLIERS - VENDOME 
 
 191 
 
 HT. T K.J.E£T>.VAN T)WWGTjvm 
 
 who pride themselves on impudent freedom of speech. The Duke gave 
 this person lodging in his apartment. He was commonly called Villiers- 
 Vendome. He loudly condemned the King's taste in music, painting, 
 architecture, gardens. If the King planted a shrubbery, furnished an 
 apartment, put up a fountain, Vendome pronounced it all wrong and 
 expressed himself in terms by no means measured. " It is strange," said 
 the King, " that Villiers has 
 chosen my house to come to in 
 order to ridicule everything 
 that I do." Meeting him one 
 day in the gardens, he pointed 
 out one of his late improve- 
 ments, saying : " This, then, has 
 not the good fortune to please 
 you V " No," replied Villiers. 
 "And yet," said the King, 
 " there are many people who 
 are not so discontented with it." 
 " That may be," replied Villiers, 
 " each to his own mind." The 
 King answered, laughing, " One 
 cannot please everybody." 
 
 One day Louis XIV., when 
 playing backgammon, made 
 a doubtful cast. It was dis- 
 puted, and the courtiers kept 
 silence. The Comte de Gram- 
 mont came in. " Judge between 
 us," said the King. " Sire, you 
 are in the wrong," said de Grammont. " And how can you tell that I am 
 in the wrong when you do not know what the question is?" "Eh, sire, 
 do you not see that if the thing had been only ever so little doubtful, 
 all these gentlemen would have given it in your favour ? " 
 
 The Due d'Antin was remarkable for singular skill, not in saying 
 flattering things, but in doing them. The King, passing a night at 
 Petit-Bourg, objected to a great avenue of trees there because it obstructed 
 the view of the river, The Due d'Antin had it cut down during the 
 
 THE USUBPED COAT. LOUIS XIV. DRESSED IN THE 
 STRONGHOLDS HE HAD CONQUERED 
 
 (From a Dutch caricature of 1693.) 
 
192 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 THE BIBLIOTHEQUE ROYALE OF PARIS. 
 (Medallion of au Almanac of 1670.) 
 
 night. The King on awaking was astonished not to see the trees which 
 he had condemned. "It is because your Majesty condemned them that 
 you no longer see them," answered the Duke. 
 
 A second ingenious compliment of a similar kind is recorded of the 
 Due d'Antin. Having observed that a wood 
 at the end of the Canal de Fontainebleau was 
 displeasing to the King, he took the oppor- 
 tunity of a Court promenade, and, everything 
 being prepared, he contrived to get an order 
 to cut down the wood given to him. In an 
 instant it had fallen. 
 
 Louis XIV. has been accused of intolerable 
 pride because the base of his statue on the 
 Place des Victoires is surrounded by slaves 
 in chains. But it was not he who caused 
 either this statue or that in the Place 
 VendOme to be erected. The former is the expression of the gratitude of 
 the first Marechal de La Feuillade to his sovereign. He expended upon 
 it five hundred thousand livres — nearly a million of our present money — 
 and the city added as much to complete the regularity of the site. It 
 appears, therefore, that it is equally unjust to impute the boastfulness of 
 
 that statue to Louis XIV., and 
 to admit nothing better than 
 vanity and fiattery as the 
 motives of the Marshal. 
 
 Only the four slaves were 
 censured ; but these are 
 figurative of vices subdued, as 
 well as nations conquered, of 
 the duel abolished and heresy 
 put down ; the inscriptions are 
 sufficient proof of this. They 
 also commemorate the junction 
 of the seas, the peace of Nime- 
 guen, and symbolize countries 
 
 LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT LADIES GOING TO RECEIVE ^ ^ Jfc g 
 
 THE HOMAGE OF STRASBOURG. F 
 
 (Fragment of an Almanac of the time.) Moreover, it is an ancient 
 
THE PRECEDENCE OF VERSAILLES 
 
 193 
 
 custom of sculptors to put slaves at the feet of the statues of kings. 
 We see them at the feet of the clement Henri IV. and of Louis XIII. in 
 Paris, at Leghorn under the statue of Ferdinand de' Medici, who certainly 
 did not put fetters on any nation ; we see them at Berlin 
 beneath the statue of an Elector who repulsed the Swedes, but 
 made no conquest. . 
 
 The neighbours of France, and the French themselves, 
 have most unjustly made Louis XIV. responsible for this 
 custom. 
 
 As for the statue in the Place Vendome, it was erected 
 by the city of Paris. The Latin inscriptions on the four sides 
 of the base are more gross in flattery than those of the Place 
 des Victoires. They declare that Louis XIV. never took up 
 arms except against his will. He most solemnly refuted 
 this adulation on his deathbed, in words which will be 
 remembered long after those inscriptions — of which he 
 was ignorant, and which are the base work of certain 
 men of letters — are forgotten. 
 
 The King had destined the buildings on the Place 
 des Victoires for his public library, but the misfortunes 
 of 1701 obliged the city to build private houses on the 
 ruins of the palace that had been begun and abandoned. 
 Thus the Louvre was not finished ; the fountain and the obelisk 
 which Colbert intended to erect opposite the doorway by Perrault 
 have appeared in the designs only ; the fine doorway of Saint- 
 Gervais has remained blocked up, and most of the monuments 
 of Paris are of an inferior kind. 
 
 The nation would have wished Louis XIV. to prefer his 
 Louvre and his capital to the palace, which the Due de 
 Crequi called an undeserving favourite. Posterity admires and 
 is grateful for those public actions of his that are really 
 great ; but criticism comes in when we consider the mixture of 
 the superb and the faulty in the King's chateau at Versailles. 
 
 The conclusion to be drawn from all this is that Louis XIV. 
 loved grandeur and glory in everything. A prince who, having done 
 such great things, should also be simple and modest, would be the first 
 among kings, and Louis XIV. the second. 
 
 HALBERD NO. 90 OF 
 THE SCOTCH GUARD 
 OF LOUIS XIV., "WITH 
 THE ARMS OF THE 
 SUN-KING. 
 
 (Collection of M. Charles 
 de Rossigueux.) 
 
194 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 He had two sons, younger than the Dauphin, Lorn in wedlock, and 
 three daughters : all these died in childhood. Two of his natural children 
 also died in the cradle ; eight lived and were legitimatised ; rive left 
 descendants. He also had a daughter who was not acknowledged : she 
 was married to a gentleman of Versailles named de La Queue. There was 
 a nun in the Abbaye de Moret who was supposed to he his daughter. 
 She was extremely swarthy, and otherwise resembled him. The King- 
 gave her a dowry of twenty thousand crowns on placing her in the 
 convent. Her superiors complained of her pride on the score of her 
 alleged royal birth, and Madame de Maintenon, during a sojourn of the 
 
 THE COLONNADE OF THE LOUVRE DURING ITS CONSTRUCTION. 
 (From a print by Leclerc.) 
 
 Court at Fontainebleau, went to the convent and endeavoured to reduce 
 the nun to more befitting humility by disabusing her of the idea which 
 fed her pride. " Madame," said the person in question, " that a lady of 
 your high position takes the trouble to come here expressly to tell me 
 that I am not the King's daughter, convinces me that I am." The 
 anecdote is still told at the convent of Moret. 
 
 A philosopher might treat all these details with disdain, but here we 
 may repeat that curiosity, a weakness common to mankind, almost ceases 
 to be a weakness when its objects are memorable times and men who 
 attract the gaze of posterity. 
 
PRINT COMMEMORATIVE OF THE ANNEXATION OF FRANCHE-COMTE, 1679, 
 
I. 
 
 THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT OF FRANCE. — JUSTICE. 
 COMMERCE. — POLICE. — LAWS. — MILITARY DISCIPLINE. 
 
 THE NAVY, Etc. 
 
 I 
 
 T is due to public men who have done 
 good things for the age in which they 
 lived that we should consider their starting- 
 point ; only thus can we get a clear view of 
 the changes wrought by them in their country. 
 Posterity owes them eternal gratitude for the 
 example they have given, even when they have 
 been surpassed. Their only reward is their 
 well-earned fame. Louis XIV. certainly desired 
 to win that fame when, in the bea-inninsr of his 
 real reign, he set about reforming his kingdom, 
 refining his Court, and perfecting the Arts. 
 Not only did he make it a rule to work regularly with each of his 
 Ministers, but every man of known character might obtain a private 
 audience of him, and every citizen was free to present petitions and 
 projects. The petitions were received in the first instance by a Master 
 of Bequests, who returned them with marginal notes, to be sent 
 on to the offices of the Ministers. The projects were examined in 
 Council, when they were worth examining, and occasionally their authors 
 
 REVERSE OP A MEDAL OP 1680. 
 (Meilal for La Levee (7es Matelots, engraved 
 by Molart.) 
 
1 98 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 were permitted to discuss them with the Ministers in the presence of the 
 King. 
 
 Louis XIV. trained himself to the work of government, and the 
 process must have been painful, for work was new to him, and he had 
 to resist the lures of pleasure. He wrote the first despatches to his 
 Ambassadors; the most important letters were frequently written by his 
 hand, and every letter written in his name was read to him. 
 
 Colbert had no sooner restored order in the finances of the kingdom 
 after the fall of Fouquet than the King remitted three millions of taxes 
 and all imposts that still remained due between 1647 and 1656. Certain 
 
 burdensome taxes, amounting; to 
 five hundred thousand crowns 
 annually, were abolished. 
 
 The general hospital had 
 been established by the efforts 
 of the first president, de Bel- 
 lievre, with the assistance of gifts 
 from the Duchesse d'Aiguillon 
 and several citizens. The King 
 added to it, and caused hospitals 
 to be built in all the principal 
 cities of France. 
 
 The high roads, hitherto 
 almost impassable, were no longer neglected, and by degrees became the 
 admiration of foreigners, as they now are under Louis XV. The roads made 
 by the ancient Romans were more durable, but not so spacious and fine. 
 
 Commerce, which was but little cultivated — indeed its great principles 
 were not known — chiefly occupied the attention of Colbert. The English, 
 and still more the Dutch merchant marine, did almost all the carrying 
 trade of France. The Dutch loaded our wares in our ports and distributed 
 them in Europe. The King began from 1662 to exempt his subjects from 
 an impost called " the freight dues," which foreign vessels paid, and he 
 gave every facility to the French for carrying their own merchandise at 
 less cost. Then the merchant marine came into being. The Council of 
 Commerce, which still exists, was instituted, and the King presided at it 
 every fortnight. 
 
 The ports of Dunkirk and Marseilles were declared free, and that 
 
 THIS KING GIVING AUDIENCE TO HIS SUBJECTS. 
 (From a popular print of 1667.) 
 
THE PROGRESS OF COMMERCE 
 
 199 
 
 SOCIETE DES MAECHANDS. 
 
 advantage speedily attracted the trade of the East to 
 Marseilles and that of the North to Dunkirk. 
 
 The Compagnie des Indes Occidentales was formed 
 in 1664, and the Compagnie des Grandes Indes within 
 the same year. France had previously depended on 
 Dutch industry for its luxury. Timid, ignorant and 
 prejudiced adherents to the old economy protested 
 against trade in which there was a continuous exchange 
 
 (Coin engraved by Mauger (1664) ° ° 
 
 rfc°oZagnTto e ihte d > ti011 of imperishable money for perishable goods. They did 
 not reflect that Indian merchandise, having become 
 necessary, would have to be bought abroad at greater cost. The King 
 gave more than six millions of our present currency to the company, 
 and invited wealthy persons to join it. The queens, the princes, and all 
 the Court furnished two millions in the coin of that period. The Superior 
 Courts gave twelve hundred thousand crowns, the incorporated trades six 
 hundred and fifty thousand livres. The whole nation seconded its ruler. 
 
 Trade with the East Indies languished for a time after the Dutch 
 took Pondicherry in 1694, but 
 it revived with fresh vigour 
 under the regency of the Due 
 d'Orleans. Pondicherry then 
 became the rival of Batavia ; 
 and that Compagnie des 
 Grandes Indes, which Colbert 
 took such extreme pains to 
 found, revived in our day by 
 the agency of strange events, 
 was for some years one of the 
 chief resources of the kingdom. 
 In 1669 the King formed the 
 Compagnie du Nord, and in it 
 also he invested money. 
 
 The Compagnie des Indes 
 Occidentales received equal en- 
 couragement ; the King supplied 
 a tenth of the funds. 
 
 SISTER OF CHARITY CARRYING SUCCOUR TO THE WOUNDED. 
 That the Abbe de Choisy (From a print by Boiinart.) 
 
200 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 should have censured the formation of these companies in his Memoirs 
 which are not to be trusted — is not very surprising. We now feel 
 all that Colbert did for the welfare of the kingdom ; but it was not felt 
 then ; he gave his toil to the ungrateful. There were more bourgeois than 
 citizens in Paris ; the advantage of the public was but little regarded. 
 We know how private interest fascinates the eye and narrows the mind, 
 not only the interest of a trader, but of a company or of a city. The 
 
 rude answer made to him by 
 a merchant named Hazon, 
 whom he had consulted : " You 
 found the cart overturned on 
 one side, and you have over- 
 turned it on the other," was 
 still quoted with approbation 
 in my youth, and the anecdote 
 is recorded by Moreri. It re- 
 quired the philosophic spirit so 
 lately introduced into France 
 to procure justice for the 
 memory of that great man. 
 He had all the exactitude of 
 the Due de Sully and much 
 broader views. After the peace 
 of Vervins Sully had nothing 
 to do but maintain strict and 
 severe economy ; but Colbert 
 had to find prompt and vast resources for the war of 1667 and for that 
 of 1672. Henri IV. seconded Sully in his economy. The magnificence of 
 Louis XIV. constantly traversed the plans of Colbert. The reduction of 
 interest on public or private loans to five per cent, in 1GG5 gave ample 
 proof of an abundant circulation. He desired to enrich and to people 
 France. Marriages in the rural districts were encouraged by exemption 
 from taxes for five years, and every father of a family who had ten 
 children was exempt for life, because he gave more to the State by the 
 labour of his children than he could have given by paying the taxes. 
 This rule ought to have remained in force in perpetuity. 
 
 From 1663 until 1672 each year of Colbert's ministry was marked 
 
 THE SPIDEB AND THE PLY, 
 (Satirical print by Lagniet on the idleness of the nobles.) 
 
COMMERCE AND COLONIES 
 
 201 
 
 by the establishment of some manufacture. The fine cloths which formerly 
 came from England and Holland were made at Abbeville. The King 
 advanced two thousand livres for each loom to the manufacturer, besides 
 considerable gratuities. In 1669, forty-four thousand two hundred woollen 
 cloth-looms were at work throughout the kingdom. The perfected silk 
 manufactures produced a trade 
 
 of more than fifty millions of 
 that time, and not only was the 
 profit far above the expense of 
 the necessary silks, but the cul- 
 ture of mulberry trees enabled 
 the makers to dispense with 
 foreign silks for the raw silk 
 of the stuffs. 
 
 In 1666 Paris began to 
 make mirrors as fine as those 
 of Venice, with which all 
 Europe had hitherto been sup- 
 plied, and before long was 
 making mirrors such as never 
 have been imitated anywhere. 
 Persian and Turkish carpets 
 were surpassed at the Savon- 
 nerie, Flemish tapestries yielded 
 to those of the G-obelins. 
 Within the vast enclosure more 
 than eight hundred workmen 
 were employed, three hundred 
 being lodged on the premises : 
 eminent painters directed the work, which was either from their designs 
 or those of the old Italian masters. Within the precinct of the Gobelins 
 inlaid work also was produced — an admirable sort of mosaic — and the art 
 of marquetry was brought to its highest perfection. 
 
 A second manufactory of tapestry was established at Beauvais. The 
 first manufacturer had six hundred workmen iu that town, and the King 
 made him a present of sixty thousand livres. 
 
 Sixteen hundred girls were employed in lace-making ; thirty chief 
 
 T.e.rukf Aia*\'fuin<i dtp puts 1 :>>>.! i. 
 
 THE FRENCH TRADER. 
 (From Leclerc: Conditions de la vie humaine.) 
 
 2 D 
 
202 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 workers were brought into France from Venice, and two hundred from 
 Flanders, and they were given thirty-six thousand livres to encourage 
 them. 
 
 The manufacture of cloth at Sedan, and carpets at Aubusson, which 
 had fallen away in all respects, was revived. Rich stuffs, in which silk 
 was mixed with gold and silver, were made at Lyons and Tours by new 
 methods. We know that the Ministry bought the secret of the ingenious 
 machine for making stockings ten times more quickly than by the needle, 
 
 A FETE AT THE GOBELINS IN HONOUR OF LEBRUN. 
 (From a print by S. Leclerc, which represents the manufactory in 1676.) 
 
 [knitting] in England. Tin, steel, fine pottery, and morocco-dressed leather 
 —work which had always been brought from abroad — was now done in 
 France. But certain Calvinists, who had the secret of tin and steel, took 
 it away with them in 1686, and enabled foreign nations to share that 
 advantage, as well as many others. 
 
 Every year the King made purchases of fancy articles of every kind 
 manufactured in his kingdom, to the value of eight hundred thousand 
 livres, and made presents of them. 
 
 The city of Paris was very far from being then what it is now. It 
 
PARIS BEFORE THE LANTERN 205 
 
 was unlighted, insecure, and uncleansed. It was necessary to provide 
 for the continual cleaning of the streets that we have now, for the five 
 thousand lanterns which give us light at night, to pave the whole city, 
 to construct two new quays and reconstruct the old ones, and to 
 institute a regular watch day and night, both mounted and on foot, for 
 the security of the citizens. The King undertook all this, appropriating 
 certain funds to the necessary expenses. In 1667 he appointed a 
 Magistrate of Police. Most of the great cities of Europe did not even 
 
 COSTUMES OF MEN AND WOMEN OP THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (From a print of the period : Fashion triumphant in the Place du Change.) 
 
 imitate these examples until long afterwards, and not one has equalled 
 them. There is no city paved like Paris, and even Rome is not lighted. 
 
 So much did everything tend to perfection that the second person 
 who held the olfice of Lieutenant of Police in Paris is numbered among 
 those who have done honour to this century, M. d'Argenson was an able 
 man in every way. He was afterwards in the Ministry, and would have 
 made a good general. The post of Lieutenant of Police was far beneath 
 his birth and his deserts, and yet he made a much greater name in it 
 than by his brief and troublesome tenure of ministerial office in the last 
 years of his life. 
 
 The King had been building without cessation since 1661, at the 
 
206 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 COIN ENGRAVED BY MOLART IN HONOUR 
 OF THE AGGRANDISEMENT OF 
 PARIS — 1670. 
 
 Louvre, at Saint-Germain, and at Versailles. 
 Private individuals followed his example, and 
 a great number of handsome and commodious 
 houses were soon erected in Paris. 
 
 After some time there were two new towns, 
 in the neighbourhood of the Palais Royal and 
 Saint-Sulpice respectively, which were very 
 superior to the former Paris. At this period 
 that magnificent convenience, coaches with glass 
 windows and hung upon wheels, was invented, 
 so that a citizen might move about in the 
 great city with more ease and luxury than 
 the first Roman conquerors when they went in triumph to the Capitol. 
 This custom, which originated in Paris, was soon adopted throughout 
 Europe, and becoming common, ceased to be a luxury. 
 
 The taste of Louis XIV. 
 
 in architecture, gardens and 
 sculpture, was for everything on 
 a grand and noble scale. So 
 soon as Colbert, then Comp- 
 troller-General, got the Depart- 
 ment of Public Buildings — 
 which properly belongs to the 
 Ministry of Arts — into his hands, 
 he applied himself to fulfilling 
 his sovereign's wishes. The 
 completion of the Louvre was 
 the most pressing matter, and 
 Francois Mansard, one of the 
 greatest architects France has 
 ever produced, was chosen to 
 construct the vast edifices that 
 were projected. He would not 
 accept the responsibility unless 
 he were free to do over again 
 anything that might be defec- 
 
 THE CLOCK-MAKER. JO o 
 
 (Print by Bounart: Clockwork articles of the Seventeenth Century.) 
 
 tive in the execution ; but as 
 
 \ 
 
BERNINI 
 
 207 
 
 this want of self-confidence might have involved too great a cost, he 
 was not employed. The Cavaliere Bernini, the celebrated creator of the 
 colonnade of Saint-Peter's, the statue of Constantine, and the fountain 
 of Navone at Eome, was summoned from the Holy City. Equipages 
 were sent for his use, and he was received as one whose visit was an 
 honour to France. In addition 
 to the fee of five louis a 
 day which he received during 
 the eight months of his stay, 
 he was presented with fifty 
 thousand crowns, a pension of 
 two thousand crowns for him- 
 self and one of five hundred 
 crowns for his son. The gener- 
 osity of Louis XIV. to Bernini 
 was even greater than that 
 of Francois I. to Eaphael. 
 Bernini testified his gratitude 
 by the equestrian statue of 
 the King which is to be 
 seen at Versailles. On his 
 arrival at Paris, as the only 
 man worthy to work for 
 Louis XIV., he was surprised 
 on beholding the design for the 
 facade of the Louvre, on the 
 Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois side. 
 This work when completed took 
 rank among the world's august examples of architecture. Claude Perrault 
 designed, and Louis Levau and Dorbay built this facade ; Perrault also 
 invented machines for the transport of the stones, fifty-two feet long, 
 which form the pediment. No palace in Rome has an entrance to be 
 compared to that of the Louvre — which Boileau has ventured to ridicule. 
 Bernini received magnificent rewards, and did not deserve them ; he only 
 furnished designs which were not executed. 
 
 While the building of the Louvre was in progress — its completion is 
 much to be desired — a town at Versailles was springing up, in close 
 
 THE MIKROE-MAKER. 
 
 (Priut by Bomiart. The costume is made of glasses, 
 lustres, etc.) 
 
208 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 THE NEW POLICE ESTABLISHED IN PARIS BY LA EEYNIE. 
 (From ail anonymous print of the period.) 
 
 proximity to -that palace which had cost so many millions; Trianon and 
 Marly were built, and many other edifices were embellished ; the King 
 
 also had the Observatory erected. 
 The building was begun in 1666, 
 when the Kino; established the 
 Academy of Sciences. But the 
 Canal of Languedoc, by which 
 two seas are united, and which 
 falls into the harbour of Cette, 
 constructed to receive its waters, 
 surpasses the other works in 
 utility, greatness, and difficulty of 
 achievement. Begun in 1664, 
 this work was carried on without 
 interruption until 1681. The 
 superb Hotel des Invalides, with 
 its chapel (the finest of its kind 
 in Paris), and the establishment 
 of Saint-Cyr — the last of so many 
 works of his — would alone suffice 
 to render the memory of this 
 monarch " blessed." Four thou- 
 sand soldiers and a great number 
 of officers who find relief for 
 their wounds and their needs, and 
 consolation for their old age in one of these noble asylums ; the two 
 hundred and fifty girls of quality who receive an education worthy of 
 them in the other, are so many harmonious voices lifted up in praise of 
 Louis XIV. The establishment of Saint-Cyr will be surpassed in extent 
 by the institution which Louis XV. has just founded for the education 
 
 AN OLD STREET IN PARIS '. LA RUE AUX OURS IN THE 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (From an engraving by Lepautre, 1661.) 
 
THE KING REFORMS THE LAWS 
 
 211 
 
 of five hundred young gentlemen, yet far from eclipsing Saint-Cyr, it will 
 only serve to make us remember it : it affords evidence that the art of 
 doing good is being brought to perfection. 
 
 At the same time Louis XIV. desired to do things greater and more 
 generally useful, but more difficult of execution ; he wished to reform the 
 laws. In this task he enlisted 
 the Chancellor, Seguier, La- 
 moignon, Talon and Bignon, and 
 especially Pussort, the Councillor 
 of State, and occasionally at- 
 tended their conferences. The 
 year 1667 was the epoch at once 
 of his victories and of his first 
 laws. The civil law appeared 
 first, afterwards the code of 
 rivers and forests ; then statutes 
 for all manufactures. Criminal 
 and maritime laws succeeded 
 each other almost from year to 
 year. There was even a new 
 jurisprudence in favour of slaves 
 in the Colonies — beings who 
 
 ALLEGORICAL PRINT BY MELLAN IN HONOUR OF THE 
 PUBLICATION OF THE CODE OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 hitherto had not enjoyed the 
 rights of humanity. 
 
 A profound acquaintance 
 with jurisprudence is not ex- 
 pected from a sovereign ; but 
 the King was well instructed in 
 the chief laws, he understood 
 
 their spirit, and knew where to sustain or mitigate them fittingly. He 
 frequently judged the causes of his subjects in person, not only in the Council 
 of the Secretaries of State, but in that which is known as the Council 
 of Parties. In two celebrated instances he decided against himself. 
 
 The first was a suit in 1680, between him and some private individuals 
 in Paris, who built upon his ground. He decided that the houses should 
 remain to them with the ground belonging to him, and which he gave up 
 to them. 
 
212 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 PARIS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (View of the Pont Neuf, by Israel Silvestre.) 
 
 The other case, in 1687, concerned a Persian named Eoupli, whose 
 merchandise had been seized by a clerk in the administration of farmers- 
 general. The King decided that all the property must be restored to him, 
 
 LA SAMARITAINE. 
 
 (Paris at the end of the reign of Louis XIV., paved streets, coaches in circulation. From a print of 1712.) 
 
 and added a present of three thousand crowns. Eoupli returned to his 
 country full of admiration and gratitude. When we afterwards saw 
 Mehemet Rizabeg, the Persian Ambassador, we found that he had long 
 since been acquainted with this fact by the voice of fame. 
 
 The abolition of duelling was one of the greatest services which he 
 
THE KING FORBIDS DUELS 213 
 
 rendered to the country. In former times duelling had been authorised by 
 sovereigns, by the parliaments, and even by the Church, and although 
 it had been forbidden by the law since the time of Henri IV., duels had 
 become more frequent than ever. The notorious encounter of La 
 Frette, of four against four, in 1663, determined Louis XIV. no longer 
 to pardon the practice. His beneficent severity by degrees corrected our 
 nation, and even influenced the neighbouring nations, so that they too 
 
 FENCING. 
 (From a print of the time.) 
 
 conformed to our wise, after following our evil, customs. At the present 
 time there are a hundred times fewer duels fought than in the days of 
 Louis XIII. 
 
 The legislator for his people was likewise the legislator for his army. 
 It is strange -that before his time uniform dress for the troops was 
 unknown. In the first year of his administration he gave orders that 
 every regiment should be distinguished by the colour of its clothing, or 
 by different marks — a regulation promptly adopted by all the nations. 
 He instituted brigadiers, placed the corps which form His Majesty's 
 military household on their present footing, and formed a company of 
 
214 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 DUELS ABOLISHED. 
 
 (Meilalliou by Desjardins. — Musee 
 tlu Louvre.) 
 
 musketeers of the Guards of Cardinal Mazarin. 
 He fixed the number of the two companies at 
 five hundred men, and prescribed the uniform 
 which they still wear. 
 
 Under him, there were no more constables, and 
 after the death of the Due d'Epernon there were 
 no more colonel-generals of infantry ; the latter 
 were too much of the master, and that, he wished 
 and meant to be. The Marechal de Grammont, 
 who was merely commander of the French Guards 
 under Colonel-General the Due d'Epernon, taking 
 his orders from him, now took them directly 
 
 from the King, and was the first to' be called Colonel of the Guards. 
 The Kino; himself installed these colonels at the head of the regiment, 
 giving them with his own hand a gilded gorget with a pike, and afterwards, 
 when the use of pikes was abolished, a spontoon. He instituted the 
 
 grenadiers, at first to the number of four to 
 a company, in the King's regiment, created 
 by him ; afterwards he formed a company 
 of grenadiers in each regiment of infantry ; 
 he gave two to the French Guards ; 
 there is now one company to each 
 battalion of infantry. He largely 
 augmented the corps of dragoons and 
 gave them a colonel-general. The 
 establishment of breeding-studs, in 
 1G67, should not be forgotten. 
 These had been absolutely given up, 
 but now proved to be a most 
 useful resource for remounting the 
 cavalry. This resource has been too 
 much neglected since. 
 
 The use of the bayonet at the 
 end of the gun was likewise instituted by 
 Previously the bayonet had indeed 
 a duel" in the seventeenth century. been occasionally employed, but only by 
 (Armours trade mMk^sign b y a f ew companies. There was no uniform 
 
THE KING REFORMS THE ARMY 
 
 215 
 
 custom, and no drill, everything having been left to the discretion of the 
 General. Pikes .were held to be the most formidable of weapons. The first 
 regiment which had been provided with bayonets and instructed in the use 
 of them was the regiment of Fusileers, formed in 1671. 
 
 The system by which the artillery is still served is also due to him. 
 He established schools, first at Douai, and subsequently at Metz and 
 Strasbourg, and the regiment of artillery at last possessed officers almost 
 all of whom were capable of conducting a siege. All the magazines in the 
 kingdom were stocked, and eight hundred thousandweights of powder 
 
 MUSKETEER USING HIS GRENADIER THROWING MUSKETEER FIXING 
 
 POWDER-FLASK. GRENADE. BAYONET. 
 
 (From the "Military Theory," in colour, by Manesson, published iu IT 15 and preserved 
 in the Versailles Library.) 
 
 were distributed annually. He formed a regiment of bombardiers and one 
 of hussars : previously hussars were unknown, except among the enemy's 
 forces. 
 
 In 1688 the King established thirty regiments of militia, provided 
 and equipped by the communities. This militia learned the art of war 
 without relinquishing the culture of the soil. 
 
 Companies of cadets were maintained at most of the frontier forts, 
 where they were taught mathematics, drawing and drill, and practised the 
 functions of soldiers. That institution however lasted ten years only ; 
 but the corps of engineers which the King formed still exists, and still 
 follows the rules laid down by him. Under him the art of fortification was 
 
216 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIY 
 
 perfected by Vauban and his pupils, who surpassed the Comte de Pagan. 
 He built or repaired one hundred and fifty fortified places. 
 
 For the maintenance of military discipline the King created 
 inspectors-general and afterwards directors, who rendered an account of the 
 state of the troops ; and it was seen by their report whether the commis- 
 saries had done their duty. 
 
 STUDIES OF HORSEMEN. 
 (From a design by Van (lev Meulen, preserved at the Gobelins.) 
 
 He instituted the Order of Saint-Louis, an award of honour often 
 more highly prized than a fortune. The foundation by the King of 
 the Hotel des Invalides was the best proof among a great number that 
 he deserved to be well served. 
 
 From the year 1672 he had one hundred and eighty thousand 
 regular troops, and as he increased his forces in proportion to the increase 
 of his enemies in number and strength, he ultimately had four hundred 
 and fifty thousand men under arms, including the troops serving at 
 sea (marines) in the navy. 
 
OBJECT-LESSONS IN WAR 
 
 217 
 
 No such armies had previously existed. His enemies opposed him in 
 almost equal strength, but their forces were united. He showed what 
 France could do unaided, and always with either great success or great 
 resources. 
 
 He was the first who, in time of peace, presented pictures of war and 
 provided lessons in the art. In 1698 he collected seventy thousand men 
 at Compiegne. All the operations of a campaign were performed. This 
 was done for the instruction 
 of his three grandsons. The 
 military schooling was combined 
 with a sumptuous fete. 
 
 This eulogium by Voltaire 
 on the military organisation 
 created by Louis XIV. and 
 Louvois, is confirmed by testi- 
 mony which is beyond sus- 
 picion. Spanheim, the Prussian 
 Envoy, who was interested in 
 the condition of the forces of 
 France in 1690 — the moment 
 when the two powers were 
 about to enter into conflict — 
 attributes their superiority in 
 the first place to " the number 
 and quality of good officers 
 and of good generals in France, 
 which is the result of the 
 training in arms received by the nobles and other French youth so soon 
 as they are capable of it. To this also has contributed the great care 
 that has been taken throughout the present reign of several establish- 
 ments and regulations which are expressly intended for apprenticeship in 
 times of peace to the exercise of the military art, the maintenance of 
 discipline, and the almost continual employment of the troops, whereby 
 idleness, debauchery, and remissness in duty are averted. It is not 
 necessary to give details here of those regulations introduced for the 
 
 2 F 
 
 PIKEMAN AT DRILL. 
 (From a print by S. Leclerc in Les conditions de la vie humaine.) 
 
218 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 THE HOTEL DES INVALIDES. 
 
 training or exercise of the officers and men which have been made public, 
 and are, besides, known abroad, and which their neighbours or others have 
 tried to imitate and to introduce in their armies." 
 
 Spanheim continues : " Suffice it to say that there is no garrison 
 in France in which the school of military art is not conducted 
 with great care and exactitude, or where there are not officers 
 specially charged with it. With this view, ten or twelve years ago 
 the companies of cadets were established. The cadets are young 
 gentlemen educated at the institution, and brought up to all the 
 military exercises, so that it forms a sort 
 of nursery-garden for young officers. 
 
 "To this we may add frequent 
 reviews, sometimes private, when limited 
 to the troops of the King's household, at 
 other times more general, as on the occa- 
 sion of the King's journey in 1G83, when 
 he reviewed twelve thousand cavalry in the 
 district of the Saone, a few miles from 
 Dijon, and another near the Saar, when 
 there were twenty-two thousand men. I 
 saw both reviews, having been ordered to 
 accompany the King." 
 
 To this favourable report of the strength 
 and discipline of the French army Spanheim 
 
 THE KING GIVING ORDERS FOR THE 
 FORTIFICATION OF THE FRONTIERS. 
 
 (From a print of 1680.) 
 
TRAINING SCHOOLS FOR SOLDIERS 
 
 219 
 
 adds still better-deserved com- 
 pliments on the administrative 
 services organised by Louvois. 
 
 " The good and great forces 
 of France are explained by 
 the order that is taken in 
 France for the maintenance 
 and subsistence of the troops ; 
 by the regularity of all pay- 
 ments, although these are 
 small enough ; by the building of magazines ; by the supply of victuals 
 and ammunition-bread ; also that of provisions for the sick and wounded ; 
 and finally by the distribution of forage. All these services are specially 
 discharged by various officers, army intendants, commissaries, treasurers, 
 
 MEDALLION : ESTABLISHMENT OF CADET COMPANIES. 
 (Design by Berain.— June 22, 1682.) 
 
 FRENCH ARTILLERY IN ACTION. 
 (Frtm a print by S. Leclerc: Les Guterres de Louis XIV.— February 28, 1674.) 
 
220 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 collectors and paymasters, who are responsible to the Minister of War, 
 M. de Louvois, a man not likely to overlook shortcomings. It should 
 
 STUDIES OF HORSEMEN. 
 (From a drawing by Van ile lleulen, preserved at the Gobelins.) 
 
 be added that similar care is taken in the transport of the artillery, with 
 all its requirements." 
 
LAND FORCES 
 
 221 
 
 It is well to recall this eulogium, which justifies the opinion of Voltaire, 
 so that we may not admit the very different conclusions reached by 
 Saint-Simon in his indictment of Louvois and the military administration 
 of Louis XIV. A few of the charges may be appropriately quoted here : — 
 
 " Louvois succeeded in making all our nobility and aristocracy 
 plebeian, the necessity of the military service affording him the means for 
 this. On the pretext that knowledge 
 must come before command, an 
 apprenticeship was introduced into the 
 Guards under the name of cadetship. 
 But instruction was only the pretext, 
 the reality was the confusing of persons 
 born to command, with those who were 
 born to obey them, and very often born 
 to serve them. 
 
 " The highest nobles found them- 
 selves confounded with soldiers of 
 fortune, and, what . was still worse, 
 with persons of little or no standing, 
 who, by alliances with Ministers or 
 other causes of favour, were made 
 colonels immediately ; and nevertheless 
 they had to serve, or to fall into dis- 
 grace and persecution which extended 
 to all — even the entire family. Such 
 was the complaint of the nobility. . . . 
 
 " Louvois represented to the King- 
 that distinctions disheartened persons 
 inferior in condition but much superior 
 in military capacity ; that perfect equality was a necessary condition for 
 warfare, and proposed what was known thenceforth as 1 L'Ordre du Tableau,' 
 that is to say, that advancement should be regulated otherwise than by 
 promotion only in very singular and rare cases. This proposition, which 
 completed the confusion that the King had proposed to himself, charmed 
 him, and at the same time destroyed emulation, application, and desire 
 for instruction ; these were thenceforth regarded as a foolish takino- of 
 useless trouble. So much was this the case that the officers merely went 
 
 THE CEOSS OP SAINT-LOUIS. 
 
222 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 through their exact service, and spent the rest of their time in idleness 
 and pleasure. 
 
 " The more troops there were the more regiments and colonels. The 
 colonels commanded their own regiments, regulated all details, and 
 it was on their report that the officers of the regiments were chosen and 
 promoted. Each answered for his own regiment, and it was to their honour 
 
 A PICTURE OP MILITARY LIFE. 
 (French Camp iu the Seventeenth Century, by S. Leclerc: Les Guerres de Louis XIV. — 1672.) 
 
 that those regiments were well-composed and of good appearance. That 
 authority could no longer be allowed by Louvois. He appointed inspectors 
 to whom he gave nil the authority that had belonged to the colonels, 
 who became nothing in their regiments, and were by a necessary consequence 
 little regarded and respected. It was necessary that the King should have 
 an intimate and detailed knowledge of his troops. Inspectors of this kind, 
 who saw the regiments only once or twice in the year, and each of whom 
 
LOUIS XIV., PAINTED BY CHARLES LEBRUN. 
 (In the Queen's Antechamber. — Musee Je Versailles.) 
 
SAINT-SIMON ON LOUVOIS 
 
 225 
 
 saw several regiments, hardly ever the same for two years, because of the 
 change of quarters and garrisons, could not know them as the colonels did. 
 They were always new to the different corps, and each successor almost 
 always undid what his predecessor had prescribed. Thus the troops no 
 longer knew how they stood." 
 
 Saint-Simon is not more indulgent to the reviews organised for 
 Louis XIV. by his Minister of War. He says: "And that superb 
 magnificence of the camp at Compiegne, so ruinous to the numerous 
 
 FRENCH PIKE1IEN ATTACKING A FORTRESS. 
 (From a print by S. Leclerc : Les Guerres de Louis XIV. — Siege of Toumay.) 
 
 troops who composed it, and had to display an opulence hardly credible at 
 the end of a general and costly war of ten years' duration, was a vain 
 demonstration which served only to redouble the jealousy of Europe, and 
 to furnish plausible reasons to those who are envious against France and 
 the King personally." 
 
 The reason for such evident prejudice against everything that was 
 done by Louvois, and approved by Louis XIV. is easily to be found in 
 the enmity of the duke and peer who interprets the resentment of the 
 nobility towards the " bourgeois " minister by whom they were forced into 
 
 2 G 
 
226 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 obedience, regularity, and submission to control. Voltaire had quite 
 opposite motives for applauding this collaboration of the "bourgeoisie" 
 with royalty which was so fertile in results, as we must acknowledge 
 with him. The organisation of the navy also received his approval. 
 
 FRENCH FLEET IN BATTLE ARRAY. 
 (From a print by S. Leclerc : Les Guerres de Louis XIV. — Battle of Agouste, 1676.) 
 
 Louis XIV. had given the same attention to the formation of 
 numerous and well-disciplined land-forces, even before he went to war, 
 that he had devoted to acquiring the sovereignty of the sea. 
 
 In the first place the few vessels that Cardinal Mazarin had left to 
 rot in the ports were put into repair, and ships were purchased in Holland 
 and Sweden. In the third year of his own government the King sent 
 his naval forces to Gigeri, on the coast of Africa, to try their strength. 
 
CHANGES MADE BY LOUVOIS 
 
 227 
 
 From 1665 the Due de Beaufort had been chasing pirates off the seas, 
 and two years later France had sixty warships in her ports. 
 
 This was only a beginning ; but while making new regulations and 
 efforts the King was fully conscious of his strength. He would not con- 
 sent that his ships should lower their flag before that of England. In 
 vain did the council of Charles II. insist upon this right which strength, 
 industry (the carrying trade) and time had given to the English nation. 
 Louis XIV. wrote to the Comte 
 d'Estrades, his ambassador : 
 " The King of England and his 
 Chancellor may see what my 
 strength is, but they do not 
 see my heart. To me, all is 
 nothing compared with honour." 
 
 He said only what he was 
 resolved to maintain, and in 
 fact the usurpation of the 
 English gave way to the firm- 
 ness and natural right of Louis 
 XIV. All was equal between 
 the two nations upon the sea. 
 But while he desired equality 
 with England he would have 
 his superiority with Spain main- 
 tained. The flag of the Spanish 
 admirals had always to be lowered 
 before his own in virtue of the 
 precedence settled in 1662. 
 
 Meanwhile the formation of a fleet that should justify these haughty 
 claims was proceeding rapidly. The town and port of Rochefort were built 
 at the mouth of the Charente ; sailors were enlisted and engaged to serve 
 both on merchant vessels and in the royal fleet. Within a short period 
 there were nearly sixty thousand registered seamen. 
 
 " Councils of construction " were established in the ports to give the 
 new ships the best form. Five naval arsenals were built at Brest, 
 Rochefort, Toulon, Dunkirk, and Havre de Grace. In the year 1672 the 
 fleet numbered sixty ships of the line and forty frigates. In 1681 there 
 
228 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 were one hundred and ninety-eight warships, including lighters, and in the 
 harbour of Toulon thirty galleys, either armed or ready for their arms. 
 Eleven thousand regular troops served on the vessels, and three thousand 
 in the galleys. One hundred and sixty-six thousand men were registered 
 for all the various navaL services. In succeeding years one thousand 
 gentlemen, or youths of good family, served as soldiers on board the ships, 
 and received instruction at the various ports in navigation and seaman- 
 ship ; these were the midshipmen or naval cadets, corresponding to the 
 cadets on shore. This corps, which had been instituted on a limited scale 
 in 1672, became a school which turned out the best naval officers. 
 
 THE PARIS ARSENAL IN 1684. 
 (From a print by P. P. Sevin.) 
 
 There had been as yet no Marshals of France in the navy : the fact 
 is a proof of how much this essential part of the forces of France had 
 been neglected. Jean d'Estrees was the first Marshal in 1081. One of 
 the chief objects of Louis XIV. was to arouse the spirit of emulation 
 without which everything is dull and lifeless. 
 
 In all their naval battles the French fleets had been victorious until 
 that of La Hogue, in 1692. On that day the Comte de Tourville, under 
 orders from the Court, attacked a fleet of ninety Dutch and English 
 vessels with forty-four. He was forced to yield to numbers, with a loss of 
 forty first-class ships, which ran aground and were burnt to prevent them 
 from falling into the enemy's hands. In spite of this disaster the naval 
 forces were well kept up, but they declined during the War of Succession, 
 and Cardinal de Fleury neglected them when peace afforded a propitious 
 opportunity for their restoration. 
 
THE COLONIES 
 
 231 
 
 These naval forces protected commerce efficiently. Martinique, Saint- 
 Domingo and Canada, which had been declining, became prosperous to an 
 unhoped-for extent ; for those colonies had been a charge upon the kingdom 
 from 1635 to 1665. 
 
 In 1664, the King sent a colony to Cayenne, and shortly afterwards 
 another to Madagascar. He tried every means of repairing the unfortunate 
 error of France in her neglect of the sea, while her neighbours had been 
 forming empires at the ends of the earth. 
 
 This brief retrospect will serve to indicate the changes which 
 Louis XIV. effected in the State ; useful changes, for they are abiding. His 
 
 FRANCE REJOICING AT THE RESTORATION OF PEACE. 
 (From a contemporary Almanac.) 
 
 ministers seconded him ably. No doubt all the detail, all the execution was 
 their doing, but the general arrangement was the King's own. We may be 
 sure the magistrates would not have reformed laws, order would not have 
 been restored to finance, discipline would not have been introduced into 
 the army, or police established throughout the kingdom ; there would 
 have been no fleets, the arts would not have been encouraged, and all 
 in concert and simultaneously, had not a master been there who enter- 
 tained these great purposes with a firm resolution to realise them. 
 
 Louis XIV. did not separate his own glory from the interests of 
 France, or regard his kingdom as a seigneur regards his land, with a 
 view to getting all he can out of it, so that he may live for pleasure 
 only. Every king who loves glory loves also the public welfare. Colbert 
 and Louvois were no longer with him when, about 1698, he directed that 
 each intendant should furnish a detailed description of his province for 
 
232 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 the instruction of the Due de Bourgogne. By this means an exact 
 account of the kingdom and a true estimate of the population were to be 
 obtained. The measure was very useful, although all the intendants had 
 not the capacity and exactitude of M. de Lamoignon, of Baville. Had 
 the king's instructions been carried out in every province as they were 
 by that magistrate at his census-taking in Languedoc, the collected 
 records would have been one of the finest monuments of the century. 
 Some of the documents were ably drawn up, but the intendants did not 
 work on a uniform plan. It would have been well had the reports been 
 made in columns, stating the number of inhabitants at each place of 
 record — nobles, citizens, farmers, artizans, labourers and women-servants, 
 
 "MY MASTER SEES EVERYTHING." 
 (Words addressed by Lioime to a foreign ambassador, 1669. Engraving [by Lepautre.) 
 
 also giving a list of all the clergy, regular and secular, with their revenues, 
 and those of the towns and communities. To these details an enumeration of 
 cattle of all kinds, and of good and inferior lands, should have been added. 
 
 These details are jumbled together in most of the Beports, treated 
 slightly and without exactness ; information is to be got at only by 
 a troublesome search, instead of being ready to the Minister's hand, so 
 that at a glance he might learn the condition of everything within his 
 department. The project was excellent, and a uniform execution would 
 have secured its utility. 
 
 This is then the sum of what Louis XIV. did, and attempted, to 
 make his country more prosperous. It seems to me that we cannot con- 
 template all these deeds and all these efforts without some gratitude, and 
 
THE KING'S PREFERENCE FOR VERSAILLES 233 
 
 without sharing that care for the commonweal which inspired them. Let 
 us picture to ourselves what the kingdom was in the time of the Fronde, 
 and what that kingdom is now. Louis XIV. did more good to his country 
 than twenty of his predecessors put together ; and he was far from doing 
 what he might have done. The war that was ended by the peace of 
 Ryswick began the ruin of the great commerce that had been established 
 by Colbert, and the War of Succession completed it. 
 
 law: from a satirical print. 
 (Cabinet of Prints. — Bibliotheque Nationale.) 
 
 If he had expended on the adornment of Paris, on the completion 
 of the Louvre, the immense sums that were lavished on the Maintenon 
 aqueducts and works — works that were interrupted and are now useless to 
 convey water to Versailles — if he had allotted to Paris itself a fifth part of 
 the sum it cost to force nature at Versailles, Paris would have been as 
 beautiful through all its extent as it is around the Tuileries and the Pont 
 Royal, and would have become the most magnificent city in the world. 
 
 It is a great thing to have reformed the laws, but justice has been 
 
 2 H 
 
234 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 unable to put down roguery. It was sought to make jurisprudence 
 uniform, and so it is in criminal and commercial matters, and in procedure ; 
 it miffht be so in the laws that rule the fortunes of citizens. It is a dis- 
 advantage that the same tribunal should have to pass judgment on more 
 than a hundred different customs. Land taxes, either doubtful, onerous or 
 injurious to society, still subsist as remnants of the feudal system which no 
 longer exists ; these taxes are the rubbish of a Gothic ruin. 
 
 Not that the different orders of the State ought to be subject to the 
 same law. It is understood that the customs of the nobility, the clergy, the 
 magistrates and the husbandmen must be different ; but it is unquestion- 
 ably desirable that the law for each order should be uniform throughout 
 the kingdom ; so that justice and equity in Champagne shall not be 
 unjust and inequitable in Normandy. Uniformity in every branch of the 
 administration is a virtue, but the difficulties of that great work have 
 prod uced discouragement. 
 
 The expedient of revenue - farming, which the anticipation of his 
 resources induced the king to adopt, will be more appropriately treated 
 in the chapter on Finance. 
 
 If he had not believed that an act of his will was sufficient to make 
 a million of men change their religion, France would not have lost so 
 many citizens. Yet notwithstanding its troubles and losses, France is still 
 one of the most flourishing countries in the world, because all the good 
 that Louis XIV. accomplished remains, and the evil, which it was difficult 
 not to do in stormy times, has been repaired. Posterity, which judges 
 kings, who ought to have its judgment always before their eyes, will 
 acknowledge, in taking account of the virtues and the weaknesses of 
 Louis XIV., that, although he was over-praised during his life, he really 
 deserved to be praised for ever, and that he was worthy of the statue 
 erected to his memory at Montpellier, with a Latin inscrij^tion to the 
 effect that it was raised to " Louis the Great, after his death." Don 
 Ustariz, a statesman who wrote upon the trade and finances of Spain, 
 calls him " a prodigious man." 
 
 All these changes in the government and in the separate orders of 
 the State necessarily produced a very great change in morals and manners. 
 The spirit of faction, wrath and rebellion that had possessed the citizens 
 since the time of Francois II. turned to emulation in the service of their 
 Prince. The possessors of great estates being no longer shut up in them, 
 
THE HOTEL DE VILLE, PARIS, IN 1687. 
 
 (Engraving executed by Frosne, as a commission from the City Corps, to perpetuate the remembrance of the visit 
 of Louis XIV. to the capital after his illness.) 
 
THE CHEVALIER DE ROHAN 
 
 237 
 
 and the governors of provinces no longer having important posts to 
 give away, the only favour to be sought was that of the sovereign, and 
 the State became a complete whole, with every line converging to the 
 one centre. 
 
 Thus was the Court delivered from those factions and conspiracies 
 which had distracted the State for so many years. Under the adminis- 
 
 BIRD S-EYE VIEW OF MARLY. 
 (From an engraving of the time, published by Baillieul.) 
 
 tration of Louis XIV. there was but one plot, a conspiracy planned in 
 1674 by M. de La Truaumont, a Norman gentleman, who had been 
 ruined by debt and debauchery, aided by the Chevalier de Rohan, Grand 
 Veneur of France, a person of much courage but little prudence. The 
 haughtiness and severity of the Marquis de Louvois had so irritated the 
 Chevalier de Rohan that on coming from an interview with him to the 
 house of M. de Caumartin, he threw himself on a couch and exclaimed 
 excitedly : " Either this — Louvois dies or I ! " Caumartin took this 
 
238 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 merely for a passing expression of anger, but the young man having 
 asked him on the following day whether he believed the people of 
 
 STATUE OF LOUIS XIV. AT LYONS, BY DESJAItDINS. 
 (Bas-reliefs of tlie Rhine anil the .^aune, by Coustou. The statue was by Desjardins. RestoratioiPfrom a priut-by Auriran.) 
 
 Normandy to be attached to the Government, Caumartin at once suspected 
 dangerous designs. " The time of the Fronde is past," he said. " Believe 
 
A FOOLISH CONSPIRACY 
 
 239 
 
 me, you are going to destruction, and no one will regret you." The 
 Chevalier de Rohan, however, did not believe him, but entered into the 
 conspiracy with La Truaumont. The only other person in the plot was the 
 Chevalier de Preaux, a nephew of La Truaumont, who was persuaded by 
 his uncle, and in his turn persuaded his mistress, the Marquise de Villiers. 
 Their aim and hope did not and could not reach to making themselves 
 a party in the State ; they intended only to sell and surrender Quillebuf 
 
 a. .a »t%-''Mr 
 
 k x ■ : 
 
 THE EXECUTION OP THE CHEVALIER DE KOHAN. 
 (From a drawing in the Cabinet of Prints.) 
 
 to the Dutch, and so to introduce the foe into Normandy. This was 
 rather a cowardly and clumsily-contrived act of treason than a conspiracy. 
 The execution of all the guilty persons was the sole result of this mad 
 and useless crime which is hardly remembered now. 
 
 A few attempts at sedition in the provinces were made, but they were 
 trifling popular tumults, easily suppressed. Even the Huguenots kept 
 themselves quiet, until the time when their places of worship were 
 destroyed. In fact the King succeeded in turning a previously turbulent 
 nation into a peaceable people, dangerous to their enemies only, after 
 
240 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 having been for more than a century dangerous to themselves. Their 
 manners (mceurs) were "gentled" without injury to their courage. 
 
 The houses which all the " seigneurs " built or bought in Paris, and 
 wherein they lived staidly with their wives, provided a school of politeness 
 for the young men of the time, and by degrees weaned them from the 
 tavern life still customary, and which led to nothing but debauchery. 
 
 Manners and customs are so 
 much influenced by small things, 
 that the habit of going to Paris 
 on horseback kept up a dis- 
 position to constant quarrels : 
 these ceased when the custom 
 was abolished. Propriety of 
 demeanour and conversation, 
 chiefly due to the women who 
 brought " society " together at 
 their houses, rendered general 
 intercourse more agreeable, and 
 reading brightened and solidi- 
 fied men's minds in process of 
 time. The treachery and crime 
 on a large scale which are not 
 accounted dishonour in times of 
 faction and disorder were 
 thenceforth hardly known. The 
 
 A PROVINCIAL LADY'S COSTUME IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. ^OrS of the BriuvillierS and 
 
 (Young lady's portrait by Ketliel. From a print by Saint-Jean.) 
 
 the Voisins were but passing 
 storms in a serene sky ; and it would be as unreasonable to condemn 
 a nation for the flagrant crimes of certain individuals as to canonise 
 it for the reform of La Trappe. 
 
 All the different states of life were formerly to be recognised by 
 their characteristic faults. Soldiers, and young men destined to the 
 profession of arms, were impulsive and hot-headed ; the profession of the 
 law carried grim gravity with it, aided not a little by the lawyer's gown 
 being always worn, even at Court. It was the same with the Universities 
 and in the medical profession. Merchants still wore the short gown at 
 their meetings, and wore their short-cut clothes when they went to the 
 
A FUSION OF CLASSES 241 
 
 Ministers on commercial affairs, and even the leading merchants were 
 very plain men ; but the houses, the theatres, the promenades, which 
 brought people together to enjoy a more refined life gradually assimilated 
 the general appearance of the people. Now, even in the shopkeeper 
 class we see politeness prevail. The provinces were affected in time 
 by these changes. 
 
 Good taste and convenience are now considered rather than show. 
 
 I m v 
 w ra H 
 
 / 
 
 
 0 
 
 ,h — ~ 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 j|l t ' ;^|^| l 
 
 
 
 j 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ & i 
 
 THE HOTEL OF MADAME DE BEAUVAIS, RUE SAINT- ANTOINE, PARIS. 
 (From a print by Marot.) 
 
 The crowd of pages and liveried servants has disappeared, to be replaced 
 by greater comfort. Pomp and vain display are left to the nations who 
 still exist for public show only, and know not the art of living. 
 
 The extreme facility introduced into social intercourse, its simplicity, 
 affability and intellectual culture, have made Paris a city that probably 
 excels either Rome or Athens in the time of their splendour in 
 pleasantness of living. 
 
 The ready support and encouragement afforded to all the arts and 
 sciences ; the opportunities for the gratification of every taste and require- 
 ment ; utility combined with all that is pleasing, and added to these 
 
 2 I 
 
242 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 the kindliness of the Parisians, attract numbers of foreigners, not only to 
 visit, but to make their abode in that native land of society. Those Parisians 
 who leave Paris are persons called elsewhere by their talents, and who do 
 honour abroad to their country, or, on the other hand, they are worthless 
 individuals who want to profit by the consideration in which other 
 countries hold France, or else they are emigrants who prefer their faith 
 to their fatherland, and seek fortune or poverty on alien soil, after the 
 example of their fathers, who were driven out of France by that flagrant 
 
 THE FOUNTAINS OF THE PORTE SAINT-DENIS, DE LA CHARITE, AND DES SAINT-PERES IN PARIS. 
 
 • (rrint by Mariette, 1672.) 
 
 affront to the memory of our great monarch Henri IV., the revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes. Lastly, they are persons discontented with the 
 ministry, or accused persons who have escaped from the awards of justice 
 not invariably well-administered : the latter is the case in every country 
 in the world. 
 
 There are now no small tyrants at Court, as in the time of the 
 Fronde, and under Louis XIII., and in the preceding centuries, but that 
 numerous aristocracy, which was degraded for so long by serving subjects 
 who were too powerful, is now really great. Gentlemen and citizens 
 who would formerly have thought themselves honoured by being servants 
 
A SATIRE BY LA BRUYERE 
 
 243 
 
 to those " seigneurs," become their equals and 
 very often their superiors, in the military 
 service ; and the more service of every kind 
 prevails over titles the better for the nation. 
 
 The age of Louis XIV. has been compared 
 with the age of Augustus. Not that the 
 power and the personal importance of 
 the former are to be compared with 
 those of the latter, for Home and 
 Augustus were of ten times more 
 account in the world than Paris and 
 Louis XIV. ; but Athens led the Roman 
 Empire in everything else. We must 
 also remember that although there is 
 nothing now like ancient Rome and 
 Augustus, yet whole, Europe is far 
 superior to the entire Roman Empire. 
 In the time of Augustus there was 
 only one nation ; now there are several 
 nations, all civilised, policed, warlike, 
 enlightened, and possessed of arts unknown to the Greeks and the Romans ; 
 but not one of them has achieved higher distinction of every kind than 
 the nation formed, so to speak, by Louis XIV. 
 
 + 
 
 This glowing picture of Paris and the Parisian bourgeoisie, which is 
 the most faithful portrayal of the manners of the seventeenth century, 
 
 recalls the satire of La Bruyere. 
 He writes : — 
 
 " The Roman Emperors 
 never 'triumphed' in Rome as 
 the citizens of Paris do when 
 they are carried about from 
 place to place in the town in 
 defiance of wind, rain, dust, 
 and the sun. How different 
 
 INNER COURT OF THE HOTEL DE VILLE OF PARIS, "WITH 
 
 THE STATUE OF LOUIS XIV WHICH WAS' ERECTED £ r()m forefathers' 1 OUmeV S 
 
 THERE IN 1687. J J 
 
 TEAPOT OF RUD COPPER. 
 (From the Collection of M. Edmoud Gneriu.) 
 
244 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 on mules ! They did not deprive themselves of the necessary to obtain 
 the superfluous, or prefer show to utility. They did not only half 
 light their houses and warm themselves by a handful of fire. "Wax 
 was for the altar and for the palace. They did not rise from a 
 bad dinner to get into a fine carriage ; they held that men had legs 
 to walk with, and they walked. They kept themselves clean enough when 
 it was dry, and when it was wet they soiled their shoes in the streets 
 
 THE GLORY OF PARIS AND THE SPLENDOUR OF ITS BOURGEOIS IN THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 tl'riut by Jollain, 1692.) 
 
 and the crossings with as little concern as a sportsman would cross a 
 ploughed field, or a soldier get wet in a trench. 
 
 "The harnessing of two men to a litter had not been invented, and 
 ordinary magistrates went on foot to their Courts as readily and simply 
 as Augustus went on foot to the Capitol. In those days pewter shone 
 upon the tables and the side-boards ; iron and copper furnished the 
 household utensils ; silver and gold were kept in the coffers. Women were 
 waited upon by women, and the latter were even employed in the 
 kitchen. The fine names of ' governor ' and ' governess ' were not unknown 
 to our forefathers : they knew that the children of kings and princes 
 
A SATIRE BY LA B BUY ERE 
 
 245 
 
 were confided to such persons, but they helped the servants who attended 
 upon their children, whose education they superintended. They reckoned 
 with themselves in all things ; their expenses were regulated by their 
 receipts ; the number of their servants, their equipages, their furniture, 
 their table, their town and country houses were all on the scale of 
 
 LUXURIOUS LIFE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (A lady reclining on a tent-be:lstead. From a print by Saint-lean.) 
 
 their fortune and condition : yet certain distinctions were observed which 
 prevented the wife of a lawyer in a small way from being taken for the 
 wife of a magistrate, and a plebeian or valet for a gentleman. Not caring 
 either to swell or to squander their patrimony, they left it entire to their 
 heirs, and so closed a life of moderation in peace. They, did not say : 
 ' The times are hard ; poverty is great ; money is scarce.' They had less 
 money than we have, but they had enough, for there is more wealth 
 
246 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 in moderation and economy than in gold and lands. In short, the 
 maxim that splendour, luxury and magnificence is waste and folly in the 
 case of private individuals, was in those days held to be a great truth." 
 
 La Bruyere criticises the occupations and the lavish living of the 
 Parisians of both sexes impartially. He does not, like Voltaire, unre- 
 servedly admire their fashionable promenades and their conversation. 
 The reservations of such an observer are valuable, and the instances he 
 offers in support of his satire are precious items in a history of the 
 manners of the century. 
 
 THE PORTE SAINT-BERNARD, OPPOSITE THE ILE DE SAINT-LOUIS. 
 (From a print by V. Pi'relle.) 
 
 Of the Town : "In Paris every evening people give each other 
 rendezvous, without an interchange of speech, at Court or at the 
 Tuileries, for the purpose of mutual inspection and disapproval. 
 
 " The Parisians cannot do without the same ' set,' whom they do not 
 like, and whom they ridicule. 
 
 " Everybody waits for everybody else on the public promenades, 
 and each passes in review before the other. Nothing escapes ; carriages, 
 horses, liveries, coats-of-arms are observed ; the occupants are generally 
 respected or disdained with curiosity or with malignity, as the case may 
 be, and in proportion to the grandeur or the modesty of their equipage. 
 
THE IDLER IN PARIS 
 
 247 
 
 " In these places of general resort where women assemble to show 
 their fine clothes, and excite reciprocal envy, one does not walk about 
 with a companion for the sake of enjoying conversation, or to talk about 
 the play ; the object is to show off to the public, and to harden oneself 
 to criticism. In fact, at these 
 places each talks to himself, and 
 says nothing ; the talk is all for 
 the passers-by ; it is to produce 
 an effect on them that one raises 
 one's voice, jokes, gesticulates, 
 and negligently hangs one's head. 
 
 In his portrait of the idler, 
 La Bruyere describes a whole 
 series of sights and diversions 
 in Paris : 
 
 " Here, you say, is a man 
 that I have seen somewhere ; I 
 cannot remember where, but his 
 face is quite familiar to me. It 
 is familiar to many others, and I 
 am going, if I can, to assist your 
 memory. Was it on the boule- 
 vard ? or was it in the Avenue 
 of the Tuileries ? or perhaps 
 it was in the balcony at the 
 play ? Was it at a sermon, at 
 a ball, at Eambouillet ? Where 
 may you not have seen him ? 
 Where is he not to be seen ? 
 If an execution or a display of 
 fireworks is about to take place in the great square (Place de la Greve), 
 he appears at a window of the Hotel de Ville ; if there is a state entry, 
 he will have a place on a stand ; if it is a tilting match, he is in 
 the amphitheatre. If the King receives the ambassadors, he witnesses 
 their arrival ; he is present at the audience ; he is in the front of the line 
 on their return. It is his face that we see in the almanacs representing 
 the people. There is a public hunt, and there is he on horseback ; there 
 
 TAPESTRY SCREEN — SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (Mobilier National.— Foutainebleau.) 
 
248 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 is talk of a camp or a review ; he is at Ouilles or Acheres. He looks 
 on : he has grown old in sight-seeing ; he is a looker-on by profession. 
 He does nothing that a man ought to do ; he knows nothing that he 
 ought to know, but he has seen, he says, all that can he seen, and he 
 will die without regret. What a loss then for the whole city ! Now 
 he is gone who will there he to say: 'The cours is closed, no one is 
 
 LUXUEY IX THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: A LADY OF QUALITY IN DESHABILLE. 
 (From a print by Saint- Jean.) 
 
 driving there to-day ; the bog at Vincennes is dried up, no one will be 
 upset there now.' Who will give us notice of a concert, or a fine Salut 
 (Benediction service), or a conjurer's show at the fair ? Who will inform 
 you that Beaumavielle died yesterday ? that Rochois has a cold and will 
 be unable to sing for a week ? Who else will know a bourgeois by his 
 livery and his arms ? Will there be anyone to say, 1 Scapin wears fieurs 
 de lys,' or anyone to care ? Who will pronounce the name of a fair 
 
TOPICS OF THE TIME 
 
 249 
 
 bourgeoise with such conceited 
 emphasis ? Who will possess so 
 many vaudevilles ? Who will 
 lend the ladies the Ann ales 
 Galantes, or the Journal 
 Amoureuxt Who will sinsr a 
 whole dialogue out of an opera 
 at table ? In short, who will 
 supply his place to the foolish, 
 lazy, and unemployed people 
 to be found in the city as well 
 as elsewhere ? " 
 
 La Bruyere, like Voltaire, 
 compares Paris with Athens 
 and Rome. He says : " There 
 will be talk of a capital of a 
 
 great 
 
 kingdom wherein were 
 
 A LADY OF THE BOURGEOISIE IN WALKING DRESS. 
 
 (From a fashion-plate* 
 
 neither public squares, nor 
 fountains, nor amphitheatre, 
 nor gallery ; but which was a 
 marvellous city nevertheless." 
 
 Saint-Simon dwells upon the beautification of Paris even while he 
 refuses to attribute the credit of it to Louis XIV. The town built the 
 Pont Royal to replace the old Pont Rouge, which was of wood. Les 
 Invalides, a super!) monument, was due to Louvois. The magnificence of 
 that structure which is so great an adornment to Paris strikes every- 
 body. The Place Vendome is likewise the creation of Louvois, who made 
 
 it square so that the King's 
 Library, the Weigh-House, 
 the Royal Prin ting-House, 
 the Academies, and the 
 Great Council, which is still 
 held in a hired house, might 
 be placed there. This formed 
 a very useful as well 
 handsome monument. Yet, 
 immediately on the death 
 
 2 K 
 
 BLUE SATIN BAG EMBROIDERED IN GOLD. 
 (From the Collection of M. Charles Rossigueux.) 
 
250 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 of Louvois the King sent orders to have the plan changed as we see 
 it now. 
 
 " With respect to the manufactory so well known in Paris and 
 elsewhere under the name of the Gobelins, and at the end of the Cours 
 under the name of the Savonnerie, both these establishments as well as the 
 Observatoire, were entirely due to Colbert, so that the truth respecting these 
 public works is that the King paid for them, but all the honour belongs 
 to others." 
 
 This tribute, which Saint-Simon renders to Louvois and to Colbert, 
 
 VIEW OP PARIS FROM THE PONT DE LA TOURNELLE : THE SEINE, NOTRE DAME, AND THE GARDENS 
 
 OF L'lliK DU PALAIS. 
 (From a print by Perelle ami Mariette.) 
 
 notwithstanding his dislike, is a reflection of the blame that he, like 
 Voltaire, so often cast upon Louis XIV. for his neglect of Paris in 
 favour of Versailles, Trianon and Marly. This was regretted and 
 complained of by all the Parisians of the seventeenth century. None 
 have expressed those regrets more forcibly than he : 
 
 "The King abandoned Saint-Germain, a unique place in its variety of 
 prospect, its expanse of adjacent forest, the beauty of its trees, and its 
 situation, for Versailles, the most dull and dreary of places, without 
 prospect, without wood, without water, without even soil, for everything 
 
SAINT-SIMON ON VERSAILLES 251 
 
 there is either shifting sand or marsh. He never set up an ornamental 
 or useful work in Paris except the Pont Royal. 
 
 " We might dwell at length upon the monstrous defects of a palace 
 so huge and so costly, with all its extravagant appendages : its orangery, 
 kitchen-gardens, dog-kennels, stables, and enormous out-buildings ; in 
 short a town, where there was formerly only a miserable tavern and a 
 trumpery card-castle that Louis XIII. had erected so that he might not 
 have to sleep upon straw. 
 
 " Then Trianon, Clagny, built for Madame de Montespan, a superb 
 chateau with gardens, fountains and park ; lastly, Marly. Thus was wealth 
 squandered upon what had been the haunt of snakes, frogs, and toads. 
 Such was the King's bad taste in all things." 
 
 MEDALLION IN HONOUR OF LOUIS XIV. 
 (Tail-piece by Poilly.) 
 
THE SERGEANT. 
 (After a print by S. Leclerc in the Conditions de la Vie linmaine.') 
 
PEDIMENT OF THE NEW CUSTOM-HOUSE AT ROUEN. 
 (Allegorical bas-relief by Coustou: Commerce and Navigation.) 
 
 II 
 
 FINANCE 
 
 I 
 
 ORNAMENTED LETTER. 
 (By Francois Cliauvean.) 
 
 F the administration of Colbert be 
 compared with all the preceding ad- 
 ministrations, posterity will cherish the man 
 whose body the insensate people would have 
 torn in pieces after his death. The French 
 undoubtedly owe to him their industry, their 
 commerce, and consequently, that wealth 
 whose sources sometimes diminish in war- 
 times, but are re-opened with the advent of 
 peace. Nevertheless, there were those who 
 had the ingratitude to blame Colbert in 1702 
 for the languor which began to be felt in the nerves of the state. A 
 certain Bois-Guillebert, lieutenant-general of the bailiwick of Bouen, 
 published two small volumes under the title of " Le Detail de la France," 
 in which he asserted that everything since 1660 had been declining. 
 Precisely the contrary was the case. France had never been so flourishing 
 since the death of Cardinal Mazarin until the war of 1689 ; and even 
 in that war, the body of the State, beginning to fall sick, was sustained 
 by the vigour that Colbert had infused into all its members. The author 
 of this work asserted that the value of the lands of the kingdom had 
 diminished by fifteen hundred million livres. Nothing could be more false 
 or less probable. Nevertheless his captious arguments persuaded those 
 who wished to be persuaded. It is the same in England where, in the 
 
254 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 most prosperous times, we find a hundred public prints demonstrating that 
 the country is ruined. 
 
 In France it was easier than elsewhere to discredit a finance minister 
 in the estimation of the people. That ministry is especially arduous, 
 because taxation is always so hateful, and ignorance and prejudice reign in 
 1 natters of finance as they reign in philosophy. 
 
 So late is wisdom learned, that in 1718 the parliament of Paris in 
 
 a body told the Due d'Orleans that " the 
 intrinsic value of the silver mark is twenty- 
 five livres," as though there were another 
 intrinsic value than that of the weight and 
 the standard. The Due d'Orleans, intelligent 
 as he was, failed to detect this blunder of 
 the parliament. 
 
 Colbert brought both genius and know- 
 ledge to the handling of the finances. Like 
 the Due de Sully, he began by checking 
 abuses and pillage, which were enormous. 
 The collection of revenue was simplified as 
 much as possible, and by an economy 
 little short of marvellous, he increased 
 the treasury while he reduced the taxes. 
 The memorable edict of 1664 shows that 
 a million of the money of that time was 
 annually allotted to the encouragement of 
 manufactures and the maritime trade. Nor 
 did he neglect the provinces, which had 
 previously been abandoned to the rapacity 
 of the tax-farmers. In 1667, certain English merchants having applied 
 to his brother, M. Colbert de Croissy, then Ambassador to London, for 
 permission to supply France with Irish cattle and salt provisions for the 
 Colonies, the Comptroller - General replied that for the last four years 
 France had been selling to foreigners. 
 
 But a court of justice and great reforms had been required for 
 this admirable administration. These innovations, and some important 
 transactions in rentes, required edicts. Since the reign of Francois I. 
 parliament had the right of ratifying these. It was proposed that the 
 
 KDOUAKD DE COLBERT, MARQUIS DE 
 VILLACERF. 
 (Bust by Desjardins in the Louvre.) 
 
PORTRAIT OF JEAN-BAPTIST OLBERT, WITH HIS ARMS — THE SNAKE. 
 (Engraving, by Andrau, from the portrai by Lefebvre.) 
 
THE KING AND THE MAGISTRACY 257 
 
 edicts should be simply registered at the Court of Accounts, but the 
 former usage prevailed. The King went himself to the parliament to 
 have the edicts verified in 1664. 
 
 He never forgot the Fronde and that a decree of proscription against 
 his first Minister was issued, and other decrees by which the royal 
 
 STOCKJOBBERS AND REVENUE FARMERS STRUCK BY THE LIGHTNING OF THE ROYAL JUSTICE. 
 
 (Satirical print of 1711.) 
 
 revenues were seized, and the goods and money of citizens attached to the 
 Crown were pillaged. All these excesses having begun by remonstrances 
 on edicts concerning the revenues of the State, he ordained in 1667 
 that parliament should make no representation later than within the week 
 after having registered " with obedience." This edict was renewed in 
 1673. Thus he never received a remonstrance from any court of judicature 
 except in the fatal year 1709, when the parliament of Paris ineffectually 
 
 2 L 
 
258 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 represented the wrong that the minister of finance was doing the State 
 by the variation of the price of gold and silver. 
 
 Nearly all the citizens were persuaded that, if the parliament had 
 always confined itself to informing the King of the grievances and wants 
 of the people, the danger of the taxation, and the still more dangerous 
 
 sale of the taxes to jobbers 
 who deceived the Kino- and 
 oppressed the people, the cus- 
 tom of remonstrances would 
 have been a safeguard to 
 the State, a check upon the 
 greed of the financiers, and a 
 continual lesson to Ministers. 
 But the strange abuse of 
 so salutary a remedy had 
 angered Louis XIV. so greatly 
 that he saw only the abuses, 
 and proscribed the remedy. 
 The indignation he cherished 
 in his heart was carried 
 so far that on the 13th of 
 August, 1GG9, he again went to 
 the parliament himself, there 
 to revoke the privileges of 
 nobility which he had granted 
 in 1644 during his minority 
 to all the superior courts. 
 
 But notwithstanding this 
 edict, registered in the pre- 
 sence of the King, the custom 
 of allowing right of nobility to all whose fathers had exercised judicial 
 functions for twenty years in a superior court, or had died while in 
 office, survived. 
 
 The King, while inflicting a slight on the magistracy desired to 
 encourage the nobility who defend the realm, and the agriculturalists who till 
 the soil. He had assigned already a pension of two thousand livres (nearly 
 four thousand of our money), by his edict of 1G66, to every gentleman 
 
 TAX-COLLECTOR S OFFICIO IN THE SEVENTEENTH OENTCRx. 
 PAYMENT OF POLL-TAX. 
 
 (From a popular print of 1709.) 
 
THE SOLE ERROR OF COLBERT 259 
 
 who was the father of twelve children, and one thousand livres to fathers 
 of ten. Half of this bounty was granted to all the inhabitants of the 
 towns exempt from taxes, and every man amongst those liable who was 
 the father of ten children, living or dead, was exempted from all 
 taxation. 
 
 Colbert did not. accomplish all that he might have done, still less all 
 that he desired to do. Men were not then sufficiently enlightened, and in 
 
 PEASANTS AT TABLE. 
 (After a painting by the brothers Le Nain in the Louvre.) 
 
 a great kingdom there are always great abuses. Arbitrary taxation, the 
 multiplicity of duties, the customs due from province to province, making 
 one part of France foreign and even hostile to the other, the inequality of 
 measures in use in the various towns — these and a score of other ills of 
 the body politic could not be cured. 
 
 The greatest error that has been laid to this Minister's charge is that 
 he did not venture to encourage the exportation of corn. It was long 
 since any had been sent abroad. Agriculture had been neglected during 
 the stormy administration of Richelieu, and in the civil wars of the 
 
260 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Fronde it had been neglected still more, A famine in 1 GG 1 completed the 
 ruin of the rural districts ; ruin, however, which nature, seconded by 
 labour, is always ready to repair. In that unfortunate year the parliament 
 of Paris made a decree which appeared just in its principle, but had 
 consequences almost as harmful as all the decrees made by that body 
 during the civil war. Corn merchants were prohibited, under heavy 
 penalties, from forming any companies for that trade, and individuals 
 
 were forbidden to accumulate 
 corn. A measure which was 
 useful at a period of scarcity, 
 became at length pernicious, and 
 discouraged the agriculturalists. 
 
 The Minister had no other 
 resource than to buy from 
 foreigners the very same corn 
 at a high price which the 
 French had sold to them in 
 previous years of abundance. 
 The people were fed, but at 
 a heavy cost to the State ; M. 
 Colbert, however, had brought 
 the finances into such order 
 that the loss was not serious. 
 
 The fear of another bad 
 harvest closed our ports against 
 the export of corn. Each 
 intendant made a merit of pre- 
 venting the transport of grain 
 from his province to the next. 
 In good years corn could not be sold without application to the Council. 
 That fatal policy seemed to be excused by the experience of the past. The 
 Council was afraid that it might become necessary to re-purchase corn, 
 which the growers had sold cheaply, at a high price, were external trade 
 in grain permitted. 
 
 The grower, even more timid than the Council, was afraid of ruining 
 himself by growing a commodity from which he could not expect a large 
 profit, and the land was insufficiently cultivated. The flourishing condition 
 
 MONOPOLISTS COMPELLED BY JUSTICE TO DISGORGE THEIR 
 CORN, AND PLENTY RESTORED TO FRANCE. 
 (Satirical print, 1695.) 
 
A LONG-DEFERRED REFORM 
 
 261 
 
 of all the other branches of the administration prevented Colbert from 
 rectifying the error of the most important of all. 
 
 This was the solitary blot upon his ministry : a great blot, but its 
 excuse — a proof of how difficult it is to uproot prejudices in French 
 administration, and to do good — resides in the fact that, although all 
 intelligent citizens recognised the error, it was not repaired by any minister 
 
 OFFICE FOR STAMPS AND ADDRESSES. 
 (Almanac of 1694 iu the Henniu Collection.) 
 
 until a hundred years later, at the memorable epoch of 1764, when a more 
 large-minded comptroller-general delivered France from deep poverty by 
 restoring export trade in corn, with restrictions similar to those in force 
 in England. 
 
 To meet the simultaneous expenses of war, building and pleasure, 
 Colbert, about 1672, was obliged to re-impose taxes, on annuities and 
 increase of wages, that he had at first contemplated abolishing for ever — 
 charges which relieve the State for a time, and encumber it for centuries. 
 
262 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 He was forced to forego the conviction, which all the instructions left 
 by him prove him to have held, that the wealth of a country consists only in 
 the number of its inhabitants, the cultivation of the soil, industry and 
 commerce ; also, that the King, possessing but little property of his own, 
 and being only an administrator of the property of his subjects, cannot be 
 really wealthy otherwise than by taxes collected and equitably distributed. 
 
 He was so afraid of de- 
 livering up the State to jobbers 
 that, some time after the dis- 
 solution of the Court of Justice, 
 which he set up against them, 
 he procured a decree of the 
 Council making it a capital 
 offence to advance money upon 
 the new taxes. He hoped to 
 check the cupidity of specula- 
 tors by this comminatory 
 decree, which never was printed, 
 but he was soon obliged to 
 employ them without even re- 
 voking the decree : the King 
 was urging him, and prompt 
 stsps had to be taken. 
 
 The invention of farming- 
 out the revenue, brought into 
 France from Italy by Catherine 
 ■'a femme desolek mam joyeux, treve a la bourse du mari." de Medicis, had so corrupted the 
 
 (Satirical print on the edict of Louis XIV. against the extravagance Government by the daD^erOUS 
 
 of women, November 16th, 1700.) ° 
 
 facility it gives, that, after 
 having been suppressed during the prosperous reign of Henry IV., it 
 re-appeared in the reign of Louis XIII., and disfigured the close of that 
 of Louis XIV. 
 
 Sully enriched the state by a wise economy, supported by a king as 
 parsimonious as he was valiant; a soldier at the head of his army, and 
 a father with his people. Colbert upheld the state in spite of the 
 extravagance of an ostentatious master, who would have lavished every- 
 thing to make his reign brilliant. 
 
HEROIC REMEDIES 
 
 263 
 
 After Colbert's death, when the King proposed to make Le Pelletier 
 minister of finance, Le Tellier said to him, " Sire, he is not the right man 
 for that office." "Why?" asked the King. Le Tellier answered, "He is 
 not hard enough." "But I," replied the King, "do not want my people 
 to be hardly dealt with." The new Minister was in fact lenient and 
 just; but in 1688, when the country was again plunged in war and had 
 to defend itself against the Augsburg alliance, that is to say, against 
 
 THE FRENCH PEASANTS AGGRIEVED BY COMPULSORY ENLISTMENT. 
 (From a print of 1705, representing tiie first levy of militia.) 
 
 almost all Europe, he found himself weighted with a burden that had been 
 too heavy for Colbert, and the ready and mischievous expedient of borrowing 
 and creating stock was his first resource. Afterwards an effort was made 
 to check luxurious living, but this in a kingdom full of manufactures is 
 to diminish industry and the circulation of money, and is only serviceable 
 to a people who import their luxuries. 
 
 An order was given that all articles of silver, then very numerous 
 in the houses of the noble and the wealthy, and which were a proof of 
 prosperity and of wealth, should be sent to the Mint. The King himself 
 set the example; he parted with all those large silver tables, candelabra, 
 
264 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 couches of massive silver, and many other articles, which were masterpieces 
 of carving by Ballin, a unique artist in his line, and all executed from 
 designs by Lebrun. They had cost ten millions, they produced three. 
 The wrought silver goods of private individuals also produced three 
 millions. The resource was a weak one. 
 
 Afterwards one of those great mistakes which remained uncorrected 
 until our time was made. This was the altering of the coinage, and 
 the giving a value to the crown pieces not proportioned to the quarters 
 
 THE MISERIES OK WAR: VIOLENCE OF THE FRENCH IN THE INVASION OF 1672. 
 (From a Dutch print.) 
 
 in the re-coining ; the result was that the quarters were taken abroad 
 and struck into crowns, on which profit was made by sending them back 
 to France. A country must be vitally sound in itself to withstand such 
 shocks as these without loss of power. The people were not yet educated, 
 and finance, like physics, was a science of vain conjectures. The factors 
 to whom the revenues were farmed out were cheats who imjwsed on the 
 ministry ; the State was defrauded of eighty millions. Twenty years are 
 needed to repair such breaches. 
 
 About 1691 and 1692 the finances of the State appeared to be 
 seriously deranged. Those who attributed the dwindling of the resources 
 
CAUSES OF DECLINING WEALTH 
 
 265 
 
 mainly to the profuse expenditure of Louis XIV. on buildings, on the 
 arts, or on his pleasures, were not aware that, on the contrary, expenditure 
 which encourages industry enriches a State. It is war that necessarily 
 impoverishes the public treasury, unless it be replenished by the spoils of 
 the conquered. Since the ancient Romans I do not know of any nation 
 which has been enriched by its victories. Italy, in the sixteenth century, 
 
 SOLID SILVER COUCH, WITH THE ARMS OF THE SDN-KING AND ORNAMENTS IN GOLDSMITH'S WORK. • 
 (From a print by Saint-Jean, representing the bath-room of a laiiy of quality.) 
 
 was rich, but only by her commerce. Holland could never have subsisted 
 for any long period if she had limited herself to the capture of the 
 Spanish treasure-ships, if the Indies had not furnished the supplies which 
 were the aliment of her power. England has always been impoverished by 
 war, even when she was destroying the French fleets, and commerce only 
 has enriched her. The Algerians, who have nothing but what they gain 
 by piracy, are a very poor people. 
 
 2 M 
 
266 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
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 t[)fri>rr7itMsnsawi'-?-*t: v<&r& f.r. v. * v. 
 
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 SJCJSf .e .U>J,-<iV.Ts i Jilias "sr txMlt.Mt& vy 
 fits?- (otto <j2<'"-"-'£li ■ "■ '■■^ ■ 'l'"-< 'V""' /.r 
 
 H*£p_ t.'iu's.f rjj-'-.ty rn^sx£ -■fn&v JiA&zJssi 
 
 Among European nations, war, at the end of a few years, impoverishes 
 conqueror almost as much as the conquered. It is a gulf into which 
 all the streams of wealth fall. Ready money, that principle of all good 
 and every evil, raised with so much difficulty in the provinces, goes into 
 the coffers of a hundred contractors and farmers who advance the funds, 
 
 and by doing so purchase the 
 right of despoiling the nation 
 in the name of the sovereign. 
 Consequently private indi- 
 viduals, regarding the sovereign 
 as their enemy, conceal their 
 money, and the kingdom suffers 
 by the loss of circulation. 
 
 No hasty remedy can 
 supply the place of a fixed and 
 lasting; arrangement settled 
 long before, and which provides 
 in anticipation for unforeseen 
 wants. The poll-tax was im- 
 posed in 1695. It was repealed 
 at the peace of Ryswick, and 
 subsequently re-imposed. The 
 Comptroller-General Pontchar- 
 train sold patents of nobility 
 for two thousand crowns 
 in 1696 ; these were purchased 
 by five hundred individuals, 
 but the resource was temporary, 
 and the shame was permanent. 
 All the nobles, old and new 
 alike, were compelled to register their armorial bearings, and to purchase 
 permission to seal their letters with their arms. Tax-farmers transacted 
 that affair and advanced the money. The Ministry hardly ever resorted 
 to any but these small resources in a country that could have furnished 
 greater. 
 
 The "tenth" was not imposed until the year 1710. But this tithe, 
 levied after so many heavy imposts, seemed so hard that it could not be 
 
 f '''-if r, 
 
 ■f -resident' t -tpyfA&tr £&Xr 
 
 1- H--!.' ! '■- -IT' f <"--.- T J. ' JJ'/'i-v//.'//,!,'. 
 
 THE FRENCH PEASANT FORCED TO GO TO THE WAR. 
 (A Dutch caricature.) 
 
A FRAGMENT OF A PAGE OF AN ALMANAC OF THE TIME. 
 (Cabinet of Prints. BibHothefiue Nationale, Heuuin Collection.) 
 
PAPER-MONEY 
 
 269 
 
 rigorously exacted. The Government did not derive from 
 it twenty-five millions annually, at forty livres the marc. 
 
 Colbert had but slightly changed the legal value of the 
 coins. It is better not to change it at all. Gold and 
 silver, being pledges of exchange, should be invariable 
 standards. He only raised the legal value of the silver 
 marc from the twenty-six livres, at which he found it, to 
 twenty-seven and twenty-eight ; and after him, during 
 the last years of Louis XIV. that denomination was 
 extended to forty — a fatal expedient by which the King was relieved for 
 a moment to be subsequently ruined ; for instead of receiving a full marc, 
 he received little more than half. The debtor to the extent of twenty-six 
 
 GOLD COIN OF 1644. 
 (Upper side of the louis.) 
 
 THE GREAT THOMAS, PARISIAN QUACK AND DENTIST : 
 HIS TRIUMPHAL PROGRESS AMIDST HIS GOOD PEOPLE OF PARIS. 
 
 (From an anonymous etching in the Hennin Collection.) 
 
 livres paid a marc in 16G8, but the debtor in 1710 who owed forty livres 
 also paid very little over a marc, intrinsically worth no more then than 
 formerly. The diminutions that followed disturbed the little commerce 
 which remained as much as the augmentation had disturbed it. 
 
 A resource might have been found in paper-money, but paper 
 should be issued in a time of prosperity, to be available in a time of 
 misfortune. 
 
 The Minister (Chamillart) began to make payments in bills in 1706, 
 and as that paper-money was not accepted for the King's own coffers, it was 
 
270 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 discredited almost as soon as introduced. The Minister had to continue 
 to raise heavy loans, consuming thus four years of the Crown revenues in 
 anticipation. 
 
 What are called "extraordinary affairs" constantly arose, and ridiculous 
 posts, always purchased by those who wanted to escape taxation, were 
 
 THE GREAT WINTER OF 1709. 
 (An allegorical print of the period.) 
 
 created. The taille was always considered a degradation, and men being 
 born vain, the bait of discharge from that obligation always caught dupes, 
 and the considerable salaries attached to the new berths were an induce- 
 ment to buy them in bad times, for want of reflection that they 
 would be suppressed in better. Thus in 1707 the dignity of Councillors 
 of the King was invented for certain wine-brokers and carriers, and that 
 produced one hundred and forty thousand livres. Then came royal 
 registrars, sub-deputies of the intendants of provinces, comptrollers of the 
 
HARD TIMES 
 
 271 
 
 L A FIGURE VERITABLE DU SUPERBE-j 
 BONET DU GRAND THOMAS GPERATEUF 
 
 fiagT SANS I J AREIL 
 
 State timber-stacks : police- 
 officers, barber-wigmakers, in- 
 spectors of fresh and testers 
 of salt butter were made coun- 
 cillors. These absurdities make 
 us laugh now, they drew tears 
 then ! 
 
 Comptroller-General Des- 
 marets, the nephew of the 
 illustrious Colbert, having suc- 
 ceeded Chamillart in 1708, 
 could not cure an evil which 
 everything rendered incurable. 
 
 Nature conspired with 
 fortune to overwhelm the State. 
 The pitiless winter of 1709 
 compelled the King to remit 
 to the people nine millions of 
 taxes at a time when he had 
 no means of paying his soldiers ; 
 the dearth of food was so 
 great that it cost forty-five millions to provision the army. The expen- 
 diture of the year 1709 amounted to two hundred and twenty-one millions, 
 and the ordinary royal revenue produced only forty-four. The State had 
 to be ruined to prevent its enemies from becoming its masters. The disorder 
 grew so rapidly and was so ill-repaired that at the beginning of the year 
 
 1715, long after peace had been 
 made, the King was obliged to 
 get thirty-two millions' worth of 
 bills negotiated in order to obtain 
 eight millions in cash. At his 
 death he left debts to the amount 
 of two milliards six hundred 
 millions at twenty-eight livres 
 to the marc, making four mil- 
 "la course des mitbons," hards five hundred millions of 
 
 OR MEN OF THE PEOPLE BEATEN BY THE "GRANDS SEIGNEURS " ^ ^ , • • 1 »Tftn 
 
 ON THEIR WAY TO THE TOURNAMENT AT VERSAILLES. OUr CUlTent C0U1 in 1/OU. 
 
 (Popular caricature.) 
 
 CAP OF THE GREAT THOMAS, THE QUACK OF THE PONT NEUF. 
 (From a print of the period.) 
 
272 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 It is amazing, but it is true, that this enormous debt would not 
 have proved an insupportable burden had there been at the time a thriving 
 commerce, a settled paper credit, and substantial companies who would 
 have taken it up, as in Sweden, England, Venice and Holland : for 
 when a powerful State is debtor only to itself, confidence and circulation 
 suffice for payment ; but France at that time was far from having springs 
 
 enough to move so vast and 
 so complicated a machine then 
 crushing her by its weight. 
 
 Louis XIV. spent eighteen 
 milliards in the course of his 
 reign ; this represents an annual 
 expenditure of three hundred 
 and thirty millions if we allow 
 for the fluctuation of the 
 currency. 
 
 Under the administration of 
 the great Colbert the ordinary 
 revenues of the Crown amounted 
 only to one hundred and seven- 
 teen millions, at twenty-seven 
 livres and then twenty-eight 
 livres to the silver marc. All 
 the surplus was supplied by 
 " extraordinary affairs." Colbert, 
 thk fashion in 1678 : lady in shooting cosTUME. the greatest enemy of this fatal 
 
 (From a print by lionnart.') . . 
 
 resource, was obliged to adopt 
 it for prompt use. He borrowed eight hundred millions at the present 
 value during the war of 1672. Very little of the ancient domains of the 
 Crown now remained to the King. They are declared inalienable by all 
 the parliaments of the kingdom, nevertheless they are almost all gone. 
 The King's revenue at present consists of that of his subjects ; it is a 
 perpetual circulation of debts and payments. The King owes the citizens 
 more millions a year, under the name of " Rentes de l'Hotel de Ville," than 
 any sovereign has ever derived from the domains of the Crown. 
 
 To attain an idea of this prodigious growth of taxes, debt, wealth, 
 and circulation, and at the same time of the embarrassments and hardship 
 
AFTER COLBERT 
 
 273 
 
 that were endured in France and other countries, we 
 may recall the fact that at the death of Francois I. 
 the State owed thirty thousand livres of perpetual 
 " rentes " on the Hotel de Ville, and that it owes 
 at present more than forty-five millions. 
 
 They who have compared the revenues of Louis 
 crown piece of 1705, with XIV. with those of Louis XV. have found that, 
 insignia (ecu carambole taking into account only the fixed and current 
 
 DE FLANDRE). ° J 
 
 revenue, Louis XIV. was considerably richer in 1683, 
 at the time of Colbert's death, 
 with one hundred and seventeen 
 millions of revenue, than his 
 successor was in 1730 with 
 nearly two hundred millions; 
 and this is considering the 
 fixed and ordinary revenues 
 of the Crown only, for one 
 hundred and seventeen millions 
 at twenty-eight livres to the 
 marc is a larger sum than two 
 hundred millions at forty-nine 
 livres to the marc, to which the 
 King's revenue amounted in 
 1730. Besides and beyond this, 
 the charges augmented by the 
 loans to the Crown have to be 
 reckoned ; but also the revenues 
 of the King, that is to say, of 
 the State, have increased since 
 
 Pierertes . 
 
 i qanj ae, ■pen/rvb 
 
 jMhnchettes- dottbtei 
 Marvteau. de ^ra/ze 
 
 c) 'cnqieter-re. <J~ier ■ 
 osrvpmj' de Gmieur; 
 
 3 'Qnteifj? denaieierA 
 
 FASHION IN 1678 : A LADY IN SUMMER DRESS WITH 
 A DESCRIPTION OF THE COSTUME, THE FAN, 
 AND THE CANE. 
 
 CROWN PIECE OF 1709 WITH 
 THREE CROWNS (OBVERSE). 
 
 then ; and the knowledge of finance has made such 
 an advance that, in the ruinous war of 1741, there 
 was not a moment's discredit. A sinking-fund like 
 that of the English was adopted : it was necessary to 
 adopt a part of their system of finance as well as 
 their philosophy ; and if those circulating papers, 
 which at least double the wealth of England, could 
 be introduced into a purely monarchical State, the 
 
 2 N 
 
274 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 French administration would acquire her last degree of perfection, but 
 perfection too close in a monarchy to abuse. 
 
 There was about five hundred millions of coined money in the kingdom 
 in 1683, and about twelve hundred millions in 1730, according to present 
 reckoning. But the coin under the ministry of Cardinal de Fleury was 
 almost double what it was in the time of Colbert. It appears then 
 that France was only one-sixth more rich in current coin since the death of 
 
 Colbert. Her wealth is much 
 more largely increased in point 
 of wrought gold and silver- 
 employed for use and display. 
 In 1690 there was not four- 
 hundred millions' worth of our 
 present coinage, and in 1730 
 there was the same amount as 
 the specie in circulation. 
 Nothing shows more plainly 
 how commerce increased when 
 its channels, which the wars had 
 closed, were opened. Notwith- 
 standing; the emigration of so 
 many artists after the revoca- 
 tion of the Edict of Nantes, 
 arts and crafts were brought 
 to perfection, and industry in- 
 creases every day. The nation 
 is capable of things as great 
 or even greater than were done 
 under Louis XIV., because both genius and commerce always thrive by 
 encouragement. 
 
 Contemplating the comforts of private life, the prodigious number of 
 pleasant residences in Paris and in the provinces, the number of equipages, 
 the conveniences and refinements of what is called luxury, one might 
 suppose that opulence is twenty-fold greater than formerly. All this 
 is the fruit of intelligent industry even more than of wealth. It costs 
 little more to be comfortably housed to-day than it did to be indifferently 
 housed in the time of Henri IV. Fine mirrors of home manufacture 
 
 FASHION IN 1678 : A MAN IN WINTER COSTUME. 
 (Print by Bouuart.) 
 
VOLTAIRE ON THE PEASANT 275 
 
 adorn our houses at far less expense than the little mirrors that were 
 brought from Venice. Our beautiful and becoming stuffs cost less than 
 foreign goods, and are worth more. 
 
 It is not, in fact, silver and gold which procure the comfort of life, 
 it is ability, genius. A people who should have nothing but those metals 
 would be very poor ; a people who without those metals should utilise with 
 success all the products of the 
 earth, would be the really rich 
 people. France has this ad- 
 vantage, and also more money 
 than is wanted for circulation. 
 
 Industry, having perfected 
 itself in the towns, has increased 
 in the country. There will 
 always be complaints of the lot 
 of the husbandmen. We hear 
 these, or of them, in every 
 quarter of the world, and they 
 are chiefly uttered by opulent 
 idlers who condemn the govern- 
 ments more than they pity the 
 peoples. It is true that in 
 almost every country, if those 
 who spend their days in rustic 
 labour had leisure to murmur, 
 they would rise against the 
 exactions which deprive them 
 of a portion of their substance. 
 They would detest the necessity of paying taxes which they had not 
 imposed upon themselves, and that of bearing the burden of the State 
 without participating in the advantages of other citizens. It is not the 
 province of history to inquire into how the people are to contribute without 
 being oppressed, or to mark the precise point that is so difficult to find, 
 between the enforcement and the abuse of law, between taxation and 
 plunder ; but history ought to show that it is impossible for a town to 
 be flourishing unless the surrounding country is well off; for the towns 
 live on the country. 
 
 THE VILLAGER OE PEASANT WHO IS BORN TO LABOUR '. "HE IS 
 DESPISED AND NECESSARY.*' HIS OBJECT: "TAX PAID." 
 
 (From a satirical print by Guerard.) 
 
276 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Wine-growing became a prosperous branch of agricultural industry. New 
 wines formerly unknown, such as those of Champagne, have been given 
 colour, body and strength, equal to those of Burgundy, and sold abroad to 
 great advantage : this increase of wines has produced an increase of brandies. 
 The culture of vegetables and of fruit has been immensely extended, and 
 trade in provisions with the American colonies has been augmented thereby, 
 and the complaints of the poverty of the country parts that have been 
 
 urged at all times have ceased 
 to be well founded. Besides, 
 in these vague complainings, 
 the cultivators, the farmers, 
 are not distinguished from 
 the labourers. The latter live 
 by the work of their hands ; 
 this is so in every country 
 of the world, where the greater 
 number must live by toil. But 
 there is no kingdom on the 
 earth where the farmer, the 
 cultivator, is better off than in 
 some of the provinces of France ; 
 only England can dispute this 
 advantage with her. Propor- 
 tional, substituted in some 
 provinces for arbitrary taxation, 
 has also contributed to the 
 prosperity of cultivators who 
 own plough-lands, vineyards, 
 gardens. The labourer, the 
 workman, has to be reduced to necessity to make him work : such is 
 the nature of man. This majority of mankind must be poor, but they 
 must not necessarily be miserable. 
 
 The middle class have enriched themselves by industry. Ministers and 
 courtiers have been less wealthy because money has numerically increased 
 by nearly one half, salaries and pensions have remained the same, and the 
 price of provisions has risen to more than double ; this has happened in all 
 the countries of Europe. Dues and ifees are still on the old scale everywhere. 
 
 LEBICHON POUDRE 
 
 / Hornrae en pcrriTcrueBiiine ouMonde 
 
 Rinse ctec/iarmer tout le m onde 
 Maistleces vains clievcux Jamas prodimeux 
 Leu e noirae tab ace tp oti dr'eju s q u e s^ux ux 
 Sifor lemascjue et denVure 
 Qubn tie conn oil plus la nature 
 Dans sa crrmere blanche erifle commc vn 
 
 * fJ w sejn Me plus quvn BicJiqji 
 
 mane lion 
 
 : wtcptf-rraiioa 
 
 THE POWDERED PUG. 
 (Satirical print ou the fashion in wigs.) 
 
VOLTAIRE ON THE PEASANT 277 
 
 An Elector, when he is invested with his sovereignty, pays no more than 
 his predecessors paid in the time of the Emperor Charles IV. in the 
 fourteenth century, and at that ceremony a single crown piece was the 
 fee of the Emperor's secretary. 
 
 It is still more strange that while everything has increased, the 
 
 AN INTERIOR IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY : MAN AND WOMAN IN DESHABILLE. 
 (From an anonymous print in Hennin's Collection.) 
 
 pay of the soldier remains the same as it was two hundred years ago ; 
 five sous are given to the foot-soldier as in the time of Henri IV. Not 
 
 o 
 
 one of this multitude of ignorant men, who sell their lives so cheaply, 
 is aware that, considering the rise in money and the dearness of provisions, 
 he receives less by about two-thirds than the soldiers of Henri IV. If 
 he knew this, if he demanded pay higher by two-thirds, it would have to 
 be given to him, and then it would come to pass that each European power 
 
278 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 would maintain troops less by two-thirds ; the forces would still be equally 
 balanced, and agriculture and manufactures would benefit by the change. 
 
 It is also to be observed that the profits of commerce having 
 increased, and the emoluments of all the great offices having diminished 
 in value, there is less wealth among the great and more in the middle 
 class, and this has put less distance between men. Formerly there 
 was no resource for the small but to serve the great, but industry has 
 now opened a thousand roads which were not known a century ago. 
 Lastly, however the finances of the State may be administered, France 
 possesses an inestimable treasure in the labour of nearly twenty millions 
 of her inhabitants. 
 
 * 
 
 This conclusion, as well as the passage given above on the condition 
 of the peasantry in the seventeenth century, proves that Voltaire had 
 no great feeling for the labouring classes. What would France do 
 in the event of financial distress or bad administration if they did not 
 support her by their toil ? And would they work if they were pros- 
 perous ? This is the social philosophy of a contented man. 
 
 It is not that of La Bruycre when he wrote the justly celebrated 
 passage that follows : " Certain wild animals, male and female, are to be 
 seen in country places, black, livid, sunburnt, affixed to the soil, which 
 they dig and turn over with invincible persistence ; they have a kind of 
 articulate voice, and when they rise on their feet they show a human 
 face, and, in fact, they are men. They retire at night into dens where 
 they live on black bread, water and roots ; they save other men the 
 trouble of sowing, toiling and reaping, and do not deserve to lack that 
 1 tread which they have sown." 
 
 From the beginning to the end of the reign, contemporary writers 
 describe and deplore the misery of the poor classes. Guy Patin writes, 
 in 1660: "There is a project for fresh taxation; the people are dying 
 throughout France of misery, oppression, want and despair." 
 
 " The people groaned," says one of the King's magistrates in an official 
 speech, "under the hands of the extortioner in all the provinces, and it seemed 
 that all their substance and their own blood could not quench the burning 
 thirst of the tax-farmers. The misery of these poor people is almost at 
 the last extremity, as much from the continuance of the ills they have 
 
THE APPEAL OP SAINT-SIMON 
 
 279 
 
 suffered for so long as from the clearness of food, and the almost 
 unheard-of scarcity of the last two years." 
 
 In 1680, Madame de Sevigne, being struck with compassion, writes 
 on behalf of the peasants : "I see only people who owe me money and 
 have not bread, who sleep upon straw, and weep." 
 
 At the end of the reign, and owing to the miseries of war, the 
 situation became worse. Vauban in his " Oisevetes " remarks : " All the 
 poor people live on bread made of oats and barley mixed, with the bran 
 left in ; one might lift the loaf 
 by the oatstraws that are left in 
 it. The mass of the people do not 
 eat meat three times a year. They 
 are also crushed by the loans of 
 corn and money made to them in 
 their need by moneyed persons, who 
 extort usurious interest from them. 
 Within a limited space there are five 
 hundred and eleven houses in ruins 
 and uninhabitable ; two hundred and 
 forty-eight empty, seven hundred 
 and fifty-nine in all ; which is nearly 
 one-seventh of the whole, a plain 
 mark of the decline of the people." 
 
 They do not only suffer : they 
 die. And Saint-Simon says this to 
 
 Louis XIV. : " Will you persevere, Sire, in deafness ? Never had a king- 
 fixed revenues equal to a quarter of yours : I say yours, since that 
 augmentation is of your reign. Never did king create so much debt with 
 so little security, and without any proportion ; never were subjects more 
 faithful, more obedient, more submissive, even to silence from words, and of 
 thought itself ; never was there exhaustion like that of your Majesty, and 
 of all your State. 
 
 "What account is there of all this treasure which the ministers have 
 made you spend, and that has reduced you by dint of spending to seek it 
 in the very bones of your subjects, whose destitution causes the fields to 
 lie unfilled, prevents the breeding of the cattle, and leaves nothing for the 
 hard tax-gatherers but the remains of the dilapidated houses from which 
 
 HOMELY SIMPLICITY RESTORED TO THE HOUSEHOLD BY THE 
 "RACINE DE HOLA ! " OR THE HUSBANDS' STICK. 
 (Fragment of an Almanac.) 
 
280 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 they tear the timber and the framework to sell it for a trifle. These, Sire, 
 are not figments and exaggerations." 
 
 In 1725, Saint-Simon put a similar picture before Fleury. Here it 
 is : " In Normandy the people live on the grass of the fields. I speak 
 in secret and in confidence to a Frenchman, to a bishop, to a minister, 
 to the only man who appears to have any share in the confidence of 
 the King, who is a king only in so far that he has a kingdom and has 
 
 FIKLD WORK. 
 
 (From the picture by the brothers he Nam, Hay Harvest. — Mnsee ilu Louvre.) 
 
 subjects, yet is of an age to be able to feel the importance of this matter, 
 and who, although he is the first king in Europe, cannot be a great king 
 if he be king only of beggars of all conditions and if his kingdom is 
 turning into a vast hospital of dying and despairing people." 
 
 These eloquent appeals have met in our time with incredulous readers 
 who would incline, with Voltaire, to draw a less sombre picture of the 
 French people. The indignation of Vauban and La Bruycre inspires us, 
 however, with more confidence than the complacent philosophy of the 
 author of " Le Siecle de Louis XIV." 
 
FRIEZE IN GILT STUCCO FROM THE SALON DE L'(EIL-DE-BCEUF, 
 (ChateatTde Versailles. — Carving by Van C'leve.) 
 
 SCIENCES 
 
 T 
 
 ^HIS favoured century, which witnessed 
 the birth of a revolution in the 
 human miud, did not seem destined to 
 such fortune. To begin with philosophy, 
 there was no appearance in the time of 
 Louis XIII. that it would extricate itself 
 from chaos. The Inquisition in Italy, in 
 Spain, and in Portugal, had bound up 
 philosophic errors with the dogmas of 
 religion ; the civil wars in France, and the 
 quarrels of Calvinism, were not more likely 
 to cultivate human reason than was the 
 fanaticism of Cromwell's time in England. 
 
 Lord Bacon had shown the way to science from afar ; Galileo had 
 discovered the laws of falling bodies ; Torricelli had begun to know the 
 weight of the air that surrounds us ; some experiments had been made at 
 Magdeburg. Nevertheless the schools and the world were alike in ignorance. 
 Then came Descartes ; he did the very contrary of what ought to be 
 done ; instead of studying nature he guessed at it. He was the greatest 
 
 ORNAMENTED LETTER. 
 (By Franjois Chauveau.) 
 
284 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 geometrician of his time ; but geometry leaves the mind as it finds it. 
 Descartes was too much inclined to invention ; the first among mathema- 
 ticians produced romances of philosophy only. A man who disdained 
 experiments, who never quoted Galileo, one who would build without 
 materials, could raise none but an imaginary edifice. 
 
 The romantic portion of his system succeeded, and the little truth there 
 was in his new notions was at first contested. But at length that little 
 
 truth did prevail, owing to the 
 iBBHHBnnnnHHi method lie had introduced : for 
 
 before him there was no clue to 
 this labyrinth, and he at least 
 gave one, which others used 
 after he himself had gone astray. 
 It was important that the 
 delusions of peripateticism 
 should be destroyed, even by 
 other delusions. 
 
 These two phantoms fought ; 
 the one fell after the other, and 
 reason at last arose upon their 
 ruins. In that fatherland of 
 the arts, the " Academia del 
 Cimento" which Cardinal 
 Leopoldo de' Medici had founded 
 about 1655 at Florence, it was 
 already felt that the great 
 
 PORTRAIT OF DESCARTES BY S. BOURDON. 
 
 CMusee Lonvre.) edifice of Nature could only be 
 
 understood by examining- it 
 piece by piece. This Academy rendered great services after Galileo and 
 from the time of Torricelli. 
 
 A few philosophers in England, under the austere administration of 
 Cromwell, met together to seek for truths in peace, while fanaticism 
 was oppressing all truth. Charles II., who had been restored to the throne 
 of his ancestors, granted letters patent to this infant Academy, but that 
 was all the Government gave. The Royal Society, or rather the free 
 Society of London, worked for the honour of working. From its bosom 
 in our own day have proceeded discoveries respecting geometry, light, 
 
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
 
 285 
 
 the principle of gravitation, the aberration of the fixed stars, and many 
 others which might entitle this to be called "the century of the English" 
 as well as that of Louis XIV. 
 
 In 1666, M. Colbert, jealous of that rising fame, desired that 
 France should share it ; and, upon the petition of certain savants, he got 
 Louis XIV. to sanction the establishment of an Academy of Sciences. 
 This was free until 1699, like the Royal Society of London and the 
 Acade'mie Francaise. Colbert 
 brought Domenico Cassini from 
 Italy, Huygens from Holland, 
 and Roemer from Denmark by 
 large salaries. Roemer deter- 
 mined the velocity of the sun's 
 rays, Huygens discovered the 
 rino- of Saturn and one of 
 his satellites, and Cassini dis- 
 covered the other four. Huy- 
 gens, though he was not 
 actually the inventor of pen- 
 dulum-clocks, denned the true 
 principles of the regularity of 
 their movements — principles 
 which he had deduced from his 
 profound study of geometry. 
 
 Previous systems were 
 now discarded, and information 
 on all the parts of physical 
 science was gradually attained. 
 The public was astonished with 
 a chemistry which did not seek the philosopher's stone or the elixir of life, 
 astronomy which did not predict future events, and medicine independent 
 of the phases of the moon. Corruption was no longer the mother of 
 animals and of plants. There were no more prodigies, so soon as Nature was 
 better known, and she was being studied in all her productions. 
 
 Geography made startling advances. Louis XIV. had no sooner built 
 the Observatoire than he set Domenico Cassini and Picard to work in 1669 
 upon a meridian line. This was continued northwards by Lahire in 1683, 
 
 LOUIS XIV. VISITING THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AND 
 THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
 (From an engraving by Sebastien Leclerc.) 
 
286 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 and was finally prolonged by Cassini in 1700 to the extremity of 
 Roussillon. It is the finest astronomical monument, and might suffice to 
 immortalise the century. 
 
 In' lf> 72 physicists were sent to Cayenne to make observations. This 
 voyage was the origin of our knowledge of the depression of the earth at 
 the poles : this was afterwards demonstrated by Sir Isaac Newton, and it 
 led to those more famous voyages which did such honour to the reign of 
 
 Louis XIV. 
 
 Tournefort was despatched 
 to the East in 1700 to collect 
 plants for the Jardin Royal 
 (Jar din des Plantes), which had 
 been completely neglected, but 
 was restored, and is now an 
 object of curiosity to Europe. 
 The Bibliotheque Royale, 
 already extensive, received an 
 addition of thirty' thousand 
 volumes under Louis XIV. ; 
 and this example has been so 
 faithfully followed that the 
 number of volumes is now 
 over one hundred and eighty 
 thousand. The King re-opened 
 giovanni domenico cassini (1625-1712). the School of Law which had 
 
 (From an engraving by C'ossiu.) 
 
 been closed for a century, and 
 he established a professor of French law in all the universities. 
 
 In his reign newspapers came into existence. Le Journal des Savants, 
 first published in 1665, was the parent of all the works of this kind which 
 now abound in Europe. 
 
 The Academie des Belles-lettres, originally founded in 1663 by a few 
 members of the Academie Francaise, for the purpose of transmitting the 
 actions of Louis XIV. to posterity by medals, became useful to the public 
 so soon as it ceased to be exclusively occupied with the monarch, and 
 applied itself to antiquarian research and judicious criticism of opinions 
 and facts. It did almost the same for history as the Academy of Sciences 
 did for physics — it dispelled error. 
 
SUPERSTITION AND ITS DECREASE 
 
 287 
 
 The spirit of wisdom and criticism which 
 spread from one to another insensibly destroyed 
 a great deal of superstition. In 1672 the King 
 prohibited the courts from admitting mere 
 accusations of sorcery. Henri IV. or Louis XIII. 
 would not have ventured to do this, and 
 although subsequently to 1672 charges of witch- 
 craft have been brought before the judges, they 
 have generally condemned the accused only as 
 guilty of profanity and the employment of 
 poison. 
 
 It was formerly a common practice to put 
 sorcerers to the test by throwing them, bound with ropes, into the water : 
 if they floated, they were convicted. Several provincial judges had ordered 
 
 MEDAL COMMEMORATIVE OP THE 
 FOUNDATION OF THE ACADEMY OF 
 INSCRIPTIONS AND MEDALS : 
 "RERDM GESTARUM PIDES." 
 
 
 ■ Tf 
 
 
 
 
 
 A SITTING IN A CHEMICAL LABORATORY : CHEMISTRY AT THE ACADEMY OP SCIENCES IN THE 
 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 (Engraving by S. Leclere in Metnoires pour servir a Vhistoire des plantes, by Dotlart.) 
 
 these ordeals, and the practice subsisted for a long time among the people. 
 Every shepherd was a sorcerer, and amulets and constellation-rings were in 
 use in the towns. That water-springs, treasure or thieves were discovered 
 by the divining-rod, was considered certain, and is still believed in more 
 than one German province. Almost everyone had his horoscope drawn ; 
 magic secrets were the common talk. Scholars and magistrates had written 
 seriously on these matters ; a class of demonographers was admitted 
 among authors. There were rules for discerning true magicians and those 
 who were really possessed. 
 
288 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Superstitious ideas were so deeply rooted in the people that they were 
 frightened by comets, even in 1G80, and few had courage, to oppose the 
 popular credulity. Jacques Bernoulli, one of the great mathematicians of 
 Europe, in refuting popular notions respecting the comet of that year, 
 argued that the coma of the comet, because it is eternal, could not be a 
 sign of the Divine wrath, but that the tail might be. And yet neither 
 the tail nor the head is eternal. Bayle wrote a book against the popular 
 prejudice ; but the progress of reason has deprived it of its piquancy. 
 
 Although kings have no reason to be obliged to philosophers, it 
 
 is true that the philosophic spirit which 
 has gained access to all conditions of men 
 except the lowest, contributes to uphold 
 the rights of sovereigns. Quarrels 
 which might formerly have led to 
 excommunications, interdicts, and 
 schisms, have not done so. It has 
 jeen said that nations would be happier if 
 they had philosophers for kings, but it may 
 also be said that kings are better off when 
 they have philosophers for subjects. 
 
 It must be confessed that the reason- 
 able spirit which was beginning to preside 
 over education in the great towns was 
 unable to control the fury of the fanatics of the Cevennes, or the violence 
 of the mob around a tomb at Saint-Medard ; neither did it calm the 
 frivolous disputes between obstinate men who ought to have been wise. 
 But before this century those disputes would have caused troubles in the 
 State ; the miracles of Saint-Medard would have been believed by the most 
 respectable citizens, and fanaticism, which was happily confined to the 
 mountains of the Cevennes, would have extended to the towns. 
 
 All kinds of science and literature have been exhausted in this 
 century, and so many writers have enlarged the bounds of knowledge 
 that those who in other times would have passed for prodigies have been 
 lost in the crowd. Their fame is little, and the fame of the century is 
 great, because of their number. 
 
 A LITTER OF RATS TIED BY THE TAIL. 
 (A great womier that occurred in Germany in 1686, and is 
 accredited by a popular print.) 
 
 T f 
 
THE EULOGY OF VOLTAIRE 
 
 289 
 
 lu giving the sciences the foremost place in this picture of the 
 progress of the French mind during the seventeenth century, we have 
 respected the order that was adopted by Voltaire. That order, as he 
 acknowledges, is not favourable to the true perspective of the epoch. 
 
 He adopted it because he was especially anxious to trace the elements 
 of modern thought in the Great Century in describing its successor. 
 For Voltaire, as to d'Alembert, sciences and philosophy united, and the 
 spirit of criticism and research awoke 
 humanity from a long lethargy at the 
 close of the reign of Louis XIV. " A 
 light is shining that did not enlighten 
 our forefathers." In their eagerness to 
 salute the dawn of that new era, to exalt 
 Gassendi, Bayle and Fontenelle, the men 
 of the eighteenth century exaggerated 
 the darkness that had preceded it. 
 
 Voltaire perhaps, like the others, 
 has overstated the facts ; but his ad- 
 miration for the achievements of his 
 own age has not made him unjust for 
 a single instant towards the Great 
 Century. 
 
 None have enjoyed and praised the literary and artistic works of the 
 contemporaries of Louis XIV. more than Voltaire. He was large-minded 
 enough to appreciate how widely they had extended the sphere of the 
 French intellect. We shall see with what vivid perception and true 
 emotion he afterwards speaks of the other lights of literature and the 
 arts in the reign of the great King. 
 
A CRITICISM ON THIS FASHIONS. 
 (From a caricature of the period.) 
 
(From a composition by S. Leclerc in the series called "The Lorraine.") 
 
 II 
 
 LITERATURE 
 
 QOUND philosophy did not make so great 
 ^ progress in France as in England or 
 at Florence ; and although the Academy of 
 Sciences rendered services to mankind in 
 general, it did not put France above other 
 nations. All the great inventions and all 
 the great truths came from elsewhere. 
 
 But, in eloquence, in poetry, in litera- 
 ture, in works on morals, and in fiction and 
 entertainment, the French were the legislators 
 
 ORNAMENTAL LETTER BY FR. CHAUVEAU. 
 
 (For the Collection of Courses de tries et de ungues, of Europe. Taste existed no longer in Italv. 
 
 of the Imprimerie Royale.) 
 
 True eloquence was unknown anywhere ; 
 religion was ill-taught in the pulpit, and causes were ill-pleaded at the bar. 
 
 Preachers quoted Virgil and Ovid ; lawyers Saint Augustine and 
 Saint Jerome. The genius who should give grace, rhythm, propriety of 
 style and dignity to the French language, had not yet appeared. Some 
 verses of Malherbe made it felt that the language was capable of grandeur 
 and force ; but that was all. The same gifted men who had written 
 very well in Latin, for instance President De Thou, a Chancellor of the 
 Hospital, failed when they handled their own rebellious language. French 
 was not yet commendable except for a certain piquancy which had 
 
292 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 constituted the sole merit of Joinville, Amyot, Marot, Montaigne, Regnier, 
 of " La Satire Menippee." 
 
 The first orator who spoke in the grand style was Jean de Lingendes, 
 Bishop of Macon : he is now forgotten because he never had his works 
 printed. His sermons and his funeral orations, though they were not free 
 from the defects of his time, were the model of orators who imitated and 
 surpassed him. The funeral oration in 1G30 on Charles Emmanuel, Duke 
 of Savoy, surnamed in his own country " the Great," which the Bishop 
 delivered, was so finely eloquent that Flechier long afterwards took the 
 entire exordium, as well as the text and several striking passages, and 
 used them in his oration at the funeral of the Vicomte de Turenne. 
 
 Balzac gave variety and har- 
 mony to prose about the same 
 time. It is true that his letters 
 were bombastic harangues ; he 
 wrote to the Cardinal de Retz : 
 " You have just assumed the 
 sceptre of kings with the 
 colours of roses." Notwith- 
 standing this fault he charmed 
 the ear. Eloquence has such 
 power over men that Balzac was admired in his day for having discovered 
 the art of choosing words harmoniously, and indeed for having frequently 
 used it out of place. 
 
 Voiture gives some idea of the light graces of this epistolary style, 
 which is not the best, being mainly jesting. His letters are mere 
 buffoonery ; in the two volumes not one instructive letter is to be found, 
 not one that comes from the heart, not one that paints the manners of 
 the times and the characters of men. This is abuse rather than use 
 of wit. 
 
 The language was now becoming more refined, and taking a permanent 
 form. This was due to the Academie Francaise, and especially to 
 Vaugelas. His "Traduction de Quinte-Curce," which appeared in 1646, 
 was the first book written in a good style, and only a few of his 
 expressions are now out of date. 
 
 Olivier Patru, who came immediately after him, did much to refine 
 the language ; and although he did not pass for a profound lawyer, 
 
 IF THE ACADEMIE FRANCAISE RECENTLY INSTALLED 
 AT THE LOUVHE. 
 
THE FAMOUS MAXIMS 
 
 293 
 
 such order, perspicuity, propriety, and elegance of speech as his were 
 previously absolutely unknown at the bar. 
 
 The little collection of the Maxims by Francois, Due de la Roche- 
 foucauld, contributed largely to form the style of the language and to 
 give it terseness and precision. Although the one truth, that selfishness 
 is the motive of everything, is almost the only truth is this book, the 
 thought is presented under so many different aspects that it rarely fails 
 to be attractive. It is not so much a book as material for the ornamenting 
 of a book. This little collection was 
 eagerly read ; it accustomed its readers to 
 think, and to cast their thoughts into a 
 precise, refined and expressive form. This 
 had never been done by anybody before 
 the Due de la Rochefoucauld, since the 
 revival of letters in Europe. 
 
 But the first prose work of genius was 
 Pascal's " Lettres Provinciales," published 
 in 1656. Every sort of eloquence is to 
 be found in that. Not a single word in it 
 has been affected in a hundred years by 
 the alteration that often occurs in living 
 languages. This work fixed the standard 
 of the language. The Bishop of Lucon, 
 son of the famous Bussy, told me that 
 when he asked the Bishop of Meaux what work he would have best liked 
 to have written, if he had not written his own, Bossuet replied, " The 
 ' Lettres Provinciales.' " They lost much of their point when the Jesuits 
 were abolished, and the subjects of their disputes fell into oblivion. 
 
 The good taste that reigns throughout this book and the vigour of 
 the later letters did not at first avail to correct diffuseness, incorrectness 
 and slovenliness of style in authors, preachers, and lawyers. 
 
 Pere Bourdaloue was the first of the new great preachers. He 
 brought eloquence and reason together in the pulpit in 1668. He was a 
 new light. He was succeeded by other pulpit orators, such as Pere 
 Massillon, Bishop of Clermont, who spoke with greater grace than he, and 
 depicted the manners of the age with finer precision ; but he has never 
 been forgotten. His style was strong rather than florid, there was nothing 
 
 CONRART, THE FOUNDER OF THE ACADEMIE 
 FEANOAISE. 
 (Portrait by Lefebvre, engraved by Coussin.) 
 
294 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 imaginative in it ; he desired to convince rather than to touch his hearers, 
 and never sought to please. 
 
 He had l>een preceded by Bossuet, afterwards Bishop of Meaux. 
 The latter, who became so great a man, was betrothed while quite a 
 youth to Mademoiselle Desvieux, an admirable young lady. His taste 
 and talent for theological studies, and his gift of eloquence manifested 
 themselves so early, that his relations and friends induced him to devote 
 himself to the Church. Mademoiselle Desvieux herself urged him to this 
 
 decision, and was consoled by 
 R O N D E A V her prevision of the fame that 
 
 AVX RR. PR I ESVITES. awaited him. 
 
 Sui Icur Morale accommodanee. He was still young when 
 
 '.Enie^-vous, pnhe^, laddrcfefans fecond^ he preached before the King 
 
 \DeU trouppe fameufe en Efcobars fuond^ i ,1 r\ ±1 • -, n^n 
 
 'Nous Utjfe ves douceurs funs leur Lrttl vtmm* iUld tllC Queen-mother m 1662, 
 
 o^sj^fi^mmi&u^H^bemn. \ ong before Bourdaloue was 
 
 zjilnnt Jans peine ait act duns \<nt pctx profonde_,. 
 
 known. His sermons, which 
 Ltnftry ferfi. fis droits; & ft le diatlt en tnnAt± r , , 
 
 Onn aura qu'aluy dne t^llcf, cjprit immond%, were made doubly impressive 
 
 Dep.r Bauny, Sanchez Caftro, Gam, Tambourin, , dignified and noble gesture, 
 
 were the first with any ap- 
 
 CMak, o-Ptrts ftatteur;, fot qui fur vousfe fondc* 
 Car lAuteur inconttit qui par Lettrts msus frondc, proacll to the Sublime that 
 
 De wjlre Tolistque & dt'eouuett le fin.,* 1 i 1 i_ i r< -. 
 
 VosproMteZ font prvebes d* Icur fiL, llfld been heard &t C ° Urt ' alld 
 
 Q»t»tjLrtutKui<ke rc btz™N9oat*»Aiondt, so ffrea t was their success that 
 
 the Kingf had a letter sent in 
 
 A RONDEAU TO THK JESUIT FATHERS. 
 
 his name to the preacher's 
 
 Placed at the end of the Introduction to one of the early editions J- 
 
 of the Lettre* Provimiales (Cologne, 1657). father, wllO Was intendailt of 
 
 Soissons, to congratulate him on possessing such a son. 
 
 When Bourdaloue appeared, Bossuet could no longer rank as the 
 foremost preacher. He was already famous for his funeral sermons, and 
 had been rewarded with the bishopric of Condom for his oration at the 
 1 lurial of Anne of Austria. That discourse was not quite worthy of him ; 
 it was not printed, nor were his ordinary sermons. His funeral panegyric 
 on the Queen-Dowager of England, widow of Charles I., in 1669, was in 
 almost every respect a masterpiece. The interest of these displays of 
 eloquence is in proportion to the misfortunes which have marked the 
 lives of the subjects of them. It is the same in the case of tragedies ; 
 the growing interest attaches to the accumulating woes of the leading 
 personages. His funeral panegyric on Madame, who died in her prime, 
 
BOSSUET 
 
 295 
 
 and with him by her side, achieved the greatest and more rare of triumphs ; 
 it made the Court weep ! He was obliged to stop after he uttered the 
 famous words ; "0 nuit desastreuse ! nuit effroyable, oil retentit tout a 
 coup, comme un eclat de tonnerre, cette etonnante nouvelle : Madame se 
 meurt, Madame est morte ! " The voice of the orator was lost in the 
 sobs of his hearers. 
 
 The French were the only 
 people who produced this 
 kind of eloquence. Some time 
 afterwards Bossuet invented a 
 new kind, and it succeeded 
 because it was his. He applied 
 the art of oratory to history, 
 which seems to exclude it. His 
 " Discours sur l'histoire Univer- 
 selle," composed for the educa- 
 tion of the Dauphin, had no 
 model, and found no imitators. 
 His method of reconciling the 
 chronology of the Jews with 
 that of the other nations has 
 been challenged by savants ; 
 but his style has only admirers. 
 The majestic power of his 
 description of the manners, 
 the government, the growth 
 and the fall of great empires 
 astonished everybody, and the 
 courageous truthfulness with which he depicts and judges the nations 
 deepened that impression. 
 
 Almost all the works which did honour to the century were of a 
 kind unknown to antiquity. "Telemaque" is of this number. Fenelon, the 
 disciple and friend of Bossuet, and who afterwards, in spite of himself, 
 became his rival and his foe, composed this singular book, which is half 
 romance and half poem, and substitutes a cadenced prose for verse. In 
 " Telemaque " Fenelon purposed to treat romance as Bossuet had treated 
 history, by giving it charm and dignity hitherto unknown, and especially 
 
296 
 
 THE CENTURY OP LOUIS XIV 
 
 by investing it with a moral utility to human nature that never had been 
 previously attempted. It was believed that he had written " Telemaque " 
 for the instruction of the Due de Bourgogne, and the other children of 
 France, as Bossuet had written his " Histoire Universelle " for the instruction 
 of Monseigneur (the Grand Dauphin) ; but his nephew, the Marquis de 
 Fenelon, the inheritor of his uncle's virtues, who was killed at the battle 
 
 of Recoux, assured me that 
 this was not the case. 
 
 The book was not written 
 until after his retirement to 
 Cambray. He was deeply read 
 in classic literature ; his im- 
 agination was both vivid and 
 tender ; he made a style which 
 was his only and flowed in 
 unchecked abundance from its 
 source. I have seen the original 
 manuscript ; it does not contain 
 ten erasures. He completed it 
 in three months in the midst 
 of the unhappy disputes on 
 Quietism, little thinking how 
 far superior to his occupations 
 this recreation was. It is said 
 that a servant stole a copy 
 and had it printed. If this be 
 so, the Archbishop of Cambray 
 owed to that theft all the 
 reputation he had in Europe, but his irretrievable ruin with the Court 
 was also due to it. 
 
 It was believed that " Telemaque " was an indirect criticism on the 
 government of Louis XIV. Sesostris, who was too ostentatious in his 
 triumph, and Idomeneus, who made Salentum luxurious, but forgot the 
 necessaries of life, were taken to be portraits of the King, although after 
 all it requires the arts which produce the first necessities to procure the 
 superfluous by their superabundance. To the eye of the malcontents 
 the Marquis de Louvois was represented under the name of Protesilaus, 
 
 J. B. BOSSUET AT THE AGE OF SEVENTY-TWO. 
 (From the original by Kigaml, engraved by Sarrabat.) 
 
" TELJEM AQUE" 
 
 297 
 
 the vain, stern and haughty enemy of the great captains who served the 
 State and not the minister. 
 
 The allies who combined against Louis XIV. in the war of 1688, and 
 who afterwards shook his power in the war of 1701, were delighted to 
 recognise him in this same 
 Idomeneus whose arrogance 
 alienated all his neighbours. 
 These allusions made a pro- 
 found impression, because of 
 the harmonious style that so 
 gently persuades to moderation 
 and peace. Foreigners and even 
 Frenchmen, weary of war, dis- 
 covered a satire, in a book 
 written to inculcate all the 
 virtues, with mischievous satis- 
 faction. A great number of 
 editions were published. I have 
 seen fourteen in English. After 
 the death of the monarch who 
 was so much feared, envied and 
 respected by all, so much hated 
 by some, and when human 
 malignity ceased to revel in 
 allusions which were supposed 
 to censure his conduct, a more 
 stern court of opinion judged 
 " Telemaque " severely enough, 
 blaming the work for prolixity, 
 detail, want of cohesion, and 
 also for repetition and the 
 monotony of the scenes of 
 rural life ; nevertheless, " Telemaque " has always been regarded as one of 
 the glories of a resplendent age. 
 
 " Les Caracteres," by La Bruyere, is also a work that stands alone. 
 Its style, fluent, concise, vigorous, its picturesque phrases and novel use of 
 the language, without violation of its rules, struck the public, and the 
 
 2 Q 
 
 IV 5:'! , ... j,,, 
 
 Ujcc/ue&ar' de~tej-timc-rtiLr-tuw in canrpectri rtgum 
 % Jl-T medrttibar- in mandcttir'-tiiis'JPfat. Ji 
 
 BOURDALOUE AT PRAYER. 
 (From the painting by Jquvenet, engraved by Rossler.) 
 
298 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 transparent allusions secured its success. When La Bruyere showed his 
 manuscript to M. de Malezieu, the latter said: "This is certain to 
 bring you many leaders and also many enemies. The work ceased 
 to be rated so highly when the entire generation it had attacked had 
 
 passed away. Nevertheless, as 
 it treats of matters that are for 
 all time and all places, it is 
 not likely ever to be forgotten. 
 " Telemaque " has had some 
 imitators; " Les Caracteres" has 
 had more. It is easier to sive 
 
 O 
 
 pictures in little of things that strike 
 us, than to produce a long work 
 of imagination which pleases while 
 it instructs. 
 
 The delicate art of imparting 
 grace to philosophy was new. " Les 
 Mondes " was the first example of 
 it ; but a dangerous example, because 
 the true setting of philosophy is 
 order, lucidity and, above all, truth. 
 The book was ingenious, but it has 
 probably failed to be ranked as 
 a classic because it is founded in 
 part upon the chimerical theory of 
 Descartes. 
 
 We shall not dwell here upon 
 the number of good books of the 
 century, but w T ill pause only at the 
 new or singular productions of genius 
 which distinguish it from other 
 centuries. The eloquence of Bossuet and Bourdaloue, for instance, was not 
 and could not be that of Cicero. If the new eloquence had any resemblance 
 to that of the Roman orator, the likeness will be traced in the three 
 memorials which Pellisson composed for Fouquet. They are of the same kind 
 as several of the orations of Cicero, a mixture of legal with State affairs, 
 treated with sound unobtrusive art, and adorned by affecting eloquence. 
 
 SUITE 
 D E IODIC EE 
 
 DHOMERE- 
 
 A l i p s o ne pou- 
 voit fe confoler du 
 depart'd'Ulyfle: daiis 
 a douleur elle fe trouyoit 
 malheureufe d'eftre immor- 
 telle. Sa gfotte ne refonnoit 
 pins du doux chant de fa 
 voix . les Nimphes qui la fer- 
 voient n'ofoient luy parier, 
 elle fe promenoit ibuvenc 
 feule fur les gafons fleuris , 
 
 FIRST PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF ' ' TELEMAQUE, ' 
 WHICH APPEARED UNDER THE TITLE: "SUITE 
 
 DE l'odyssee d'homere." 
 
PROSE BORN OF POETRY 
 
 299 
 
 We have had historians, but never a Livy. The style of " La 
 Conjuration de Venise " bears comparison with that of Sallust. The Abbe 
 de Saint Real evidently took him for his model, and perhaps he has 
 surpassed him. All the other works to which we have referred belong 
 
 to a new creation. This is the 
 special distinction of the great 
 century ; for the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries produced 
 savants and commentators in 
 plenty, but true genius in any 
 line was not yet developed. 
 
 Who would believe that all 
 these fine works in prose would 
 probably never have existed if 
 they had not been preceded by 
 poetry ? This is, however, the 
 destiny of the human intellect 
 in every nation ; verse has always 
 been the first-born of genius, and 
 the first teacher of eloquence. 
 
 Nations are like individuals. 
 Plato and Cicero began by 
 writing in verse. Not a passage 
 of noble or sublime French prose 
 could be quoted, when everyone 
 knew the few beautiful stanzas 
 left by Malherbe, and it is con- 
 ceivable that, save for Pierre 
 Corneille, the genius of prose 
 would not have been developed. 
 Corneille is all the more admirable because he had only bad models 
 when he began to produce tragedies, and these bad models were held in 
 esteem. For his greater discouragement too, they were favoured by 
 Cardinal de Richelieu, the patron of men of letters, but not of good 
 taste. The Cardinal-minister rewarded small writers, who are generally 
 servile, and desired to keep down those in whom, to his displeasure, he 
 recognised real genius, which seldom stoops to dependence. Good artists 
 
 FRONTISPIECE OF THE FIRST COMPLETE EDITION OF 
 : TELEMAQUE," PUBLISHED IN 1717 BY THE MARQUIS DE FENELON. 
 (Print by Baillcul and Duflos.) 
 
300 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 are very seldom patronised by a power-wielding man who is himself 
 an artist. 
 
 Corneille had to contend with his time, his rivals, and Cardinal de 
 Richelieu. I will not repeat here what has been written concerning " Le 
 Cid." I shall merely remark that the Academie Franchise, in its judicial 
 decisions between Corneille and Scudery, were too accommodating to 
 
 Richelieu in condemning 
 Chiniene (Ximena). That she 
 should love the murderer and 
 yet seek vengeance for the 
 murder was sublime. The 
 denial of her love would have 
 been a capital defect in tragic 
 art, which chiefly consists in 
 the strife of the heart ; but 
 art was unknown then except 
 to Pierre Corneille. 
 
 " Le Cid " was not the 
 only work of its author that 
 Cardinal de Richelieu would 
 have put down if he could. 
 The Abbe d'Aubignac tells us 
 that the great Minister dis- 
 approved of "Polyeucte." 
 
 " Le Cid " is, after all, a 
 highly-embellished imitation of 
 Guillem de Castro, and in many 
 places a direct translation. 
 " China," which followed it, was 
 original. I knew an old servant of the house of Conde who said that the 
 great Conde, then about twenty years of age, being present at a 
 first performance of " Cinna," shed tears at the words of Augustus : — 
 
 Je suis maitre de moi comme de l'univers ; 
 
 Je le suis, je veux l'etre. O siecles ! O memoire ! 
 
 Ccmservez a jamais ma derniere victoire. 
 
 Je triomphe aujourd'hui du plus juste courroux 
 
 De qui le souvenir puisse aller jusqu'a vous : 
 
 Soyons amis, Cinna ; c'est moi qui t'en convie. 
 
 GEORGES DE SCUDERY. 
 (From a print by Desrochers.) 
 
CORNEILLE AND CONDE 
 
 301 
 
 Those were the tears of a hero. The great Corneille making the great 
 Conde weep with admiration is a memorable epoch in the history of the 
 human mind. 
 
 The large number of inferior plays which he wrote many years after- 
 wards did not prevent the nation from regarding him as a great man, 
 just as the considerable defects of Homer did not prevent him from 
 being sublime. It is the privilege of 
 true genius, and especially of the 
 genius that initiates, to make great 
 mistakes with impunity. 
 
 Corneille was formed by him- 
 self only, but Louis XIV., Colbert, 
 Sophocles, and Euripides all contributed 
 to form Racine. An ode which he 
 composed at the age of eighteen in 
 honour of the marriage of the kino- 
 brought him an unexpected present, 
 and determined him to devote himself 
 to poetry. His reputation has grown 
 from day to day, and that of Corneille 
 has declined a little. The reason is 
 that in all his works since his " Alex- 
 andre " Racine is always elegant, always 
 correct, always real, that he speaks to 
 the heart, and that Corneille too often 
 fails in all these respects. Racine went 
 far beyond the Greeks and Corneille 
 
 in the understanding of the passions, and carried the sweet harmony ot 
 verse and the graces of speech to the highest point they could reach. 
 These men taught the nation to think, to feel, and to express itself. 
 Their hearers, their pupils, instructed by them alone, at last became severe 
 critics of their teachers. 
 
 There were but few persons in France in the time of Richelieu 
 capable of detecting the faults of " Le Cid " : and in 1702, when 
 " Athalie " was performed for the Duchesse de Bourgogne and her guests, 
 the courtiers considered themselves competent to condemn it. Time has 
 avenged the author, but the great man died without enjoying the fame 
 
 PIERRE CORNEILLE. 
 (From the original portrait by Lebnm.) 
 
302 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 of his finest work. A numerously-composed " set " deliberately did injustice 
 to Racine. Madame de Sevigne, whose epistolary style was unrivalled in the 
 century, and especially for its airy grace in discussing or describing trifles, 
 always thinks Racine "will not last." She pronounced on him as she did 
 on coffee, saying, " people will soon find it out." Reputations need time 
 to mature. 
 
 The singular destiny of this century made Moliere the contemporary 
 of Corueille and Racine. It is not true that Moliere, when he appeared, 
 
 found the stage absolutely destitute 
 of good comedies. Corneille himself 
 had produced " Le Menteur," a play 
 of character and intrigue, taken like 
 " Le Cid " from the Spanish stage, 
 and Moliere had produced but two 
 of his masterpieces in 1664 when 
 Quinault gave " La Mere coquette," 
 a play of character and intrigue, 
 indeed a model of intrigue, to the 
 public. This was the first comedy 
 that depicted those who have since 
 been called " les marquis." Most of 
 the " grands seigneurs" at the Court 
 of Louis XIV. longed to imitate the 
 master's air of grandeur, dignity, 
 and splendour. Those of an inferior 
 order copied the proud bearing of 
 the class above them ; so that many carried their pretensions to importance 
 to the height of absurdity. 
 
 This went on for a long time. Moliere attacked the evil frequently, 
 and he contributed to deliver the public from these pretenders, as well 
 as from the affectation of the " precieuses," the pedantry of the " femmes 
 savantes," and from the gowns and the Latin of the doctors. Moliere 
 was, if one may say so, a law-giver in good manners. I speak here 
 only of this one social service which he rendered to his time ; his other 
 merits are sufficiently known. 
 
 Well worthy of the attention of the time to come is that in 
 which the heroes of Corneille and Racine, the characters of Moliere, the 
 
 (Iran the original portrait fcy Mignavd, which belonged to the 
 Due il'Aumale, Chateau de Chantilly.) 
 
A BRILLIANT GROUP 
 
 303 
 
 THE GREAT CONDE. 
 (From a medal by Ckeron, face.) 
 
 symphonies of Lulli, 
 all new to the nation, 
 the eloquence of Bos- 
 suet and Bourdaloue, 
 were made known 
 to Louis XIV., to 
 Madame, so famous 
 for her fine taste, to 
 Conde, to Turenne, to 
 Colbert, and to the 
 eminent men who 
 
 THE TRIUMPHS OF THE GREAT CONDE. 
 (Same medal, reverse.) 
 
 appeared in numbers in all ranks. The Due de La Rochefoucauld, the 
 author of the " Maximes," might theu have come away from a conver- 
 sation with a Pascal or an Arnauld to go to a play by Corneille. 
 
 Despreaux raised himself to the level of so many great men, not by 
 his early satires, for posterity will care little for " Les Embarras de Paris," 
 or for the names of Cassaigne and Cotin ; but he 
 was instructing that posterity when he wrote his 
 elegant letters, and especially " L'Art Poetique," in 
 which Corneille found much to learn. 
 
 La Fontaine, much less chaste in 
 less correct in language, but unrivalled 
 in simplicity and gracefulness all his own, 
 stands almost alongside of those greatest 
 men, by his perfection in the simplest 
 things. 
 
 Quinault, in an original fashion which 
 was all the more difficult that it seemed 
 easy, was worthy of a place among his 
 illustrious contemporaries. It is well known with 
 what injustice Boileau treated him. Boileau had 
 never sacrificed to the Graces ; and so all his life 
 he tried to humiliate a man whom the Graces 
 only had made famous. The true panegyric of a 
 poet is that his poems are remembered. Whole 
 
 scenes in the works of Quinault are known by '~ " ~" ~" 
 
 i , . . . l • 1 T T THE GREAT CONDE. 
 
 Ueart, a distinction tO Which no Italian Opera COuld (Bronze bust by Coysevox.-Musee du Louvre.) 
 
304 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 attain. French music has retained a simplicity which is no longer to the 
 taste of any country, but the simple and beautiful naturalness that has 
 such a charm in Quinault, still pleases all who know our language and 
 possess a cultivated taste, throughout Europe. If an antique poem like 
 " Armide " or " Atys " could be found, with what idolatry it would be 
 received ! But Quinault was modern. 
 
 All these great men were known and patronised by Louis XIV. 
 except La Fontaine. His extreme simplicity, which exceeded the bounds 
 of propriety, excluded him from a Court which he did not seek ; but the 
 Due de Bouroocme received him with welcome, and showed him kindness 
 
 in his old age. Notwithstanding 
 his genius, he was almost as 
 simple as the characters in his 
 fables. We might apply to La 
 Fontaine his own admirable fable, 
 " Les Animaux malades de la 
 peste." In that quaint conceit 
 all the beasts confess their 
 faults ; everything is forgiven to 
 the lions, the wolves, and the 
 bears, while an innocent animal 
 ui.sh in Parisian karthknwauk. bepresenting, from the j 8 sacrificed for having eaten a 
 
 ROMANCE BY FRANCION, A SCENE OF PARISIAN LIKE, ° 
 PLACE MAUBERT. little gl'aSS. 
 
 (Collection of M. Charles Eossigiieux.) 
 
 In the school of these men of 
 genius, who will give delight and instruction for ages to come, a number 
 of minor writers were produced and reared, whose works provide amuse- 
 ment for ordinary folks ; and just in the same way we have had many 
 graceful painters whom we do not place beside Poussin, Lesueur, Lebrun, 
 Lemoine or Vanloo. 
 
 However, towards the end of the reign of Louis XIV., there were 
 two men who had considerable reputation. One of these was La Motte 
 Houdar, whose mind was wise and broad rather than sublime, a delicate 
 and methodical writer in prose, but wanting in his poetry in warmth, 
 elegance, and even in that correctness which must be neglected only in 
 favour of the sublime. At first he produced fine stanzas rather than fine 
 odes, and his vogue was short-lived ; but we still have some good pieces by 
 him in more than one style ; these will always prevent his being classed 
 
THE POET ROUSSEAU 
 
 305 
 
 with indifferent writers. He proved that, in the art of writing, one may 
 still be " somebody " in the second rank. 
 
 BOILEAU DESPREAUX, BY H. RJGAUD. 
 (Musee de Versailles.) 
 
 The other was Bousseau, who, with less wit, less delicacy, less refine- 
 ment and facility than La Motte, had more of the poetic gift. His 
 
 2 R 
 
306 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 odes, which were "after" La Motte, were more graceful and varied. They 
 were full of imagery. His psalms are equal in fervour and harmony to 
 the hymns of Racine. His epigrams are more highly finished than those 
 of Marot. He failed in operas which demand sentiment, in comedy which 
 requires vivacity, and in moral epistles which must have truth, because 
 he lacked all these. 
 
 He would have corrupted the French language if the style which he 
 adopted from Marot had found imitators ; but fortunately, that mixture of 
 
 the purity of our own tongue 
 with the deformities of the 
 language two centuries earlier 
 was but a passing fashion. 
 His long course of ill-fortune 
 had its origin in indomitable 
 self-love, with a large admix- 
 ture of jealousy and animosity. 
 His example ought to be a 
 striking lesson for all men of 
 parts ; but we are considering 
 him in these pages only as a 
 writer who contributed not a 
 little to the honour of literature. 
 
 No men of great genius 
 have arisen since the golden 
 days of these illustrious artists ; 
 and towards the close of the life 
 of Louis XIV. Nature seemed 
 to be in repose. 
 
 At the beginning of the century the path was difficult because it was 
 untrodden ; it is difficult in our day because it has been beaten. The 
 great men of the past century taught us to think and to speak ; they told 
 us that which we did not know. Their successors could only tell us what 
 was known, and so at length there came a sort of distaste for the multitude 
 of masterpieces. 
 
 The destiny of the age of Louis XIV. has followed the track of the 
 ages of Leo. X., of Augustus, and of Alexander. The soil which bore 
 such fruits of genius in those famous times had been prepared long 
 
THE BOUNDARIES OF ART 
 
 307 
 
 before. The reason of the long delay of that harvest, and the sterility 
 which followed it, has been sought in vain in physical and moral causes : 
 the true reason is that it takes many years to purify language and taste 
 in countries where the fine arts are cultivated. After the first steps genius 
 shows and develops itself ; emulation and the public favour that is freely 
 bestowed upon new achievements stir all the talents into animation. 
 Each artist makes his own of the natural beauties which are related to 
 his order of art. Every student of the theory of the purely intellectual 
 arts ought, if he himself possesses talent, to know that the primary 
 beauties, the great natural features which belong to the arts, are few. 
 Subjects and the accessories proper to them are more restricted than is 
 supposed. The Abbe Dubos, a man of sound good sense, who wrote his 
 
 treatise on poetry and painting 
 in 1714, points out that, in the 
 whole history of France there 
 is no truly fit subject for an 
 epic poem save the destruction 
 of the League by Henri IV. He 
 ought to have added that the 
 ornamentation of the epic which 
 was acceptable to the Greeks 
 and Romans, and to the Italians 
 of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries, being proscribed 
 among the French, the gods of fable, oracles, invulnerable heroes, monsters, 
 sorceries, metamorphoses, and romantic adventurers being out of date, the 
 accessories of the epic are confined within a very narrow circle. If then 
 some artist shall appear who immediately lays hold of the only decorative 
 objects that correspond with the time, the subject, and his country, and 
 does what others have only attempted, those who come after him will 
 find the ground occupied. 
 
 The case is the same with tragedy. We must not imagine that 
 great tragic passions and sentiments can be infinitely varied after a new 
 and striking fashion. All things have their limits. 
 
 High comedy has its own boundaries. There is not in human nature 
 more than a dozen at most types of character truly comic and strongly - 
 featured. The Abbe Dubos, who lacks genius, thinks men of genius may 
 
 CHANCELLOR SESUIER, PATRON OF THE ACADEMIE FRANgAISE. 
 (From a print by Sebastien Leclerc.) 
 
308 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 yet find a multitude of new characters; but Nature would have to make them. 
 Shades of colour are indeed innumerable, but the bright tints are few, and 
 it is these primitive tints that a great artist unfailingly employs. A sufficient 
 number of fables being composed by a La Fontaine, all that are added to 
 that number convey the same moral truths, illustrated by almost similar 
 
 adventures. So it happens that 
 genius has only one epoch, 
 after which it is bound to 
 degenerate. 
 
 The kinds of art which 
 are constantly progressive, such 
 as history and physical obser- 
 vation, and which require only 
 application, judgment, and 
 ordinary intelligence, may be 
 kept up more easily ; and the 
 arts of the hand, such as paint- 
 ing and sculpture, need not 
 degenerate when the governing 
 power is careful, like Louis 
 XIV., to employ only the best 
 artists. For the same subjects 
 may be treated a hundred 
 times over in painting and in 
 sculpture. The Holy Family is 
 still painted, although EafFaelle 
 has lavished all that is best 
 of his art upon it ; but it 
 would not be tolerated that 
 Cinna, Andromaque, L'Art 
 poetique, and Le Tartufe should be dealt with again. 
 
 It must also be observed that, the past century having instructed 
 the present, it has become so easy to write second-rate things that we 
 have been inundated with frivolous books, and worse still, with useless 
 serious books ; but we find from time to time among that mass of 
 mediocrity — a necessary evil in a huge opulent and idle city, where one 
 part of the citizens is incessantly engaged in amusing the other — excellent 
 
 LOUIS XIV. PATRONISES ART AND SCIENCE. 
 (A print by Watele and Edeliuck.) 
 
THE LANGUAGE OP SOCIETY 
 
 309 
 
 works of various kinds, history, reflections, or the light literature that 
 affords recreation to minds of every sort. 
 
 France has produced more of these works than any other country. 
 Her language has become the language of Europe. To this everything 
 has contributed : the great authors of the time of the great King, the 
 refugee Calvinist pastors, who carried eloquence and method into foreign 
 countries ; Bayle especially, who, writing in Holland, was read everywhere ; 
 Eapin de Thoyras, who has written in French the only good history of 
 England ; Saint-Evremond, whose society was sought by the whole English 
 Court ; the Duchess d'Olbreuse, afterwards Duchess of Zell, who transported 
 her native grace into Germany. The spirit of society is the natural 
 inheritance of the French ; other nations would fain have it. Of all 
 languages, the French is that which expresses all the subjects on which 
 people converse with most facility, neatness and delicacy, and by this gift 
 of expression the French language contributes to one of the greatest 
 pleasures of life all over Europe. 
 
 TAILPIECE FROM THE COLLECTION OF FRONTISPIECES 
 OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 (From the Cabinet of PriDts.) 
 (Bibliotheque Rationale.) 
 
THE LOVES AS SCULPTORS AND ARCHITECTS. 
 (Au allegorical engraving for the Academy of Scul]*ure<) 
 
THE CASCADE OR THE BATHS OF DIANA. 
 (Bas-relief by Girardon. Bronze gilt. — Gardens of Versailles.) 
 
 Ill 
 
 THE FINE ARTS 
 
 TN arts that are not purely intellectual, 
 like music, painting, sculpture and 
 architecture, but little progress had been 
 made in France before the time that is 
 called the age of Louis XIV. Music was 
 in its infancy ; a few sentimental songs, 
 some airs for the violin, guitar and theorbo, 
 mostly composed in Spain, were all that was 
 known. The science and taste of Lulli were 
 recognised with astonishment ; he was the 
 first in France who produced bass, middle 
 parts and fugues. At first there was some 
 difficulty in playing his compositions, simple 
 and easy as they seem now. At the present time there are a thousand 
 people who know music for one who knew that art in the time of 
 Louis XIV., and music itself has progressed in a like proportion. Now 
 there is no great town without public concerts ; then Paris itself had none ; 
 and the King's twenty-four violins represented all the music of France. 
 
 Knowledge of things appertaining to music, and to the arts that are 
 derived from it, made such progress that at the end of the reign of 
 Louis XIV. notation for dance music had been introduced. 
 
 France had very eminent architects in the time of the regency of 
 Marie de Medicis. The Palais du Luxembourg, which she was never to 
 
 ORNAMENTAL LETTER BY FR. CHAUVEAU. 
 
 (From the collection of Courses de tetes et de bagues, 
 from the Imprimerie Royale.) 
 
.312 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 inhabit, was built for the Queen by De Brosse in the Tuscan style, to do 
 honour to her own country and to adorn ours. He also executed the 
 great entrance to Saint-Gervais. Cardinal de Richelieu, although his ideas 
 were as expansive as hers, did not possess her correct taste. The Palais 
 Cardinal, now the Palais Royal, is a proof of this. Our hopes were raised 
 high when we beheld that beautiful facade of the Louvre, which makes it 
 so disappointing that the palace should not be completed. Many citizens 
 
 have built fine houses for 
 themselves, but these are more 
 elegant in their interior than 
 iu their external aspect, and 
 are more satisfactory to their 
 owners than ornamental to the 
 city. 
 
 Colbert, the Maecenas of all 
 the arts, founded an Academy 
 of Architecture in 1671, but it 
 is of little avail to have ever so 
 many examples of Vitruvius ; 
 we want some imitators of 
 Augustus as well. 
 
 The municipal magistrates 
 also must have energy and 
 taste. Had there been two or 
 three Mayors of Paris like 
 President Turgot, the city would 
 not have to bear the reproach 
 of that ill-constructed and ill- 
 placed Hotel de Ville, in a 
 square so small and irregular that it is famous only for executions and 
 fireworks, and of its narrow streets in the most frequented quarters ; in 
 short, the remains of barbarism in the midst of grandeur and in the home 
 of all the arts. 
 
 Painting began under Louis XIV. with Poussin. No account need 
 be taken of the painters who preceded him. Since him we have always 
 had great painters, not indeed in the numbers which make Italy rich, 
 but without mentioning Lesueur, who was his own teacher, or Lebrun, who 
 
 A HARPSICHORD OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (From a print by Bouuart.) 
 
THE ACADEMY OF PAINTING 
 
 313 
 
 was equal to the Italians in 
 
 design and execution, we have 
 had more than thirty artists 
 who have left pictures well 
 worthy of study. Foreigners 
 have begun to carry them away 
 from us. In the residence of a 
 great king (Frederick the Great) 
 I have seen apartments and even 
 galleries adorned solely with our 
 pictures : perhaps we were not 
 sufficiently aware of their value. 
 
 I have known twelve thousand livres to be refused in France for a picture 
 by Santerre. In all Europe there is not to be found a larger piece of 
 painting than the ceiling at Versailles by Lemoine, and I do not know 
 whether there are finer ones. Since then we have had Vanloo, who ranked 
 even among foreigners as the first of his time. 
 
 Not only did Colbert give the Academy of Painting its still existing 
 form, but he prevailed on Louis XIV. to establish one at Rome in 1667. 
 A palace was purchased, and a director was installed. Students who have 
 gained prizes in Paris are sent to this Academy, where they are maintained 
 
 A SATIRICAL PRINT OF 1664 ON THE CONSTITUTION OP THE 
 ACADEMIE DES BEAUX-ARTS, WHICH REPLACED THE FORMER 
 ACADEMIE DES MAITRES PEINTRES ON SEPTEMBER 10TH. 
 
 A COMPOSITION BY S. LECLERC IN HONOUR OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE ACADEMIES BY LOUIS XIV.' 
 
 2 S 
 
314 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 LOUIS XIV. VISITING ONE OF THE FIRST EXHIBITIONS OF 
 PAINTING AT THE GOBELINS, 1699. 
 (Print by Sebastien Leclerc.) 
 
 at the King's expense ; there 
 they draw from the antique ; 
 they study Raphael and 
 Michael Ano-elo. Noble homage 
 is done to Rome, ancient and 
 modern, by this desire to 
 imitate her ; and that homage 
 has not been withdrawn since 
 the immense collections of 
 Italian pictures made by the 
 King and by the Due d'Orleans, and the masterpieces of sculpture which 
 France has produced, have rendered it unnecessary to seek for masters 
 elsewhere. 
 
 It is in the department of sculpture that we have principally excelled, 
 and in the art of casting colossal equestrian figures. 
 
 If there were disinterred some day, from mounds of ruins, such works 
 of art as the Baths of Apollo, now exposed to injury by the air in the 
 groves of Versailles ; the tomb of Cardinal de Richelieu out of public view in 
 the chapel of the Sorbonne ; the eques- 
 trian statue of Louis XIV., executed in 
 Paris for the adornment of Bordeaux ; 
 or the Mercury which Louis XV. has 
 presented to the King of Prussia, and 
 so many other works equal to these, we 
 may be sure that those productions of 
 our time would be placed by the side 
 of the finest of the antiquities of Greece. 
 
 We have equalled the ancients in medals. 
 Warm, towards the end of the reign of 
 Louis XIII., was the first to raise the art 
 above mediocrity. An admirable collection of 
 medals is now arranged in historical sequence 
 in the gallery assigned to artists at the 
 Louvre. They are worth nearly two millions, 
 and most of them are masterpieces. 
 
 Equal excellence has been attained in 
 the art of engraving precious stones. The 
 
 A CHILDREN'S BACCHANALIA. 
 (Bronze vase on the terrace of the Chateau de Versailles, 
 cast by Duval, and carved by Palliu.) 
 
THE BED-CHAMBER OF LOUIS XIV., CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES. 
 
 The gilded sculpture of the fronts is by Coustou and Lespingole. The balustrade and all the ornaments in carved wood which 
 
 adorn the walls are of the period. 
 
THE ART OF SURGERY 
 
 317 
 
 art of multiplying pictures by copper- 
 plate engraving, thus easily trans- 
 mitting all the representations of 
 nature and art to posterity, was 
 elementary in France before this 
 century. It is one of the most 
 useful and pleasing arts. We owe 
 it to the Florentines, who invented 
 it about the middle of the fifteenth 
 century, and it has 
 been brought to 
 greater perfection 
 in France than in the 
 land of its origin, 
 because there has been 
 
 a larger demand 
 
 THE ERECTION OF THE STATUE OF LOUIS XIV. AT LYONS. 
 (From a print of the period.) 
 
 ANCIENT TORCHSTAND IN THE 
 CHAMBER OF LOUIS XIV., 
 CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES. 
 
 for 
 
 it. Collections of the 
 
 King's prints have frequently been presented to ambassadors, 
 and are reckoned among the most valuable of his gifts. 
 Carving in gold and silver, which depends upon design and 
 taste, has been carried to the highest perfection. 
 
 We have now enumerated the arts that contribute to the 
 enjoyment of individuals and the honour of the State ; we 
 cannot leave the most useful of them all unnoticed. This is 
 the art of surgery, in which France surpasses the world. So 
 rapid and so famous was its progress in this century, that 
 sufferers came to Paris from the most distant parts of Europe 
 for cure, and for all operations that required exceptional 
 dexterity. 
 
 Not only were there few skilful surgeons elsewhere 
 than in France, but the necessary instruments were 
 perfected only in this country. France supplied all 
 her neighbours, and I have heard from Chesilden, the 
 greatest surgeon in London, that he was the first 
 who had the instruments of his art made in England 
 in 1715. 
 
 Medicine did not rise higher in France than in 
 
318 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIY 
 
 England, or under the celebrated 
 Boerhave in Holland, but it 
 reached such perfection as it did 
 attain because we had profited 
 by the studies of our neighbours. 
 
 This faithful statement of the 
 progress of human intelligence in 
 France, in this century, began 
 with the time of Cardinal de 
 Richelieu and ends in our own. 
 It will hardly be surpassed ; and 
 if, indeed, it be surpassed in some 
 respects, it will remain a model for the happier ages which owe their 
 birth to it. 
 
 EMBLEMATIC DEVICE OF THE SURGEONS OF PARIS. 
 (Fragment of an Almanac.) 
 
 LOUIS XIV. VICTOR IN THE WAR WITH HOLLAND. 
 (Marble vase on tbe terrace of the Chateau de Versailles, 
 sculptured by Tuby.) 
 
 It is very surprising to find this 
 summary of the arts completed by a 
 statement of the progress of surgery, 
 at the end of the seventeenth century. 
 The sketch itself is so brief that it may 
 justly be regarded as incomplete ; but 
 we may allow surgery to occupy the 
 place which Voltaire has given it, 
 because the word " art " was still under- 
 stood in his day in the former sense, 
 which we now render by " arts and 
 crafts." Let us, however, complete the 
 indications he has given us here, by 
 the biographical details which he has 
 added in his catalogue of famous artists. 
 
 This is the most legitimate and the 
 surest way of learning his whole mind, 
 and also the judgment of his time on 
 questions of art in his age, which was 
 so close to the seventeenth century 
 itself. 
 
THE AMPHITHEATRE OP SAINT-COUBE, OR THE PARISIAN SURGEONS* HALL, 
 (From a print by Simonueau and Perelle.) 
 
321 
 
 ' Jjfe'' " i'i ' " 1 B y~l 
 
 /t^~"~ — ■ — ■ — 
 
 THE RAPE OF PROSERPINE. 
 (A composition by Lebrun for tlie Bosquet 
 de la Colonnade, executed by Girardon.) 
 (Gardens of Versailles. ) 
 
 MUSICIANS. 
 
 The vocal music of France has not hitherto been 
 pleasing to any foreign nation. This could not be 
 otherwise, because French prosody differs from every 
 other. We dwell upon the final syllable, and all the 
 other peoples, like the Italians, dwell on the penultimate 
 or the ante-penultimate. Ours is the only language 
 which has words ending in e mute, and these, in 
 ordinary utterance not pronounced, are sounded in 
 music in an invariable manner, as for instance, gloi-reu, 
 victoi-reu, barbari-eu, furi-eu. And this makes our 
 airs and recitative distasteful to those who are not 
 accustomed to them. Our climate denies that clear- 
 ness to our voices which the climate of Italy gives. 
 Besides, the slowness of our singing, which contrasts 
 strangely with the vivacity of our race, will always 
 make French music acceptable only to the French. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these 
 reasons, foreigners who have 
 resided long in France are 
 agreed that our musicians have 
 achieved wonders in adjusting 
 their airs to our words, and 
 that their musical utterance 
 frequently has admirable ex- 
 pression ; but this is only to 
 an accustomed ear, and the 
 execution must be perfect : it 
 must have actors ; in Italy 
 singers only are required. 
 
 Instrumental music has also 
 been charged with being slow 
 and monotonous, yet several of 
 our symphonies and a great deal 
 of our dance music have found 
 favour in other countries. 
 
 A CONCERT BY CHILDREN. 
 (Fragment] of a picture of the School of Lely.) 
 (Musee de Versailles.') 
 
322 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 They are performed at various Italian operas ; and are in the highest 
 favour with a king who supports one of the finest opera-houses in 
 Europe, and, besides his other accomplishments, has carefully cultivated 
 that of music. 
 
 Lulli (Jean Baptiste), born at Florence in 1633, and brought to 
 France at the age of fourteen, when he played the violin only, was the 
 
 father of true French music. 
 He accommodated his art to 
 the spirit of the language ; this 
 was the only way to succeed. 
 It should be remarked that 
 Italian music had not then 
 departed from the gravity and 
 noble simplicity which we still 
 admire in the recitatives of 
 Lulli. The well-known motet 
 of Luigi, which was sung with 
 so much success in Italy in the 
 seventeenth century, closely 
 resembles those recitatives ; it 
 begins thus : — 
 
 Sunt breves roundi rosre, 
 Sunt fugitivi flores ; 
 Frondes veluti annosse, 
 Sunt labiles honores. 
 
 DAMON, A "GRAND SEIGNEUR," 1'LAYING THE VIOL. ft mU gt be observed that 
 
 (From a print by Bouuart.) . . 
 
 in music of this kind, the 
 melody of the ancients, the natural beauty of the words produces the 
 beauty of the song : nothing can be effectively uttered unless it is worth 
 hearing. This was not fully understood in the time of Quinault and of 
 Lulli. The poets were jealous of the poet, and were not jealous of the 
 musician. Boileau reproaches Quinault with : 
 
 .... ces lieux communs de morale lubrique, 
 Que Lulli rechauffa des sons de sa musique. 
 
 The tender passions that Quinault expressed so well were, treated by 
 him, the true picture of the human heart, far more than a loose morality. 
 
THE MUSIC OF THE CENTURY 
 
 323 
 
 Quinault lent warmth to the music of Lulli, by his verse, rather than 
 Lulli to Quinault's words. These two artists and the actors made out 
 of certain scenes of " Atys," of "Armide," and "Roland," a performance 
 such as no ancient, or any country of their own time had ever known. 
 The detached airs and ariettes did not respond to the perfection of these 
 great scenes. Those airs and little songs were like our "noels" and the 
 Venetian boat-songs ; but they 
 were all that was desired at 
 that time. The more feeble 
 the music, the more easy to 
 remember ; but the recitative 
 was so fine that Rameau never 
 equalled it. " I want singers," 
 he said ; " and Lulli, actors." 
 Rameau enchanted the ears, 
 Lulli enchanted the soul : it 
 was a great boon to the age 
 of Louis XIV. that Lulli met 
 with a Quinault. 
 
 After Lulli, all the 
 musicians, Colasse, Campra, 
 Destouches and others, were 
 his imitators, until Rameau 
 appeared, and then he soared 
 above them all by his wonderful 
 harmony, and made of music a 
 new art. 
 
 Although several composers of church music have been celebrated in 
 France, their works have not hitherto been performed elsewhere. 
 
 URANIA, A LADY OF QUALITY, SINGING. 
 (From a print by Boimart.) 
 
 PAINTERS. 
 
 The case of painting is not identical with that of music. A country 
 may have a school of song that pleases none but itself, because the genius 
 of its language does not admit any other ; but painters must represent 
 Nature, which is the same in every country, and is seen with the same 
 eyes. 
 
324 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 For a painter's reputation may be genuine, his works must be valued 
 abroad. It is not enough to have a little party and to be praised in 
 little books : his works must sell. 
 
 The talents of painters are sometimes cramped by the very method 
 that ought, it would seem, to expand them : that is, the academic style. 
 The academies are no doubt very useful for the training of students, especially 
 when the directors work in the grand style ; but if the president's is the 
 
 from the reio-nino- taste of those associations. 
 
 Corneille, Eacine, Despreaux, Le Sueur, and Le Moine not only went 
 a different way from their contemporaries, but had almost all of them 
 for enemies. 
 
 Poussin (Nicolas), born at Andelys in Normandy in 1594, was his 
 own pupil ; he completed his education at Rome. He is termed the 
 painter of men of intelligence ; he might also be called the painter of 
 men of taste. His only fault was that he intensified the sombre colouring 
 
 (From a print by Bouuart.) 
 
 THE DANCING MASTER. 
 
 small style, or hard and stiff; 
 if his faces grin, if his pictures 
 are painted like fans, the pupils, 
 being tempted by imitation, or 
 by the desire to please an in- 
 different master, entirely lose 
 the idea of beautiful Nature. 
 There is a fate over academies ; 
 no work that is called academic 
 has ever yet been, in any case, 
 a work of genius. Show me an 
 artist who is afraid of failing 
 to imitate the style of his 
 fellows, and his productions 
 will be narrow and formal ; 
 show me a man of a free 
 spirit, full of the Nature which 
 he copies, and he will succeed. 
 Almost all the great artists 
 flourished before the establish- 
 ment of academies, and their 
 work is in a different style 
 
PAINTERS 
 
 325 
 
 of the Eoman School. In his time he was the greatest painter in Europe. 
 Being recalled from Rome to Paris, he became a prey to envy and the 
 cabals, and like many another artist he left Paris again, and returned to 
 Rome, where he lived, poor but content. His philosophy placed him above 
 his fortune. He died in 1665. 
 
 Le Sueur (Eustache) was born in Paris in 1617. Though he had no 
 other master than Vouet, he nevertheless- became an excellent painter. He 
 
 THE ALDERMEN OF PARIS. 
 (By Philippe de Champagne. — Musee du Louvre.) 
 
 had brought the art of painting to high perfection when he died in 1655 
 at the age of thirty-eight. 
 
 Bourdon and Le Valentin have been famous. Three of the best 
 pictures in the Church of Saint Peter at Rome are by Poussin, Bourdon, 
 and Le Valentin. 
 
 Lebrun (Charles) was born in Paris in 1619. He had hardly 
 developed his ability when Fouquet, one of the most generous and unfor- 
 tunate men that ever lived, gave him a pension of twenty-four thousand 
 livres of our present money. It is worthy of remark that his picture of 
 the Family of Darius at Versailles is not overpowered by the colouring 
 
326 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 •2- . .. 
 
 THE RHONE. 
 
 (Bronze statue by Ooustou, which decorated the base of the 
 statue of Louis XIV. at Lyons. — Hotel de Ville, Lyons.) 
 
 of the work of Paul Veronese which 
 hangs by its side, while the latter 
 far surpasses it in design, composi- 
 tion, dignity, expression, and faithful 
 rendering of costume. The engrav- 
 ings of his pictures of the Battles 
 of Alexander are even more in request 
 than the Battles of Constantine by 
 Rafaelle and Giulio Eomano. He 
 died in 1690. 
 
 Mignard (Pierre), born at Troyes 
 in Champagne in 1610, was for some 
 time the rival of Lebrun, but he has 
 not maintained his position in the eyes of posterity. He died in 1695. 
 
 Gelee (Claude), called Le Lorrain. His father, who wanted to make 
 him a pastrycook, did not foresee that one day his son would paint 
 pictures which should be regarded as the work of one of the greatest 
 landscape painters of Europe. He died at Rome in 1678. 
 
 Caze (Pierre Jacques). There are pictures of his that are beginning 
 to command high prices. France is too slow in doing justice to good 
 artists, and their middling works do too much injury to 
 their masterpieces. The Italians, on the contrary, overlook 
 the inferior in favour of the excellent. Every other 
 nation tries to make the most of itself, but the French 
 make the most of the other nations in every way. 
 
 Parrocel (Joseph), born in 1648, was a clever painter, 
 and surpassed by his son. He died in 1704. 
 
 J0H VENET 
 
 (Jean), born at 
 Rouen in 1644, 
 was a pupil of 
 Lebrun, but in- 
 ferior to his mas- 
 ter, although a 
 good painter. He 
 painted almost all 
 objects slightly 
 
 NYMPH WITH A SHELL. 
 (Marble figure by Coysevox.— Musee du Louvre.) 
 
PAINTERS 
 
 327 
 
 THE SAONE. 
 
 (Bronze statue] by Coustou, decorating the base of the statue of 
 Louis XIV. at Lyons. — Hotel de Ville, Lyons.) 
 
 yellow : a singular defect of vision 
 made him see them yellow. He became 
 paralytic in the right arm, but prac- 
 tised painting with his left, and there 
 are great compositions of his executed 
 in that manner. He died in 1717. 
 
 Santerre (Jean Baptiste). There 
 are some admirable easel-pieces of his ; 
 they are true and tender in colour. 
 His picture of Adam and Eve is one 
 of the finest in Europe. That of 
 Saint Teresa in the chapel of Versailles 
 is a masterpiece of grace ; it is, however, too voluptuous for an altar- 
 picture. Santerre was born in 1651, and died in 1717. 
 
 La Fosse (Charles de) resembled Santerre in many points. 
 Boulogne (Bon). An excellent painter : the proof is that he received 
 high prices for his pictures. 
 
 Boulogne (Louis). His paintings, though not deficient in merit, are 
 less in request than those of his brother. 
 
 Raoux, an uncertain painter, but when 
 r H y K he succeeded, he was equal to Rembrandt. 
 
 Rigaud (Hyacinthe) was born at Perpig- 
 nan in 1663. Although his reputation was for 
 
 portrait paint- 
 ing only, his 
 great picture 
 of Cardinal de 
 Bouillon open- 
 ing the sacred 
 year, is a mas- 
 terpiece equal 
 to the finest 
 works of Ru- 
 bens. He died 
 in 1743. 
 
 De Troy 
 
 A LION STRIKING DOWN A WOLF. , -p, . > 
 
 (Bronze group by Van Cleve for the Fountain of Diana in the Gardens of Versailles.) { ^ ranCOlSj 
 
328 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 painted in the style of Rigaud. Some historical pictures by his son are 
 also admired. 
 
 Watteau (Antoine) did for the graceful what Teniers did for the 
 grotesque. He had pupils whose works are in demand. 
 
 Le Moine, horn in Paris in 1688, has perhaps surpassed all these 
 painters by his composition in the Salon d'Hercule 
 at Versailles. This apotheosis of Hercules was a 
 tribute of flattery to Cardinal Hercule de Fleury, 
 who had nothing in common with the Hercules of 
 fable. It would have been better to have repre- 
 sented the apotheosis of Henri IV. in the salon of 
 a king of France. Le Moine, who was envied by 
 his fellow-artists and thought himself ill- 
 recompensed by the Cardinal, destroyed 
 himself in despair in 1737. 
 
 Other artists have excelled like Des- 
 portes and Oudry in painting animals ; 
 others have been successful in miniature, 
 and several in portraits. 
 
 Some painters, and especially the famous 
 Vanloo, have distinguished themselves since 
 the greater days, and we may be sure the 
 art will not die out in France. 
 
 SCULPTOBS, ARCHITECTS, ENGRAVERS, 
 ETC. 
 
 Sculpture reached its perfection under 
 Louis XIV., and has fully maintained its 
 position under Louis XV. 
 
 Sarrasin (Jacques), born in 1598, 
 executed several masterpieces at Rome for Pope Clement VIII. He 
 worked in Paris with equal success. He died in 16 GO. 
 
 Puget (Pierre), born at Marseilles in 1623, was an architect, sculptor 
 and painter. He is famous for several masterpieces now at Marseilles and 
 Versailles. He died in 1694. 
 
 Le Gros and Theodon have adorned Italy with their works. They 
 executed in Rome two models each, and took the prize above all the 
 
 A FEMALE FAUN, MARBLE BUST ATTRIBUTED 
 TO SAKRASIN. 
 
 (Collection of Matlanie Moreau Nc-Iatou.) 
 
SCULPTORS OF THE REIGN 329 
 
 other competitors, and are reckoned among masterpieces. Le Gros died at 
 Eome in 1719. 
 
 Girardon (Francois), born in 1638, has equalled the finest work of 
 antiquity by his Baths of Apollo, and the tomb of Cardinal de Richelieu. 
 He died in 1715. 
 
 Coysevox, Coustou, and many others were highly distinguished 
 artists, and are even surpassed by three or four of our modern 
 sculptors. 
 
 Chauveau, Nanteuil, Mellan, Audran, Edelinck, Leclerc, Drevet, 
 
 POILLY, PlCART, DtTCHANGE, 
 
 succeeded by superior artists, 
 excelled in engraving on 
 copper, and their Works are to 
 be found all over Europe in the 
 cabinets of persons who cannot 
 afford to buy pictures. 
 
 Goldsmiths like Claude 
 Balin and Pierre Germain 
 well deserve to be ranked 
 amongst the most celebrated 
 artists for beauty of design 
 and elegance of execution. 
 
 It is more difficult for a 
 genius born with a fine taste 
 for architecture to convince the 
 world of his talents than for 
 other artists. He cannot erect 
 great monuments unless princes 
 
 ANTOINE COYSEVOX. 
 
 Will Ol'der them. More than (From the portrait by G. Allou.— Mnsee ilo Versailles.*! 
 
 one good architect has found no work. 
 
 Mansard (Francois) was one of the foremost architects in Europe. The 
 chateau, or rather the palace of Maisons, near St. Germain, is a 
 masterpiece, because he was quite free to follow the bent of his genius. 
 
 Mansard (Jules Hardouin), his nephew, made an immense fortune 
 under Louis XIV. as Superintendent of Buildings to the King. The 
 fine Chapel of the Invalides is from his designs. He was unable fully to 
 display his ability in that of Versailles, because of the difficulties presented 
 
 2 u 
 
330 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 by the site, as he was obliged to retain the small chateau (that of 
 Louis XIII.), which has beeu mentioned previously. 
 
 It is a reproach to the city of Paris that it possesses only two fine 
 fountains : the old one by Jean Goujon, and the new by Bouchardon ; 
 both these are ill-placed. Complaint is also made that there is no fine 
 theatre, except that of the Louvre, which is not used, and that the 
 
 people assemble in tasteless, ill- 
 proportioned, unadorned rooms, 
 badly-placed and badly-built ; 
 while the provincial towns 
 set examples to the capital 
 which have not yet been 
 followed. 
 
 France has other public 
 buildings, works of much 
 greater importance ; vast hos- 
 pitals, stone bridges, quays, 
 river embankments, canals, 
 locks, ports. The military archi- 
 tecture of the frontier forts 
 admirably combines strength 
 with beauty. The works exe- 
 cuted from the designs of 
 Perrault, Levau and Dorbay 
 are well known. 
 
 The art of making gardens 
 
 PIERRE PUGET, BY HIMSELF. 
 
 (Mnsenm of A i x .) nas been crea ted and brought 
 
 to perfection in the beautiful by 
 Le Notre, and in the useful by La Quintinie. It is not true that 
 Le Notre carried simplicity to the extent of familiarly embracing the King 
 and the Pope. His pupil Collineau has assured me that the stories to this 
 effect are false ; but testimony is not really required to make us aware 
 that a keeper of the royal gardens does not kiss popes and kings on 
 both cheeks. 
 
 The engraving of gems and medals, and the casting of type 
 for printing have all been advanced by the rapid progress of other 
 arts. 
 
THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 
 
 331 
 
 Clockmakers, whom we may regard as 
 physicists in practice, have shown great ability 
 in their craft. 
 
 Stuffs, and even the gold that embellishes 
 them, have been blended with such taste and 
 skill that, apart from their use as articles of 
 luxury, many deserve to be preserved as 
 examples of industrial art. 
 
 In fact, the past century has enabled ours to 
 embody and transmit the sciences and the arts, 
 advanced as far as human industry has been able 
 to go, to posterity : a society of learned men 
 highly gifted with intelligence have wrought at 
 this task. Their immense and immortal work 
 (the Encyclopedic) seems to reproach the brevity of human life. It was begun 
 by d'Alembert and Diderot ; it has been crossed and persecuted by envy and 
 ignorance, according to the destiny 
 of all great enterprises. It would 
 have been well if some foreign hands 
 had not disfigured that important 
 work by puerile declamation and 
 feeble commonplace, which however 
 do not injure the value of the 
 remainder to the human race. 
 
 CANDLE -BRACKET FROM THE PALACE 
 OF VERSAILLES. 
 
 (Collection of M. Charles Rossigneux.) 
 
 We should have wished to add 
 the principal works of the artists 
 who figure in the list drawn out by 
 Voltaire, and even of very great 
 ones who do not figure in it — for 
 that list creates interest even by its 
 omissions, and especially by the 
 writer's surprising -opinions. But 
 the scope of the work did not 
 permit us to do this. 
 
 CABINET BY BOULLE. 
 (From a design by Berain.— Musee du Louvre.) 
 
THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 DOORWAY OF THE HOTEL DE VILLE AT TOULON BV PIERRE PUGET. 
 
 We propose, however, to call the attention of our readers to the 
 painters and sculptors whom Voltaire does not mention, or seems not to 
 estimate at their true worth. Among the neglected painters is Philippe 
 de Champagne, whose memory we recall by one of his finest paintings. 
 Among the sculptors we have selected masterly works by Puget, Coysevox, 
 and Van Cleve, to all of whom, so devoted was he to the art of the 
 seventeenth century, the author of " Le Siecle de Louis XIV." seems to 
 prefer Girardon. 
 
 This book as a whole is a gallery of the art of the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 We have united the art, the life, and the thought of the Great 
 Century in one picture, to make it more easily understood. The remarkable 
 
ART, LIFE, AND THOUGHT OF THE CENTURY 
 
 333 
 
 portraits of that epoch, regarded 
 in relation to the judgments 
 passed by Voltaire, Saint- Simon, 
 and many others upon the King, 
 his courtiers, and his ministers, 
 account for the personages in 
 the foreground. The social and 
 ceremonial scenes rendered by 
 our engravers and the authors 
 of French or Dutch caricatures, 
 by designers of fashion-plates 
 or almanacs, explain and define 
 the changes that were made 
 under the eyes of Voltaire and 
 La Bruyere in the France of 
 the seventeenth century. A 
 medal is often the best com- 
 mentary on an event, or an 
 institution commemorated by 
 the contemporaries to whom 
 we have to look for an explanation 
 
 ICE-BOWL OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY IN CARVED COPPER. 
 (Collection of M. Edmond Guerin.) 
 
 JEAN VARIN. 
 
 from a portrait attribute;! to CI. Lefebvre. — Musue de Versailles.) 
 
 of it. A direct and striking impres- 
 sion, which is both real and aesthetic, 
 may be gained by combining a written 
 record of the past to which the his- 
 torian has restored life and local colour, 
 with a painting by an artist who under- 
 stood the period that he illustrated. 
 If there be an epoch that may be 
 treated by this method with profit, 
 surely it is the seventeenth century. 
 Within its bounds everything tended 
 to unity — manners, laws, art, thought, 
 and beliefs ; when Colbert gave com- 
 missions to Lebrun, by order of the 
 King and under his eyes, and Lebrun 
 to Coysevox. For those who prefer a 
 separate study of the features of the 
 
33 \ 
 
 THE 
 
 CENTURY 
 
 OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 time, it is easy to find compositions by Lebrun ; portraits by Lefebvre, 
 Rigaud, and Mignard ; busts by Warm, Coysevox, and Desjardins ; medals 
 by Legros ; prints by Mellan, Audran, Sebastien Leclerc, Poilly, and 
 Edelinck ; furniture by Boulle ; vases by Tuby and Ballin. The reader has 
 only to refer to the table of illustrations at the end of the volume. 
 
 In a word, the subject of the fine arts is not confined to this present 
 chapter ; it forms our entire book, that picture of the Great Century itself, 
 which we have endeavoured to reconstruct with the assistance of its 
 contemporary writers and artists. 
 
 PORPHYRY VASE. 
 
 (Male by or.ler of Louis XIV. after the nieltiiig-ilowu 
 of the gold and silver jilate in 1709.) 
 
 (Musee de Versailles, Salle des Harden de la Heine.) 
 
THE ARMS OF THE DAUPHIN BORNE BY LOVES. 
 
 (Heading by Chauveau for the collection of Courses de Tiles et de Bagues, from the Imprimerie Eoyale.) 
 (From the illuminated copy in the Library of Versailles.) 
 
 IV 
 
 THE FINE ARTS IN EUROPE IN THE TIME 
 OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 \V7E have constantly implied in the course 
 of this history that the almost unbroken 
 succession of public disasters of which it is 
 composed are now expunged from the register 
 of time. The details and the schemes of 
 politics fall into oblivion : the good laws, the 
 institutions, the monuments of science and 
 art last for ever. 
 
 The crowd of strangers who now flock to 
 
 ORNAMENTAL LETTER IN HONOUR 
 
 op louis xiv. Rome, not as pilgrims, but as connoisseurs, take 
 
 little heed of Gregory VII. or of Boniface VIII. ; 
 they admire the churches built by Bramante and Michael Angelo, the 
 paintings of Rafaelle, the sculptures of Bernini ; if they are men of 
 intellect they read Tasso and Ariosto, and they respect the ashes of Galileo. 
 In England there may be a passing mention of Cromwell ; the Wars of 
 the Roses are no longer discussed, but Newton's works form the study of 
 years. No one is surprised to read in his epitaph that he was " decus 
 humani generis," but everybody would be astonished to find such an 
 inscription on the tomb of any statesman. 
 
330 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 I wish I could do justice here to all the great men who, like him, 
 have made their country illustrious during the great century. I have called 
 it the Century of Louis XIV., not only because that monarch patronised 
 the arts much more actively than all his contemporaries put together, but 
 
 also because he outlived three generations 
 of the princes of Europe. I have placed 
 that epoch some years before Louis XIV. 
 and some years after him ; it is in fact 
 within this space of time that the human 
 mind has made its most signal progress. 
 
 Between 1660 and our own days, 
 the English have advanced in every 
 respect more than in all the preceding 
 centuries. I will not repeat here what I 
 have said elsewhere of Milton. Criticism 
 of his " Paradise Lost " and his " Paradise 
 Regained " has exhausted itself, but his 
 praise is not exhausted. Milton remains 
 the glory and the admiration of England : 
 he is compared to Homer, whose defects 
 were equally great, and he is placed 
 above Dante, whose conceptions are still 
 more fantastic. 
 
 Among the large number of 
 pleasing poets who adorned the 
 reign of Charles II. — for instance, 
 jjjjr Waller, the Earls of Dorset and 
 Rochester, the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham, and others — the famous 
 Dryden towers aloft. He excelled 
 
 THU CH \STI0 SUSANNA. 
 
 i (A carving in ivory attribute 1 to Bernini.) 
 (Collection of Madame Moreau Nelaton.) 
 
 in every kind of poetry : his 
 works abound in natural and, at 
 the same time, brilliant, animated, bold, vigorous and passionate detail. 
 In the latter quality he is unrivalled by any poet of his own country, and 
 unsurpassed by the ancients. If Pope, who came after him, had not 
 written his " Essay on Man " towards the close of his life, he could not 
 come into the line of comparison with Dryden 
 
ENGLISH AUTHORS AND ORATORS 
 
 337 
 
 The treatment of morals by the English poets is at once bold and 
 thoughtful ; this, it seems to me, is the chief merit of their verse. 
 
 There is another sort of serious literature, which requires talent of an 
 even more cultivated and expansive order ; such ability was Addison's. Not 
 only has he immortalised himself by his " Cato," the only English tragedy 
 written with elegance and in a 
 lofty tone, but his other moral 
 and critical works are models 
 of good taste and good sense, 
 adorned by imagination. His 
 manner of writing is an excel- 
 lent model for any country. 
 In several of his productions 
 Dean Swift has gone beyond 
 the licence of the ancients ; 
 he has outdone Rabelais. 
 
 The English know nothing 
 about funeral orations — it is 
 not their custom to eulogise 
 kings and queens in their 
 churches — but pulpit eloquence, 
 which was of a rude kind in 
 London before Charles II., 
 became suddenly polished. 
 Bishop Burnet owns in his 
 Memoirs that the change was 
 due to the imitation of French 
 preachers. The English clergy 
 have surpassed their masters in one respect : their sermons are less formal, 
 less affected, and less declamatory, 
 
 PORTRAIT OF JOHN MILTON. 
 
 (From an allegorical picture preserved by his family aud 
 engraved in the eighteenth century.) 
 
 T T 
 
 The tribute paid by Voltaire to the English writers is inspired by 
 the estimate of them which he formed when he frequented their society 
 in early life. It may almost be said, indeed, that it was in their school 
 he learned to appreciate the great French century whose close he saw ; and 
 he very justly introduces an eulogium upon them into his essay on the 
 
 2 X 
 
338 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Century of Louis XIV. In his " Lettres sur l'Angleterre," which had 
 appeared long Before (in 1727), Voltaire made this eulogium more 
 complete and explicit : — 
 
 " In England," he wrote, " people commonly think, and letters are 
 more highly honoured than here. This is a necessary consequence of the 
 form of their government. The whole nation is under the necessity of 
 educating itself. Such is the respect of the people for talent that a man 
 
 of merit always succeeds there. 
 Go to Westminster Abbey ; it 
 is not the tombs of kings that 
 are admired, it is the monu- 
 ments raised by the gratitude 
 of the nation to the great men 
 who have contributed to the 
 fame of the country. Their 
 statues are to be seen in the 
 Abbey, as those of Sophocles 
 and Plato were to be seen at 
 Athens," 
 
 Voltaire himself has raised 
 a monument to those English 
 writers in the finished form in 
 which he commends them to 
 the admiration of the French, 
 as follows : — 
 
 " Those who rise above the 
 usages, the prejudices or the 
 weaknesses of their own country, 
 those who are of all time and every land, those who prefer the grandeur 
 of philosophy to declarations of love, will find in Addison's ' Cato ' a 
 tragedy written from beginning to end with that bold and virile eloquence 
 which abounds in the works of Corneille. The part of Cato I regard as 
 one of the finest within the resources of the stage." 
 
 Among English writers of comedy the late Mr. Congreve is first and 
 most famous. He wrote only a few plays, but they are all excellent of 
 their kind, witty and well constructed. Vanbrugh's are the most lively, 
 and Wycherley's the strongest. 
 
 JOHN DRYDEN. 
 (From the portrait by Kueller, eugraved by EJelinck.) 
 
ENGLISH SCHOLARS 339 
 
 A man of imagination, endowed with a tenth part of the sense of 
 the comic that pervades Butler's " Hudibras," would still be very 
 amusing, but he would be very difficult to translate. It is true that he 
 has not the gaiety of our Cure de Meudon, but he has all the finesse, 
 reason, discretion, judgment, choiceness and good taste in which Rabelais 
 was deficient. His verses are written in a singular style — one hardly 
 possible of imitation. 
 
 + 
 
 It is also remarkable that 
 these islanders, separated from 
 the rest of the world, and in- 
 structed so late, have acquired 
 at least as full an acquaintance 
 with antiquity as exists in 
 Rome, which has been so long 
 the centre of nations. Marsham 
 has broken into the darkness of 
 ancient Egypt, and no Persian 
 knows the religion of Zoroaster 
 as the learned Hyde knows it. 
 The Turks were ignorant of 
 the history of Mahomet and 
 the times that preceded him, 
 but it was explored by Sale, 
 the Englishman who has 
 travelled in Arabia to such 
 good purpose. 
 
 In no country in the world has the Christian religion been so fiercely 
 attacked and so learnedly defended as in England. From Henry VIII. 
 to Cromwell, people disputed, and fought like the gladiators of old who 
 entered the arena blindfold, scimitar in hand. Some slight differences 
 in worship and in dogma led to terrible wars ; but, after the Restoration 
 down to our own days, although Christianity as a whole has been attacked 
 year after year, these disputes have not occasioned the slightest dis- 
 turbance ; they have been answered by science alone, no longer by fire and 
 sword. 
 
340 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 In philosophy especially the English have been teachers of the other 
 nations. Ingenious systems were no longer in question. The fables of 
 the Greeks had long since disappeared, and modern fable was not to 
 appear at all. Lord Bacon had begun by saying that Nature must be 
 interrogated in a novel manner ; that experiments must be made. Bayle 
 passed his life in making them. 
 
 This is not the place for a dissertation on physics ; suffice it to say 
 
 that after three thousand years 
 of vain research, Newton was 
 the first to discover and to 
 demonstrate the great natural 
 law by which all the elements 
 of matter are reciprocally 
 attracted, the law by which 
 all the stars are kept in their 
 courses. He was the first who 
 had, in fact, seen the light ; 
 before him it was hardly 
 known. 
 
 His mathematical principles 
 are founded on the discovery 
 of the infinitesimal calculus, 
 and that effort was made when 
 he was twenty-four. It was this 
 marvellous achievement that 
 made the great Halley, another 
 learned philosopher, say, " it is 
 not permitted to a mortal to at- 
 tain more nearly to the divine." 
 A number of geometricians and physicists were encouraged and 
 inspired by his discoveries. 
 
 Halley, to whom I have just referred, was, though simply an 
 astronomer, placed in command of a King's ship in 1698. On board his 
 ship he determined the position of the stars of the antarctic pole, and 
 marked the variations of the compass in every part of the known world. 
 The voyage of the Argonauts was but the crossing of a river by a boat 
 in comparison ; yet Halley's voyage has hardly been spoken of in Europe. 
 
 * //is f //,;;;>■»/. r /,;/.<,: '/>,,,///',/„ ./,'//// ,;/#^ 
 
 Ay///,;/*,/. ~ /'fJrfiY.df/vM^ 
 
 JONATHAN SWIFT. 
 (Painted from nature by Markbam, engraved by Burford.) 
 
ANCIENTS AND MODERNS 
 
 341 
 
 Our indifference towards great things with which we are too 
 familiar, and the admiration of the Greeks for little things, is a farther 
 proof of the vast superiority of our age over the ancients. Boileau in 
 France, and Sir William Temple in England, refused to recognise that 
 superiority ; they depreciated their age in order to put themselves above 
 it. This dispute between ancients and moderns has been finally decided ; 
 at least in philosophy. No 
 ancient natural philosopher now 
 instructs the youth of any 
 country. 
 
 Locke alone furnishes a 
 great example of the advan- 
 tage that our century possesses 
 over the most illustrious ages 
 of Greece. From the time of 
 Plato to the time of Locke 
 there is nothing ; no one in 
 that interval expounded the 
 operations of mind ; and a man 
 who should know all Plato, but 
 who should know nothing else 
 but Plato, would know little, 
 and know that little ill. 
 
 Plato was, indeed, an elo- 
 quent Greek ; his " Phsedo " is 
 a great service rendered to the 
 sages of all nations : it is only 
 fair that it should be held in 
 honour, because it rendered 
 virtue in misfortune so worthy of respect, and its persecutors so odious. It 
 was long believed that his beautiful moral code could not be accompanied 
 by a bad metaphysic, and the latter was accepted on the faith of the 
 former ; but in the present age of science how would we regard a 
 philosopher who should ask us to believe, on the authority of his 
 teaching, that the world is a figure of twelve pentagons, and the 
 other fantastic theories which he advances? Would the assertion that 
 sleep comes from waking and wakiDg from sleep, that death comes 
 
 HALLEY. 
 
 (From the portrait by Kneller, engraved by White.) 
 
342 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 from life and life from death, be now accepted as a proof of the immortality 
 and the metempsychoses of the soul? Such is the reasoning that was 
 accepted for many centuries, and ideas still more extravagant have since 
 been employed in the education of men. 
 
 Locke alone has developed the human understanding in a book that con- 
 tains nothing but truths, and 
 the work is rendered perfect by 
 the lucidity of all those truths. 
 
 If we would learn in what 
 this last century has surpassed 
 every other, we may glance at 
 Germany and the North. 
 
 Hevelius at Dantzig was 
 the first astronomer who really 
 knew the moon ; no man before 
 him had so closely examined 
 the heavens. Among the great 
 men of the last century who 
 afford proof that it was well 
 and truly called the Century of 
 Louis XIV. is Hevelius. He lost 
 a great library by fire, and the 
 French monarch compensated 
 him for the loss by a present 
 which exceeded it in value. 
 
 Mercator in Holstein was 
 the forerunner of Newton, in 
 geometry ; the Bernoulli in 
 Switzerland were disciples of 
 that great man. Leibnitz was for some time regarded as his rival. 
 
 This famous Leibnitz was born at Leipsic, and died like a sage at 
 Hanover ; he, like Newton, worshipped a divine Being without consulting- 
 men. He was perhaps the most universal scholar in Europe: indefatigable 
 in research as an historian ; a profound jurist, explaining law by philo- 
 sophy, foreign to the former as the latter seemed to be ; a profound 
 metaphysician who tried to reconcile metaphysics with theology; a Latin 
 poet ; and to crown all, a mathematician great enough to dispute the 
 
 SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE. 
 (Portrait by Lely, engrave J by Houbrokeu.) 
 
THE SPREAD OF LEARNING 
 
 343 
 
 GEOMETRY. 
 (Marble bust by Legros. — Musee <iu Louvre.) 
 
 priority of the discovery of the infinitesimal calculus with 
 temporary doubt of Newton's claim. 
 
 This century was also the age of geometry. Mathe- 
 maticians often sent each other challenges, that 
 is to say, problems to be solved, as it is said 
 the ancient Egyptian and Asiatic kings inter- 
 changed riddles to be guessed. The problems 
 proposed to each other by the geometricians 
 were more difficult than those riddles ; but not 
 one of them remained unsolved in Germany, 
 Italy, England or France. Never had the cor- 
 respondence between philosophers been more 
 universal ; Leibnitz served to keep it alive. A 
 republic of letters has been established in 
 the 
 
 Europe, notwithstanding 
 wars and in spite of religious 
 differences. All the sciences, 
 all the arts have been recip- 
 rocally assisted ; this republic 
 has been formed by the 
 Academies. Italy and Russia 
 have been united by letters. 
 Englishmen, Germans, and 
 Frenchmen made their studies 
 at Leyden. Boerhave, the 
 famous physician, was con- 
 sulted both by the Pope and 
 by the Czar. His greatest 
 pupils also attracted the atten- 
 tion of foreigners, and became 
 the physicians of all countries ; 
 real savants in every branch of 
 learning have drawn close the 
 bonds of that great society of 
 minds that exists everywhere 
 and is everywhere indepen- 
 dent. That correspondence still 
 
 . ijl /<(/>. 
 
 I , O 'fU,L //'III' 
 
 ■ Mm 
 
 r(r/:i/r.' (>st:J/s C/iintrar ad.ftn>a£ut ' cvprcfca*. 
 
 JOHN LOCKE. 
 (From the portrait by Kneller, engraved by De Vertue.) 
 
344 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 survives ; it is one of the consolations for the evils that ambition and 
 politics have spread throughout the world. 
 
 In this century Italy has maintained her former fame, though she 
 has had no new Tasso, or new Rafaelle ; it is enough to have produced 
 them once. Chiabrera, Zappi, Filicaja have proved that refinement is the 
 unfailing gift of their race. The " Merope " of Maffei, and the dramatic 
 
 works of Metastasio, are great 
 
 productions of the century. 
 
 The study of true physics, 
 established by Galileo, has been 
 maintained, notwithstanding the 
 opposition of an ancient and 
 cherished philosophy. Cassini, 
 Viviani, Manfredi, Bianchini, 
 Zanotti, and several others 
 have shed over Italy the same 
 light that illumined other 
 countries ; and although the 
 chief rays of that light came 
 from England, the Italian 
 schools did not avert their gaze 
 from it. All kinds of learning 
 have been cultivated in that 
 ancient home of the arts as 
 well as elsewhere, except in 
 matters where the freedom of 
 
 PHILIP SYDENHAM AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-FOUR. 
 
 (From the portrait by Hirse, engraved by Smith.) 
 
 thought of other countries gives 
 greater scope to the mind. The 
 century learned more of antiquity than all those that preceded it. Italy 
 furnishes finer examples of the art of the old world than all Europe put 
 together ; and in proportion as these are disinterred, knowledge is extended. 
 
 This progress is due to certain men of genius who were scattered in 
 small numbers over some parts of Europe. Almost all of these lived for 
 a long time in obscurity, and were frequently persecuted, but they 
 enlightened and consoled the world while war desolated it. Lists may be 
 found elsewhere of those who have made Germany, Italy and England 
 illustrious. A foreigner is hardly qualified to formulate an appreciation 
 
VOLTAIRE TO LORD HERVEY 
 
 345 
 
 of the merits of all these 
 illustrious men. It is enough 
 that I have made it plain that 
 mankind from one end of 
 Europe to the other in the last 
 century has learned more than 
 in all the preceding ages of 
 the world. 
 
 LEIBNITZ. 
 
 (From an anonymous engraving ot the period.) 
 
 This : picture of intellectual 
 progress in the whole of Europe 
 in the time of Louis XIV. em- 
 bodies the idea which Voltaire 
 had formed of the Great Cen- 
 ' tury, the greatest since that of 
 Leo X. Before the publication 
 of his book the author had 
 occasion to reply to one of his 
 English friends, Lord Hervey, 
 who blamed him for having ascribed all the renown of his age to 
 Louis XIV. His explanation justifies him amply : — 
 
 " Do not be so angry with me 
 because I call the last century the 
 Century of Louis XIV. I am well 
 aware that Louis XIV. had not the 
 honour of being the sovereign and 
 the patron of a Bayle, a Newton, a 
 Halley, an Addison, or a Dryden ; but 
 did the Pope do everything in the age 
 which is called the age of Leo X. ? 
 Were there not other princes who 
 contributed to the growth of en- 
 lightenment and the refining of the 
 human kind ? Nevertheless, the name 
 of Leo X. is foremost, because he, 
 
 LOUIS XIV. 
 (Medal belonging to Baron JerOrne Pichon.) 
 
 2 Y 
 
346 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 beyond any other, encouraged the arts. Well then, what king has 
 rendered greater services to humanity in that same way than Louis XIV. ? 
 Name me a sovereign who has drawn foreigners of genius and learning 
 to his country as this King has drawn them. Have not the great writers 
 of his time been your models ? What prince was there who did not try 
 to imitate Louis XIV. ? " 
 
 It was the brightness of its shining in France that won for the Great 
 Century the place it holds, and will ever hold, in history. 
 
 SCIPIO MAFFEI. 
 (From the drawing aud eugraviug by Marcus Pitted.) 
 
PORTRAIT OF LOUIS XIV. SUPPORTED BY WISDOM AND RELIGION. 
 
 (From a frontispiece taken from the collection of Histories of France.) 
 (Cabinet of Engravings. — Bibliotheque Rationale. ) 
 
THE SORBONNE. 
 (From a print by Lepautre.) 
 
 I 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. — MEMORABLE DISPUTES. 
 
 MASS IN A CHURCH OF THE 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 (Print by Lepautre.) 
 
 /^\F the three Estates of the Realm the 
 clergy is the, least numerous, and it is 
 only in the kingdom of France that it has 
 become an " Estate." As an Estate the clergy 
 has always needed management on the 
 part of the sovereign. To preserve union 
 with the See of Rome, and at the same time 
 to maintain the liberties of the Gallican, which 
 are the rights of the ancient, Church ; to make 
 the Bishops obey as subjects without infring- 
 ing the rights of the Episcopate ; to subject 
 them to secular jurisdiction, and yet to leave 
 them free judgment in many things ; to make 
 them contribute to the needs of the State 
 without violating their privileges, demanded 
 dexterity and firmness. Louis XIV. was rarely 
 deficient in either. The French clergy were 
 gradually restored to the order and decorum 
 
350 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 which the civil wars and the licence of the times had disturbed. The 
 King no longer suffered laymen to hold livings under the title of lay- 
 vicars, or those who were not priests to have bishoprics, as in the case of 
 Cardinal Mazarin, who held the bishopric of Metz, although he was not 
 even a sub-deacon, and the Due de Verneuil, also a layman, who had 
 likewise held that bishopric. 
 
 The revenue paid to the King by the French clergy and the 
 conquered towns amounted, on an average, to two millions live hundred 
 
 thousand livres a year ; and at a later period, 
 the value of money having increased, they 
 assisted the State to the amount of four 
 millions a year under the name of tithes, 
 extraordinary subsidies, and free gifts. The 
 name and privilege of " free gift" remain as a 
 relic of the ancient usage by which the feudal 
 lords made free gifts to the kings in times of 
 State necessity. Bishops and abbots, although 
 also feudal lords, had to supply soldiers 
 at times of feudal anarchy only. Kings 
 then possessed their domains only like other 
 lords. Afterwards, though all besides was 
 changed, the clergy continued to assist the 
 State by " free gifts." 
 
 The Church, " whose goods are the goods 
 
 MASS IN A CHURCH OF THK ° 
 
 seventeenth century. 0 f t] ie poor," does not claim exemption from 
 
 (From a print by Lepautre.) . . -. . 
 
 dues to the State from which it derives 
 everything ; for the kingdom, when in necessity, is first among the poor ; 
 but it asserts its own right to give voluntary aid only, and Louis XIV. 
 always exacted this aid after an irresistible fashion. 
 
 In Europe and in France it has been a matter of surprise that the 
 clergy pay so little, for their "Estate" is held to be a "third" of the 
 realm. If the clergy possessed that third they ought undoubtedly to bear 
 a third of the expenses ; these, in an ordinary year, would amount to over 
 fifty millions, apart from the taxes upon articles of consumption which 
 they pay in common with the whole of the nation ; but this is not the case. 
 
 The Church of France is the least wealthy of all the Catholic Churches. 
 No French bishop had acquired possession of a great sovereignty like that 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL FINANCE 351 
 
 of Rome, and no French abbots hold sovereign rights, as the Abbot of 
 Monte Cassino and the German abbots do. As a rule, French bishoprics 
 have but moderate revenues. Strasburg and Cambray are the most 
 important sees ; but they originally belonged to Germany, and the German 
 Church was far more wealthy than the Empire. 
 
 Giannone states in his history of Naples that the Church possesses 
 two-thirds of the revenue of the country. No such abuse exists in 
 France. We say that the 
 Church possesses one-third of 
 
 the realm, just as we say there 
 are a million inhabitants in 
 Paris. If we were to compute 
 the revenue of the bishoprics, 
 we should find, on the evidence 
 of the leases granted within 
 fifty years, that the whole of 
 the bishoprics then existing 
 were valued at an annual 
 revenue of four millions, and 
 the abbacies in trust at four 
 million five hundred thousand 
 francs. It is true that this 
 was one-third below the actual 
 value, and, if the increase of 
 revenues from land be added, 
 the sum total of the income of 
 
 the whole of the Consistorial AN ABB ^ wearing a cassock. 
 
 (From an engraving by Bonuart.) 
 
 livings would come to nearly 
 
 sixteen millions. It must not be forgotten, however, that a con- 
 siderable portion of this sum goes yearly to .Rome as "first-fruits," 
 never comes back, and is a dead loss to France. This liberality on 
 the part of the King towards the Holy See deprives the State in a 
 century of more than four hundred thousand silver marcs, and would, 
 in course of time, impoverish the kingdom, did not commerce abundantly 
 repair the loss. 
 
 To these benefices which pay first-fruits to Rome we must add 
 curacies, convents, collegiate churches, communities, and all the other 
 
352 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 ecclesiastical belongings, but, if these be valued at fifty millions per 
 annum throughout the whole extent of the kingdom, the result will be 
 found tolerably correct. 
 
 Persons who have looked carefully into this matter fail to make 
 the revenues of the whole Gallican Church, secular and regular, exceed 
 ninety millions. This is not an exorbitant sum for the maintenance of 
 ninety thousand religious, and about one hundred and sixty thousand 
 ecclesiastics, according to the reckoning in 1700. And of these ninety 
 thousand monks more than a third were living on alms. Many cloistered 
 monks do not cost their monasteries two hundred livres a year, while the 
 revenues of each monastery may be two hundred thousand. 
 
 When the Clerical Estate of France makes a free gift (don gratuit) 
 of several millions to the Kino; in discharge of its obligations for a term 
 of years, it borrows, and, having paid the interest, it reimburses its 
 creditors in full ; thus it pays twice over. It would have been more 
 reasonable, and better for both the State and the clergy, had that body 
 contributed to the funds of the country in defined proportion to the 
 value of each living. But men are always attached to their old customs. 
 The clergy, who assemble every five years, have never had a meeting- 
 place, or a piece of furniture belonging to them. It is evident that they 
 could have more effectually assisted the King at less expense, and built 
 a palace for themselves in Paris, which would have been a lasting 
 ornament to the capital. The rules of the clergy of France in the 
 minority of Louis XIV. were not yet entirely free from the taint of the 
 League. In the youth of Louis XIII., and in the later meetings of 
 the States in 1614, the majority of the nation, which is called the Third 
 Estate, and is really the foundation of the State, demanded, in conjunction 
 with the parliament, the laying down as a fundamental law " that no 
 spiritual power can deprive kings of their sacred rights, which they 
 hold from God alone, and that it is a crime of lese-mojeste in the 
 highest degree to teach that kings may be deposed and killed." 
 
 This is the substance of the demand of the nation which was made 
 just after the assassination of Henri IV. Cardinal Duperron, a Bishop of 
 France, born in France, strongly opposed this demand under the pretext 
 that it was not for the Third Estate to propose laws on that which 
 concerns the Church. Why then did not he and the clergy do that which 
 the Third Estate would have done ? On the contrary, he declared that 
 
THE COURT OVERRULED 
 
 353 
 
 the power of the Pope was plenary, direct in spiritual matters, indirect 
 in temporal matters, and he charged the clergy to announce that those 
 who asserted that the Pope could not depose kings should be excom- 
 municated." The nobility acquiesced, the Third Estate was silenced. The 
 parliament renewed its former decrees by which the Crown was declared 
 independent, and the person of kings sacred. The ecclesiastical court 
 
 CHURCH PROCESSION IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (From a painting by the brothers Le Nain. — Musee du Louvre.) 
 
 admitted that the person of kings was sacred, but persisted in maintaining 
 that the Crown was dependent, showing the same spirit that had formerly 
 led to the deposition of Louis le Debonnaire. That spirit now prevailed 
 so strongly that the court was overruled, and obliged to imprison the 
 printer who had published the decree of parliament under the title of " loi 
 fondamentale." This was professedly done for the sake of peace, but it was 
 really done to punish those who furnished the Crown with defensive arms. 
 The beaten cause was so much that of all crowned heads that 
 
 2 z 
 
354 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 James I., King of England, wrote against Cardinal Duperron, and that is 
 the best thing he ever did. It was also the cause of the people, for 
 whose peace it is necessary that their sovereigns shall not depend upon a 
 foreign power. By degrees reason prevailed, and Louis XIV., supported 
 by the weight of his power, procured a hearing for it. Antonio Perez 
 had wished three things for Henri IV., "Rome, Counsel, Plenty." 
 Louis XIV. was so well provided in the two latter that he had no need 
 
 of the first. He was careful to preserve the 
 custom of appeal against ecclesiastical ordinances 
 to the parliament by writ of error in all cases 
 where these ordinances affected the royal juris- 
 diction. The clergy sometimes complained of 
 this, at other times approved it, for although on 
 the one hand those appeals maintained the 
 rights of the State against episcopal authority, 
 on the other they made that very authority 
 N^N / /"-'jaft a secure by supporting the privileges of the 
 
 Gallican Church against the claims of the 
 court of Rome. The Bishops regarded the 
 parliaments as at once their adversaries and 
 their defenders ; and the Government took 
 care that, religious quarrels notwithstanding, 
 the easily-passed limits should be observed 
 on both sides. 
 
 CHARITY, 
 CMarble bust by Legros iu the Louvre.) 
 
 OF THE LIBERTIES OF THE GALLICAN 
 CHURCH. 
 
 I S HE word " liberties " assumes subjection. Liberties and privileges 
 signify respectively exemption from a general servitude. The phrase 
 should have been "the rights" and not "the liberties" of the Gallican 
 Church. These rights are common to all former churches. The Bishops of 
 Rome never had jurisdiction over the Christian societies of the empire of 
 the East, but they invaded the whole of the ruined empire of the West. 
 For a long time the Church of France was the only one that disputed with 
 the See of Rome those ancient rights which each Bishop conferred upon 
 himself when, after the first Council of Nice, ecclesiastical and purely 
 spiritual administration was formed upon the model of the civil government. 
 
THE REGALIA 
 
 355 
 
 It cannot reasonably be asserted that a Bishop of Rome possessed the 
 right to send legates a latere to France with power to judge, reform, 
 dispense and levy money from the people ; 
 
 To command French prelates to go to Rome to plead their causes ; 
 
 To impose taxes upon the benefices of the kingdom under the name 
 of vacancies, successions, transfers, incompati- 
 bilities, commissions, ninths, tithes, first-fruits ; 
 
 To excommunicate the King's officers, and 
 so prevent the discharge of their business ; 
 
 To render bastards capable of succession ; 
 
 To break the wills of those who die 
 without giving a portion of their goods to the 
 Church ; 
 
 To permit French ecclesiastics to alienate 
 their landed property ; 
 
 To delegate judges to ascertain the 
 legitimacy of marriages. 
 
 In short, more than seventy assumed 
 rights, against which the parliaments of A 
 the kingdom have always maintained the m 
 inherent liberty of the nation and the m 
 dignity of the Crown, are enumerated. " 
 
 The Jesuits were held in high esteem 
 under Louis XIV., and that the monarch 
 curbed the remonstrances of the parliaments 
 sharply is clear, seeing that he reigned 
 solely by himself : however, neither of those 
 important bodies neglected any oppor- 
 tunity of repressing the claims of the 
 Court of Rome, and the King always 
 approved of their vigilance, because in that 
 matter the essential rights of the nation were the rights of the sovereign. 
 
 The most important and delicate affair of this kind was the matter 
 of the regalia. This is a right of the kings of France to appoint to all 
 the sinecures of a diocese during the vacancy of the see, and to dispose 
 of the revenues of the bishopric at their pleasure. That prerogative is 
 now peculiar to the kings of France, but each State has its own customs. 
 
 \ 
 
 BUST OF THE VIRGIN. 
 (Attributed to Sarcasm. From tbe Collection of Madame Moreau-Nelaton.) 
 
356 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 The kings of Portugal enjoy one-third of the revenues of the bishops of 
 their kingdom. The Emperor has a right to the first prayers ; he has 
 always conferred all the first livings that fall vacant. The kings of Naples 
 and Sicily have still greater rights ; those of Rome are for the most part 
 founded upon usage rather than upon primitive title. 
 
 The Merovingian kings conferred bishoprics and all prelacies by their 
 sole authority. In 742 Carloman created that same Boniface who after- 
 wards crowned Pepin, as a mark of his gratitude, Archbishop of Mayence. 
 Many monuments of the power the kings had to dispose of these important 
 places still remain : the more important, the more ought they to be 
 dependent upon the chief of the State. The incoming of a foreign 
 bishop appeared dangerous ; the nomination reserved for that bishop 
 
 had often meant an usurpa- 
 tion still more dangerous, and 
 had more than once caused civil 
 war. Since kings conferred 
 bishoprics, it seemed just that 
 they should preserve the small 
 privilege of disposing of the 
 revenue and appointing to sine- 
 cures during the short period 
 that intervenes between the 
 death of a bishop and the 
 enthronement of his successor. Several bishops of the Crown, under the 
 third race (of kings), refused to recognise this right, which some individuals 
 among the seignorial class were not strong enough to insist upon. The 
 Popes declared for the bishops, and these claims remained always in a 
 mist. In 1608 the parliament under Henri IV. declared that the regalia 
 prevailed over the entire kingdom. The clergy complained, and the king, 
 dealing cautiously with the bishops and with Rome, handed over the 
 matter to his Council, and took good care not to settle it himself. 
 
 Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin had several decrees for the showing 
 of their titles by the bishops who declared themselves exempt made by 
 the Council. Nothing had been decided in 1673 ; the king did not 
 then venture to give a single living during the vacancy of a See in any 
 of the dioceses situated beyond the Loire. 
 
 At length, in 1673, the Chancellor, Etienne d'Aligre, sealed an edict 
 
 CHAIy'eELLOR d'aLKJRK ENFORCING RESPECT TO 
 the king's justice (1674). 
 
 (From a print of the time.) 
 
iiixtl' ■ * '• Z.Smith fecit Said by < I Smith at the Xym and Crcwn tk Uluiael -Jh-eet- Cerent- ffartfej 
 
TWO RESOLUTE BISHOPS 
 
 357 
 
 by which all the bishoprics of the kingdom were subject to the regalia. 
 Two bishops, Pavilion, Bishop of Aleth, and Caulet, Bishop of Pamiers, 
 among the most estimable men in the kingdom, obstinately refused to 
 submit. They defended themselves at first by plausible reasons, which, 
 however, were met by reasons equally strong. When well-informed men 
 dispute for long it is most likely the question is not clear : this was 
 indeed very obscure, but it was evident that neither religion nor the 
 cause of order was to be 
 served by preventing a king 
 from doing in two dioceses 
 what he did in all the others. 
 However, the two Bishops 
 were inflexible. Neither the 
 one nor the other had regis- 
 tered his oath of fidelity, 
 and the King held it as his 
 right to appoint to the 
 canonries of their churches. 
 
 The two prelates excom- 
 municated the canons ap- 
 pointed by regalia. They 
 were both suspected of 
 Jansenism. Innocent X. had 
 been against them, but when 
 they declared against the 
 claims of the King, they had 
 Innocent XL (Odescalchi) on 
 their side. The Pope, who 
 was as estimable and as obstinate as themselves, took their part strongly. 
 
 The King contented himself at first with exiling the chief officers 
 of the two Bishops. He showed more moderation than did they w T ho 
 piqued themselves on sanctity. The great age of the Bishop of Aleth 
 was respected ; he was suffered to die in peace. The Bishop of Pamiers 
 remained alone and unshaken. He redoubled his excommunications, and 
 persisted all the more in not registering his oath of fidelity, because he 
 believed that by the terms of that oath the Church was too much 
 subjected to the monarchy. The King seized his temporalities. The 
 
 ALLEGORICAL PRINT ON THE AFFAIR OF THE REGALIA, 1682. 
 (Anonymous engraving in the Gallery of Engravings.) 
 
358 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Pope and the Jansenists made good the loss ; he gained by being 
 deprived of his revenues, and died in 1680 convinced that he had 
 maintained the cause of God against the King. The quarrel did not 
 terminate with his death. Canons, named by the King, went to take 
 possession ; some religious, who claimed to be canons and grand-vicaires, 
 forced them to leave the church, and excommunicated them. The 
 metropolitan, Montpezat, Archbishop of Toulouse, in whose jurisdiction the 
 matter lay, gave judgment in vain against these claimants to authority. 
 They appealed to Rome, according to the custom of carrying all ecclesi- 
 astical cases brought to judgment before the Archbishops of France to the 
 Court of Rome : this custom is opposed to the Gallican liberties ; but 
 every human government by man is contradictory. Decrees were 
 passed in parliament. A monk, named Cerle, who was one of these 
 grand-vicaires, annulled both the judgment of the metropolitan and the 
 decrees of the parliament. That tribunal condemned him, in default, to 
 forfeit his head, and to be dragged on a hurdle. He was executed in 
 effigy. From his retreat he defied both the Archbishop and the King, 
 and the Pope supported him. The Pontiff* indeed did more ; persuaded, 
 like the Bishop of Pamiers, that the right of regalia was a wrong to the 
 Church, and that the King had no rights in Pamiers, he annulled the 
 ordinances of the Archbishop of Toulouse, excommunicated the new 
 grand-vicaires nominated by that prelate, with all priests appoiuted by 
 the King " in regalia," and their abettors. 
 
 The King convoked an Assembly of the Clergy, composed of thirty- 
 five bishops and as many deputies of the second order. The Jansenists 
 for the first time went over to the Pope, and the Pope, an enemy of the 
 King's, favoured them without liking them. He always prided himself 
 on resisting Louis XIV. on every occasion, and afterwards, in 1689, he 
 joined with the Allies against King James because Louis XIV. protected 
 that prince : it was, in fact, a saying of the time that, in order to put an 
 end to the troubles of Europe and the Church, King James would have 
 to turn Huguenot and the Pope Catholic. 
 
 Meanwhile the Assemblies of the Clergy of 1681 and 1682 unani- 
 mously declared for the King. Another little quarrel had now become 
 important : the election to a priory in a faubourg of Paris committed the 
 King and the Pope alike. The Roman Pontiff' had quashed an ordinance 
 of the Archbishop of Paris and annulled his nomination to the priory. 
 
CONCESSION BY THE CLERGY 
 
 359 
 
 The parliament had condemned the action of Rome. The Pope had 
 ordered by a bull that the Inquisition should have the judgment of the 
 parliament burned, and the parliament had ordered the suppression of the 
 bull. These conflicts have long been the usual and inevitable effect of 
 the contradiction between a people's natural liberty of governing itself in 
 its own land, and submission to a foreign power. 
 
 Txert f^W> jivr./, met ,t//e ,/f zjr/ie, (e Jlr/t/7/t'.r, »H A'c/t ■. LtAmy /- dr & ~s>t>te .met r< rt /•ezenjeee ju: teie . '//,-///,'„•<•/> 
 
 LOUIS XIV. FAVOURS CATHOLICISM BY RECEIVING KING JAMES AT VERSAILLES. 
 (From a Dutch print in the Hennin Collection.) 
 
 The Assembly of the Clergy took a part which shows that wise men 
 may yield with dignity to their sovereign without the intervention of 
 another power. The clergy consented to the extension of the right of 
 regalia to the whole kingdom ; but this was a concession on the part 
 of the clergy, who remitted their claims from gratitude to their patron, as 
 much as it was a formal avowal of the absolute rights of the Crown. 
 
 The Assembly justified itself to the Pope by a letter containing a 
 passage which ought to be regarded as an invariable precept in all 
 
360 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 THE RIGHTS OF THE "REGALIA." 
 (From a jiriut by Lepautre.) 
 
 disputes. It is this : " It is 
 better to sacrifice some part of 
 one's rights than to trouble 
 the peace." The King, the 
 Gallican Church, and the two 
 parliaments were content. The 
 Jansenists published some 
 libels. The Pope was inflexible ; 
 he annulled all the resolutions 
 of the Assembly by a brief, and summoned the bishops to retract. This 
 was matter enough to separate the Church of France from that of Rome. 
 Under Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin there had been talk of making a 
 patriarch. The desire of all the magistrates was that the tribute of 
 first-fruits should no longer be paid to Rome ; that Rome should no 
 longer nominate to livings in Brittany for six months out of the year ; 
 that French bishops should no longer call themselves bishops " by 
 permission of the Holy See." If the King had desired this, he would 
 only have had to say one word ; he was Master of the Assembly 
 of the Clergy ; he had the nation with him. Rome would have 
 lost all by the inflexibility of an excellent Pontiff, who could not 
 accommodate himself to the times : in this respect he differed from 
 every other Pope of the century. But these are ancient landmarks which 
 are not to be removed without trouble and danger. Higher interests, 
 deeper passions, greater effervescence of the public mind, were needed to 
 break all at once with Rome ; and it was very difficult to make that 
 division, while the extirpation of Calvinism was welcome. It was regarded 
 as a bold stroke when the four famous decisions of the same Assembly of 
 Clergy were published in 1682. The substance of these was as follows: — 
 
 1. No power, either direct or 
 indirect, over things temporal 
 was given by God to Peter. 
 
 2. The Gallican Church ap- 
 proves the Council of Constance, 
 which declares the General 
 Councils superior to the Pope 
 in things spiritual. 
 
 0 rp l . , . RIGHTS OF THE "REGALIA. 
 
 .3. lhe received rules, (From a prmt by Lep autre.) 
 
THE FOUR PROPOSITIONS 
 
 361 
 
 BRONZE VESSEL FOE HOLT WATER USED BY 
 LOUIS XIV., SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 (The King's Chamber. — Chateau de Versailles.) 
 
 customs, and practices throughout the king- 
 dom and in the Gallican Church must 
 remain immutable. 
 
 4. The decisions of the Pope in 
 matters of faith are not final until 
 after the Church has accepted theim 
 
 All the tribunals and all the 
 theological faculties registered these 
 four propositions in extenso,. and the 
 teaching of anything contrary to 
 them was forbidden by an edict. 
 This resolute stand was regarded at Rome 
 as a rebellious act, and by all the protestants 
 in Europe as a futile effort by a free-born 
 Church, which had broken only four links 
 of her chain. 
 
 These propositions were at first supported by the people with enthusiasm, 
 
 but afterwards less warmly. 
 Towards the end of the reign 
 of Louis XIV. they became 
 problematic, and Cardinal de 
 Fleury afterwards caused them 
 to be partly disavowed by an 
 Assembly of the Clergy. This 
 withdrawal did not cause any 
 remark, because men's minds 
 were not yet inflamed, and also 
 because nothing did make a stir 
 during the ministry of Cardinal 
 Fleury. 
 
 Meanwhile Innocent XL 
 refused bulls to all the bishops 
 and commendatory abbes nomi- 
 nated by the King, so that at 
 the death of the Pope, in 1689, 
 there were twenty-nine dioceses 
 
 CHRIST* 
 
 (Bust by Pierre Tuget.— llusee de Marseilles,) in France witllOllt bishops. 
 
362 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 These prelates received their revenues, but they did not venture 
 to demand consecration or to perforin episcopal functions. The idea 
 of creating a patriarch was revived. The quarrel respecting the 
 privileges of the Ambassadors at Rome complicated the situation, and made 
 men think that at last the time had come to establish a Catholic Apostolic 
 Church in France which should not be Roman. The Public Prosecutor, De 
 
 Harlay, and the Attorney-General, Talon, 
 made this sufficiently understood when, 
 in 1687, they appealed by writ of error 
 from the bull, and denounced the 
 obstinacy of the Pope in leaving so 
 many Churches without pastors. The 
 King positively refused his consent to 
 this proceeding, which was in reality 
 more easy than appeared from its 
 boldness. 
 
 The cause of Pope Innocent XI. 
 became the cause of the Holy See. 
 The four propositions of the clergy 
 of France attacked the phantom of 
 Infallibility (not believed but upheld 
 at Rome) and the real power attaching 
 to that phantom. Alexander VII. and 
 Innocent XII. took the same course as 
 the proud Odescalchi, although in a 
 milder manner. They confirmed the 
 condemnation pronounced upon the 
 Assembly of the Clergy ; they refused 
 
 (Collection of Barou Jerome Picuon.) 
 
 bulls to the bishops ; in short, they 
 did too much because Louis XIV. had done too little. The bishops had 
 had enough of the King's sole nomination and of remaining without 
 duties to discharge, and they asked permission of the Court of France to 
 appease the Court of Rome. 
 
 The King on his side was tired of holding out, and gave leave. 
 Each of them wrote separately that he was " grievously afflicted by the 
 proceedings of the Assembly ; " each declared in his letter that he did not 
 receive its decisions as decisions or its decrees as decrees. Innocent XII. 
 
THE CLOSE OF STRIFE 363 
 
 [Pignatelli], more conciliatory than Odescalchi, was satisfied with their 
 action. The four propositions were taught in France from time to time 
 nevertheless ; but arms grow rusty when the fighting is over, and the 
 dispute remained in abeyance, without being decided — a not uncommon 
 occurrence in a State which has not invariable and recognised 
 principles on these matters. 
 
 Louis XIV. had no other ecclesiastical contest with Rome, and he 
 encountered no opposition from the clergy in temporal affairs. 
 
 Under him the clergy earned public respect by decorum unknown in 
 the barbarism of the two first races (of kings), in the still more barbarous 
 times of the feudal government, and also unknown during the civil 
 wars and in the agitation of the reign of Louis XIII., but especially 
 during the Fronde, with a few exceptions. 
 
 It was only then that the eyes of the people began to be opened to 
 the superstition which they always mixed up with their religion. Despite 
 the parliament of Aix, and the Carmelites, it became lawful to assert that 
 Lazarus and Mary of Magdala never had visited Provence, that Denis 
 the Areopagite never had governed the Church of Paris. Mythical saints, 
 false miracles and false relics began to be discredited. 
 
 Gaston-Louis de Noailles, Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne, and brother 
 of the Cardinal, who was equally pious and enlightened, took an exemplary 
 part in effecting the clearance of superstitious notions and practices that 
 marked this period. 
 
 Some superstitions, attached to time-honoured customs, still remained, 
 and afforded a cause of triumph to the sects, but the latter have been 
 obliged to admit that in no Catholic community are these abuses less 
 common and more despised than in the Church of France. 
 
 The truly philosophical spirit, which did not prevail until the middle 
 of the century, did not extinguish theological quarrels old or new : it had 
 nothing to do with them. These dissensions are to be dealt with 
 presently. 
 
MEDALLION OF LOUIS XIV. BY BERTINETTI. 
 ("Collection of Baron JerSme Pichon.) 
 
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. 
 (Bas-relief by Sarcasm. — Musee de Versailles.) 
 
 II 
 
 CALVINISM IN THE TIME OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 T T is a grievous fact that the Christian Church 
 has always been rent by dissensions, and 
 that blood has been shed throughout its history 
 by hands consecrated to the service of the God 
 of Peace. Passion of this kind was unknown to 
 paganism. It did indeed cover the earth with 
 darkness, but sprinkled it with the blood of 
 animals only ; and, although among Jews and 
 pagans human victims were sometimes consigned 
 to death, those sacrifices, horrible as they were, 
 did not give rise to civil wars. 
 It was the dogmatic spirit that led to the Wars of Eeligion. I have 
 endeavoured to discover how and why this dogmatic spirit, which divided 
 the schools of pagan antiquity without creating any disturbance, brought 
 such turmoil upon us. Fanaticism alone is not the cause ; for GJ-ymno- 
 sophists and Brahmins, who are the most fanatical of men, never harmed 
 any but themselves. Is not the origin of this new plague which has ravaged 
 the earth to be found in the natural conflict between the republican spirit 
 
366 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 of the Early Churches, and the principle of authority, which hates resistance 
 of any kind '. The secret assemblies braved the laws of Roman Emperors 
 in their grottos and caves, gradually formed a state within a State, and 
 became a hidden republic in the midst of an Empire. Constantine released 
 that republic from underground to place it beside the throne. The 
 authority attached to the great sees soon found itself in opposition to 
 the popular spirit which had hitherto inspired all the assemblies of the 
 Christians. All authority is secretly distasteful to man, the more so 
 because authority of every kind is always encroaching and seeking its 
 own aggrandisement ; so that men readily make a duty of revolt when a 
 pretext believed to be sacred can be found for resisting it. Thus one 
 party become persecutors, the others become rebels, and both take God 
 to witness of the justice of the cause of each. 
 
 There was not much dissension in the Latin Church of the early 
 centuries. Continual invasion by barbarian foes virtually prohibited 
 internal dissension ; and few dogmas were sufficiently developed to define 
 and fix universal faith. Nearly the whole of the west rejected the worship 
 of images in the time of Charlemagne. Claude, Bishop of Turin, proscribed 
 that worship, and retained certain dogmas which now form the foundation 
 of protestantism. These were perpetuated in the valleys of Piedmont, 
 Dauphine, Provence and Languedoc ; they came into evidence in the 
 twelfth century, they produced the war of the Albigenses ; and passing 
 into the University of Prague afterwards, they gave rise to the war of the 
 Hussites. An interval of hardly one hundred years elapsed between the 
 end of the troubles which arose from the ashes of John Huss and Jerome 
 of Prague, and those which were produced by the sale of Indulgences. 
 The ancient dogmas embraced by the Vaudois, the Albigenses, and the 
 Hussites, which were renewed but differently expounded by Luther and 
 Zwinglius, were received with avidity in Germany, as a pretext for seiziug 
 upon the lands of which the bishops and abbots had taken possession, and 
 for resistance to the emperors, who were then making rapid strides 
 towards despotic power. These dogmas triumphed in Sweden and 
 Denmark : in both countries the people had kings, but were free. 
 
 The English, who have the spirit of independence by nature, first 
 adopted the dogmas, then modified them, and finally made a religion 
 for themselves out of them. Presbyterianism established a kind of 
 republic in Scotland in the troubled times ; its pedantry and austerity 
 
« THE 
 
 REFORM 
 
 367 
 
 were much more intolerable than the severity of the climate and the 
 tyranny of the bishops. It continued to be dangerous in Scotland until 
 it was put down by reason, law, and force. " The Eeform " penetrated 
 to Poland, and made great progress in cities whose people are not 
 enslaved. The largest and wealthiest portion of the Swiss Republic 
 embraced it readily. For the same reason it was on the point of being 
 established in Venice, and would have taken root there had not Venice 
 been too near to Rome, and, probably, had not the Government been 
 afraid of democracy, to which the people of every Republic naturally 
 aspire, and which was then the chief aim of most of the preachers. The 
 Dutch did not adopt the reform until after they had thrown off the yoke 
 of Spain. Geneva, on becoming 
 Calvinist, became an entirely 
 republican State. 
 
 The House of Austria kept 
 these sects out of its States as 
 much as possible. They took 
 hardly any hold in Spain, and 
 had been extirpated by sword 
 and fire in the States of the 
 Duke of Savoy, their cradle. 
 The inhabitants of the Pied- 
 montese valleys suffered, in 
 1655, as the people of Merindol 
 and Cabrieres suffered in France 
 under Francois I. The autocrat Duke of Savoy exterminated " the sect" 
 so soon as he deemed it dangerous ; only a few scattered members now 
 linger unnoticed among the rocks' which shelter them. We do not find 
 that the Lutherans and the Calvinists caused much trouble under the firm 
 government of Francois I. and Henri II. ; but under their successors 
 religious quarrels waxed fierce. The jealousy of Conde and Coligny, who 
 had become Calvinist because the Guises were Catholic, disturbed the State. 
 The levity and impetuosity of the people, with their enthusiasm and 
 craving for novelty, turned the most polite of nations into barbarians for 
 a space of forty years. 
 
 Henri IV., who was born in that particular sect, and liked it, but 
 was not strongly prejudiced in favour of any, could not reign in 
 
368 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 France, notwithstanding his victories and his virtues, without renouncing 
 Calvinism. He had become a Catholic, but he was not so ungrateful as to 
 be willing to destroy the party to whom, in a measure, he owed his crown, 
 although that party was inimical to kings ; besides, had he been willing 
 to quell Calvinist faction, he could not have done so. He petted, protected, 
 and kept it down. 
 
 The Huguenots in France formed nearly a twelfth part of the nation 
 at that time. Among them were powerful nobles ; and entire towns were 
 protectant. They had made war on kings, whom they had constrained to 
 give them places of safety. Henri III. had granted them fourteen towns 
 in Dauphine alone ; Montauban and Nimes in Languedoc, Saumur, aud 
 especially La Eochelle, which was a Eepublic in itself, and might be made 
 a power by its commerce and the favour of England. At length, in 1598, 
 Henri IV. acted in accordance with his inclination, his policy, and even 
 his duty by granting the celebrated Edict of Nantes to the party. This 
 Edict was, in fact, only the confirmation of the privileges which the 
 protestants of France had wrested by force of arms from the preceding- 
 kings, but Henri IV., whose throne was now secure, allowed them to 
 retain those privileges of his own good pleasure. 
 
 By this Edict of Nantes, more famous than all the others because 
 it bears the name of Henri IV., every seigneur with feudal rights of 
 "high justice" [seigneur de fief haut justicier) was entitled to the full 
 exercise of the reformed religion ; every seigneur not possessed of those 
 rights ' was entitled to admit thirty persons to a meeting-house. The 
 complete exercise of " La Religion " was authorised in all places immediately 
 under the jurisdiction of a parliament. 
 
 Calvinists were allowed to have all their books printed in the towns 
 in which their religion was permitted, without the ordinary imprimatur, 
 permissu superiorum. They were declared capable of holding any of the 
 offices and dignities of State, as it immediately appeared, since the King 
 made the " seigneurs " La Tremouille and Rosny dukes and peers. 
 
 A special Court, composed of a president and sixteen councillors, was 
 created in the parliament of Paris to try all the reform cases, not only 
 in the immense district under the Paris jurisdiction, but also in Normandy 
 and Brittany. This was called the Court of the Edict. As a fact, only 
 one Calvinist was ever admitted of right among the councillors of that 
 jurisdiction ; but, as it w T as destined to prevent the injustice complained 
 
THE CALVINIST ADVANCE 
 
 369 
 
 of by the party, and as msn always pique themselves upon strict fulfil- 
 ment of a duty that brings them distinction, the Court, although 
 composed of Catholics, invariably rendered entirely impartial justice to the 
 Huguenots, as the latter admitted. 
 
 They had a sort of small parliament at Castres, independent of that 
 of Toulouse. At Grenoble and Bordeaux there were courts, partly Catholic 
 and partly Calvinist. Their Churches, like the Gallican Church, assembled 
 in Synods. These privileges and 
 many others incorporated the 
 Calvinists with the rest of the 
 nation ; it was indeed only the 
 binding together of enemies, 
 but the authority, the kindli- 
 ness, and the tact of the great 
 King kept them down during 
 his time. 
 
 After the terrible and de- 
 plorable death of Henri IV., 
 under the disadvantages of the 
 king's minority and a divided 
 Court, the republican spirit of 
 the reformed party led it to 
 abuse its privileges, and the 
 Court, weak as it was, had to 
 try to restrain it. The Hugue- 
 nots had already established 
 clubs (cercles) in France, in 
 imitation of Germany. The 
 delegates of these clubs were 
 often seditious, and there were many ambitious men among the party of 
 the nobles. The Due de Bouillon, and especially the Due de Rohan, the 
 highest in repute of the Huguenot chiefs, soon threw the restless spirit 
 of the preachers and the blind zeal of the people into revolt. In 1615, 
 the General Assembly of the party presented a memorial to the Court 
 which demanded, among other insolent articles, that the King's Council 
 should be reformed. In 1616, they took up arms in some places, and the 
 audacity of the Huguenots being added to the dissensions of the Court, 
 
 3 B 
 
 PRINCIPAL POINTS OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH. 
 
 (Frontispiece by Mellau for the Treatise by 
 Cardinal de Richelieu so entitled.) 
 
370 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 the popular dislike of the favourites, and the prevalent uneasiness in the 
 country, trouble destined to long continuance ensued. The history of the 
 movement is marked by sedition, intrigue, threats, the taking up of 
 arms, peace made in a hurry and as hastily broken. This state of 
 things caused the celebrated Cardinal Bentivoglio, then Papal Nuncio in 
 France, to say that he had seen nothing but storms there. 
 
 In the year 1621, the reformed Churches of France offered the 
 command of their armies to the Due de Lesdiguieres, who was afterwards 
 Constable of France, with a hundred thousand crowns a month. But 
 Lesdiguieres, who was wiser in his ambition than they in their spirit of 
 faction, and who knew them because he had already commanded them, 
 preferred to fight them instead, and replied to their offer by becoming a 
 Catholic. The Huguenots then applied to the Marechal Due de Bouillon, 
 who replied that he was too old. Finally they gave the unlucky post to the 
 Due de Rohan, who, in conjunction with his brother, the Due de Soubise, 
 actually made war upon the King of France. 
 
 That same year, the Constable de Luynes conducted Louis XIII. 
 from province to province. He subdued more than fifty towns without 
 resistance, but he failed before Montauban, and the King had to endure 
 the mortification of retreat. La Rochelle was besieged in vain. The town 
 held out, a triumph which was partly due to its own valour and partly 
 to the assistance of England. The Due de Rohan, who was guilty of the 
 crime of high treason, made a treaty of peace with his sovereign, in almost 
 a sovereign attitude. 
 
 After this peace, and after the death of the Constable de Luynes, 
 the war was resumed, and La Rochelle, still leagued with England and the 
 Calvinists against its sovereign, was besieged anew. A woman (she was 
 the mother of the Due de Rohan) held the town for a whole year against 
 the King's army, against the political action of Cardinal de Richelieu, 
 and against the valour of Louis XIII., who more than once faced death 
 during the siege. The town suffered the extremity of famine, and the 
 surrender of the fortress was solely due to a dyke, five hundred feot in 
 length, which, like Alexander's before Tyre, had been constructed by 
 order of Cardinal de Richelieu. The dyke defied the sea, and conquered 
 the defenders of La Rochelle. Gruiton, the Mayor, who would fain have 
 buried himself in the ruins of the town, had the boldness, after he had 
 surrendered at discretion, to appear with his guards before Cardinal de 
 
" THE EDICT OF GRACE" 
 
 371 
 
 Richelieu. The mayors of the principal Huguenot towns had guards. 
 Guifcon was deprived of his, and the town of its privileges. The Due de 
 Rohan, the chief of the rebel heretics, still carried on the war for his 
 party, and, being abandoned by the protestant English, leagued himself 
 with the Catholic Spaniards. But the inflexibility of Cardinal de Richelieu 
 forced the Huguenots, who were beaten on every side, to submit. 
 
 All the edicts which had been granted to them hitherto had been 
 treaties with kings. Richelieu insisted that the Edict now to be issued 
 should be called the " Edict of 
 Grace." In it the King spoke as 
 the sovereign who pardons. The 
 right of practising the new religion 
 was taken away from La Rochelle, 
 
 A 
 
 the lie de Re, Oleron, Privas, and 
 Pamiers. The Edict of Nantes, 
 always regarded by the Calvinists as 
 their fundamental law, was allowed 
 to stand. 
 
 It seems strange that Cardinal 
 de Richelieu, absolute and daring as 
 he was, should not have abolished 
 this famous edict ; but he was then 
 cherishing another project, more 
 difficult of accomplishment perhaps, 
 but not less consistent with the 
 vastness of his ambition and the 
 loftiness of his ideas. He aspired 
 to govern men's minds, and believed that he could do this by his 
 genius, his power and his policy. His project was to gain over some of 
 the preachers whom the sects styled ministers, and who are now styled 
 pastors, to make them in the first place acknowledge that the Catholic cult 
 was not a crime before God, afterwards to lead them on by degrees, to 
 grant them some unimportant points, while appearing to the Court of 
 Rome to have granted them nothing. He reckoned on dazzling one party 
 among the reformed sects, and tempting the other, by gifts and favours ; 
 in short, on appearing to have re-united them to the Church, leaving 
 time to do the rest. His mind was fixed on the fame that would accrue 
 
 CALVIN OVERTHROWN BY TRUE RELIGION. 
 (Fragment of an Almanac.) 
 
372 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 to him from having done or projected this great work, and passing for 
 having executed "it. The famous Capuchin monk Joseph, on the one hand 
 (" l'Eminence Grise " of history and romance), and two ministers whom he 
 had secured on the other, opened this negotiation. But it appeared that 
 Cardinal de Richelieu had presumed too far, and that it is more difficult 
 to make theologians agree than to stop the sea with a dyke. 
 
 Richelieu, being foiled, resolved to crush the Calvinists, but he was 
 hindered by other cares. He had to contend with the nobles, the royal 
 princes, the House of Austria, and frequently Louis XIII. himself. 
 He died prematurely in the midst of all this turmoil, leaving his 
 purposes unfulfilled, and a name more brilliant than it was beloved and 
 revered. 
 
 After the taking of La Rochelle and the Edict of Grace, the civil 
 wars ceased, and only disputes remained. Big volumes, which are no 
 longer read, were published on both sides. The clergy, and especially the 
 Jesuits, endeavoured to convert the Huguenots. Huguenot ministers 
 endeavoured to bring Catholics to their way of thinking. The King's 
 Council was occupied in issuing decrees concerning a village cemetery in 
 dispute between the two religions, a place of worship built upon ground 
 that had formerly belonged to the Church, schools, manorial rights, burials, 
 bells, etc., and the reformers rarely gained their causes. Of all the past 
 devastation and plunder, nothing but these minor vexations remained. 
 The Huguenots had no longer a leader after the Due de Rohan forsook 
 them, and the house of Bouillon had no longer Sedan. They even took 
 credit to themselves for remaining quiet in the midst of the factions of 
 the Fronde and the civil wars brought about by princes, parliaments and 
 bishops, on the pretext of serving the King against Cardinal Mazarin. 
 
 Religion was hardly in question during the lifetime of that minister. 
 He made no difficulty about giving the post of Comptroller-General of 
 Finance to a foreign Calvinist named Hervart. Many members of the 
 " sects " got places under the farmers-general of the revenue, the sub-farmers 
 and their subordinates. 
 
 Colbert, who reAdved national industry, and who may be regarded as 
 the founder of commerce, employed numbers of Huguenots in arts, manu- 
 factures, and the navy. These useful occupations subdued the epidemic 
 rage of controversy by gradually giving them employment, while the halo 
 which encircled Louis XIV. for fifty years, his power, his firm and 
 
THE DECLINE OF CONTROVERSY 373 
 
 vigorous rule, quelled every idea of resistance in the party of reform, as 
 well as in all the other orders of the State. The magnificent fetes of a 
 gallant Court cast ridicule upon the pedantry of the Huguenots. As 
 a taste for fine music grew, the psalms of Marot and Beze could not fail 
 to inspire dislike. They had charmed the courtiers of Francois II., but 
 were fit only for the populace under Louis XIV. The sound philosophy 
 
 HYPOCHONDRIACS. 
 (Satirical Dutch print against the sovereigns, defenders of the Catholic Faith.) 
 
 which was emerging into view in the middle of the seventeenth century 
 was certain in course of time, to deter sensible people from the disputes 
 of controversy. 
 
 But, until reason should gradually assert itself, this very spirit of 
 dispute might aid in maintaining the tranquillity of the State ; for the 
 Jansenists, who appeared on the scene at that time with some repute, 
 began to receive the support of those who cared for the subtleties of 
 
374 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 controversy. They wrote against the Jesuits and against the Huguenots; 
 the latter replied to the Jansenists and to the Jesuits, the Lutherans of 
 the province of Alsace wrote against them all. A war of the pen among 
 so many parties, while the State was busy with great affairs, and the 
 Government was all-powerful, must necessarily become an occupation for 
 idle persons only after a time, and this state of things would degenerate 
 sooner or later into indifference. 
 
 Louis XIV. was irritated against the sects by the continual remon- 
 strances of his clergy, by the insinuations of the Jesuits, by the Court 
 of Rome, and finally by Le Tellier the Chancellor, and Louvois, both 
 enemies of Colbert, who wanted to brand the sects as rebels because 
 Colbert regarded them as useful subjects. Louis XIV., who knew nothing 
 about the grounds of their doctrines, looked upon them, not without 
 some reason, as former insurgents who had been put down with difficulty. 
 He applied himself at first to gradually undermining the edifice of their 
 religion on all sides. The slightest pretext was used for depriving them 
 of a place of worship ; they were forbidden to marry Catholic girls : the 
 policy of this prohibition was doubtful, for the Court was well aware 
 that it ignored a powerful influence. The intendants and the bishops 
 endeavoured to take the children of the Huguenots from them by the 
 most plausible means. Colbert was ordered (in 1681) no longer to give 
 any man of that religion a post in the State farmers' offices. They were 
 excluded as far as possible from the corporations of arts and crafts. The 
 King, however, while he kept them under the yoke, forbore to make it 
 too heavy. All violence against them was forbidden by decree. Severity 
 was judiciously tempered by persuasion. 
 
 A method of conversion frequently found efficacious was employed : 
 this was money ; but insufficient use was made of that resource. Pellisson 
 was entrusted with this secret service : he was the same Pellisson who 
 had been a Calvinist for so long, was so well known by his works, for his 
 fluent eloquence, and for his attachment to Fouquet, whose head clerk, 
 favourite, and victim he had been. He was fortunate enough to change 
 his religion at a time when the change might lead him to dignity and 
 wealth. He took orders, and obtained preferment, also the post of Master 
 of Requests. The King entrusted him with the revenue of the abbeys 
 of Saint-Germain-des-Pres and Cluny, about the year 1677, together with 
 the revenues of the third of the stewardships, for distribution to those 
 
THE BEGINNING OF FLIGHT 375 
 
 who were willing to be converted. Cardinal Le Camus, Bishop of Grenoble, 
 had already employed that method. Pellisson, being charged with this 
 department, sent the money into the provinces, where great efforts were 
 made to obtain many conversions for little outlay. Small sums, distributed 
 to poor people, swelled the list which Pellisson presented to the King 
 every three months, while persuading him that everything in the world 
 yielded to his power or to his favour. 
 
 The Council, encouraged by these small successes, which time might 
 have rendered more important, ventured to declare in 1681 that children 
 might be admitted as converts at the age of seven, and in support of 
 this declaration many children in the provinces were taken away to make 
 them abjure, and soldiers were billeted on the parents. 
 
 The injudicious haste of 
 Chancellor Le Tellier and Louvois, 
 caused several families from 
 Poitou and La Saintonge to 
 desert the country in 1681. 
 Foreigners hastened to profit by 
 the expatriation movement. 
 
 The Kings of England and 
 Denmark, and especially the 
 town of Amsterdam, invited the bureau de charite where aid was distributed 
 
 rt i • • i ' p - i~< i T0 converted Protestants. 
 
 Calvmists of France to take . , .. ,„ MN 
 
 (Fragment of Almanac of 1686.) 
 
 refuge in their states, and 
 
 assured them of support. Amsterdam even undertook to build a thousand 
 houses for the refugees. 
 
 The Council perceived the dangerous consequences of the too hasty 
 use of authority, and tried to remedy them by that very same authority. 
 Artisans were wanting in a country where trade was flourishing, and 
 sailors at a time when a powerful navy was in formation. The penalty 
 of the galleys was decreed against artisans or seamen who should attempt 
 to escape. 
 
 It was observed that several Calvinist families were selling their lands. 
 A decree was immediately issued by which all these lands were to be con- 
 fiscated should the vendors leave the kingdom within one year. Ministers 
 of the sects were treated with increased severity, and their places of 
 worship were interdicted on the slightest offence. All moneys left by 
 
376 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 will to the consistories were applied to the use of the hospitals of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 Calvinist schoolmasters were forbidden to receive boarders. Ministers 
 were taxed ; protestant mayors were deprived of nobility. Officers of 
 the King's household, and secretaries of the King, who were protestants, 
 were ordered to resign their places. Men of " the religion " were no 
 longer admitted as notaries, advocates, or even procurators. 
 
 The clergy were enjoined to make proselytes, but ministers of the 
 sects were forbidden to do so under pain of perpetual banishment. These 
 decrees were publicly solicited by the clergy of France ; but they were, 
 after all, only the children of the house refusing to share with strangers 
 who had come in by force. 
 
 Pellisson continued to purchase converts ; but Madame Hervart, 
 widow of the Comptroller-General of Finance, inspired by that religious 
 zeal for which women have always been remarkable, gave as much money 
 to hinder conversions as Pellisson gave for the making of converts. 
 
 (1682.) At last the Huguenots in certain places ventured to disobey. 
 They assembled in Vivarais and in Dauphine, near the places where their 
 meeting-houses had been demolished. They were attacked and they 
 resisted ; but this was only a small spark of the flame of the former civil 
 wars. Two or three hundred unhappy wretches, without a leader, and even 
 without plans, were dispersed in a quarter of an hour. Punishment 
 followed their defeat. The Intendant of Dauphine had the grandson of 
 Pastor Chamier, who had drawn up the Edict of Nantes, broken on the 
 wheel. He ranks among the most famous martyrs of the sect, and his 
 name has long been held in veneration among protestants. 
 
 (1683.) The Intendant of Languedoc had Chomel the preacher broken 
 alive upon the wheel. Three others were condemned to the same 
 punishment, ten to hanging. The latter had, however, taken to timely 
 flight, and were only executed in effigy. 
 
 All this inspired terror, but at the same time increased the stubborn- 
 ness of the Calvinists, for men cling to their religion in proportion as 
 they have to suffer for it. 
 
 The King was persuaded that, having sent missionaries into all the pro- 
 vinces, he ought to follow them up with dragoons. This measure was the 
 result of the conviction which reigned at Court, that everything must give 
 way before the name of Louis XIV. It was forgotten that the Huguenots 
 
PERSECUTION AND BAD POLICY 377 
 
 were no longer the men of Jarnac, Montcontour, and Coutras ; that the 
 passions of the civil wars were extinct ; that the acute malady had sunk 
 into decline ; that everything human lasts for its own day only ; that 
 although the fathers had been rebels under Louis XIII. , the children were 
 submissive subjects of Louis XIV. In England, Holland and Germany 
 various sects who had slaughtered each other in the past century 
 were now living peacefully in the same towns. These facts implied 
 that an absolute sovereign might be served equally well by Catholics and 
 by Huguenots ; the Lutherans of Alsace were living proofs of the truth of 
 this. It appeared, in short, that Queen Christina had been right when she 
 
 SATIRICAL COLOURED PRINTS ON SURE AND PROPER MEANS OF BRINGING BACK PROTESTANTS TO THE 
 TRUE PAITH: DRAGONNADES, THE GALLEYS, PRISONS, THE WHEEL AND THE STAKE. 
 
 (Cabinet of Engravings.) 
 
 said in one of her letters concerning these proceedings and the emigration : 
 " I look upon France as a sick man whose arms and legs are being cut 
 off, by way of treatment of a disease which gentleness and patience 
 would have completely cured." 
 
 Louis XIV., on taking possession of Strasburg in 1681, had protected 
 Lutheranism there, and might have tolerated Calvinism in his States : time 
 would probably have abolished it, as time is now diminishing the number 
 of Lutherans in Alsace. Was it not evident that by forcing the consciences 
 of a great number of his subjects, he would lose a much greater number, 
 in spite of edicts and soldiers, who would fly from treatment which they 
 regarded as horrible persecution ? And why cause over a million of men 
 to hate the dear and precious name of him whom Calvinists and Catholics, 
 Frenchmen and foreigners alike called Louis the Great ? Mere policy 
 ought to have made him retain the Calvinists in France for the purpose 
 
 3 c 
 
 s. 
 
.378 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 of placing them in opposition to the claims of the Court of Rome. At 
 this time the King had broken openly with Innocent XL, the enemy of 
 France. But Louis XIV., combining the interests of his religion with 
 those of his pride and his grandeur, was resolved to humiliate the Pope 
 with one hand and to crush Calvinism with the other. 
 
 These two enterprises afforded him an opportunity for getting more 
 pf that glory which was his eternal aim. The bishops, several intendants, 
 
 DUTCH SATIRICAL COLOURED PRINT ON SURE AND HONEST MEANS FOR BRINGING PROTESTANTS BACK TO 
 THE TRI E EAITH : DRAGONNADES, GALLEYS, PRISONS, WHEELS AND STAKES. 
 
 and the whole of his Council persuaded him that by merely showing 
 themselves his troops would finish the work that had been begun by the 
 royal bounties and missions. The King meant only to use authority, but 
 those to whom that authority was committed used it with extreme severity. 
 
 Towards the end of 1G84, and in the beginning of 1685, when 
 Louis XIV., "a strong man armed," feared none of his neighbours, troops 
 were sent into all the towns where the greater number of protestants 
 were, and to all the chateaux, and as the greatest excesses were committed 
 
"LA DRAGONNADE 
 
 379 
 
 by the dragoons, ill-disciplined enough in those times, the ruthless raid was 
 called "la dragonnade." 
 
 The frontiers were guarded as carefully as possible to prevent the 
 escape of those who were to be forcibly reconciled with the Church, and 
 what was really a sort of hunt within a vast enclosure took place. 
 
 THE FAIR CONSTANCE "DRAGOONED" BY ARLEQUIN ^DEODAT (LOUIS XIV.). 
 (Dutch allegory and satire upon the persecution of the protestants.) 
 
 A bishop, an intendant, a sub-delegate, a cure, or some other authorised 
 person marched at the head of the soldiers. The principal Calvinist 
 families, especially those who were supposed to be most persuadable, 
 were collected together ; they renounced their religion in the name of 
 the others, and the obstinate ones were delivered over to the soldiers, 
 who had every licence, except leave to kill. Several persons, however, 
 were so cruelly maltreated that they died. The children of refugees in 
 foreign lands still speak with horror of the persecution of their fathers, and 
 
380 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 compare it with the worst of the persecutions inflicted upon the Church 
 in the first era of Christianity. 
 
 And it was from a voluptuous Court, where gentle ways, grace, 
 refinement, and all the charms of society reigned, that commands so hard 
 and pitiless were issued. The Marquis de Louvois exhibited the 
 implacability of his character in this matter — the same mind that 
 would fain have buried Holland beneath the waters, and actually did 
 reduce the Palatinate to ashes. Letters written by him in 1685 still 
 exist, which contain the following : " His Majesty commands that the 
 utmost rigour be used with all such as will not reconcile themselves to 
 his religion, and those who shall be so foolish as to desire to remain (of 
 
 that mind) are to be pushed 
 to the uttermost extremity." 
 
 Paris was not exposed to these 
 horrors : the victims' cries would 
 have come too near the throne. 
 
 (1G85.) While protestant 
 churches were being everywhere 
 demolished, and abjurations were 
 exacted by force of arms, the 
 Edict of Nantes was revoked in 
 the month of October, 1G85, 
 and the final ruin of the edifice, 
 which was mined in every part, 
 was achieved. 
 
 The Court of the Edict had already been suppressed. Calvinist 
 counsellors of the parliament were commanded to resign their posts. A 
 number of decrees of the Council for the extirpation of the proscribed 
 religion were issued in succession. The most fatal of these was an order 
 that the children of members of the sect were to be taken away, and 
 placed in the hands of their nearest Catholic relatives — but Nature cried 
 out so loudly against this order that it was not executed. 
 
 The famous edict which revoked that of Nantes was, however, destined 
 to bring about an event in direct contradiction to its proposed aim, the 
 reunion of Calvinists to the Church. Gourville, the financier and 
 diplomatist whom Louvois consulted, had suggested that all the ministers 
 should be imprisoned, and only those released who, being privately 
 
A RESULT OF THE NEW EDICT 
 
 381 
 
 promised pensions, should abjure in public, and would thus serve the cause 
 of reunion better than the missionaries and the soldiers. Instead of adopting 
 this politic measure, the Edict ordered all the ministers who refused to 
 be converted to leave the kingdom within fifteen days. Only wilful 
 blindness could fail to perceive that to drive away the pastors was to 
 ensure their being followed by a great part of the flock. Only the pride 
 of power, and ignorance of human nature could have prevented its 
 being evident that wounded hearts, and imaginations excited by the idea of 
 
 CARICATURES IN BLACK OF THE KING AND MADAME DE MAINTENON, PERSECUTORS OP PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 (Published by Peters.) 
 
 martyrdom, especially in the southern lands of France, would not hesitate 
 at anything, so that they might get away to proclaim their fidelity 
 and to glory in their exile among the many nations, all envious of 
 Louis XIV., who were holding out their arms to the fugitive multitude. 
 
 The old Chancellor Le Tellier cried in the joy of his heart on signing 
 the Edict : " Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, . . . quia viderunt oculi 
 mei salutare tuum." He did not know that he was setting his hand to 
 the sanction of one of the fatal errors and great misfortunes of France. 
 
 Louvois also was mistaken in supposing that an order from his 
 hand would suffice to guard all the frontiers and coasts against those who 
 
382 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 regarded flight as their duty. A few bribed guards were sufficient to 
 favour the flight of the refugees. Within three years, more than fifty 
 thousand families had left the kingdom, to be followed in time by many 
 more. They went, bearing with them to other countries arts, manufactures 
 and wealth. The aspect of almost all the North of Germany, then an 
 agricultural country destitute of industries, was transfigured by the trans- 
 planted multitude. They peopled whole towns. Stuffs, gold and silver 
 lace, hats, and stockings, that had hitherto been purchased from France, 
 
 were manufactured by the refugees. 
 One entire district of London 
 (Spitalfields) was peopled by French 
 silk weavers ; others imported the art 
 of perfecting glass, which was thus 
 lost to France. French gold, circu- 
 lated by those refugees, is still fre- 
 quently to be met with in Germany. 
 Thus were lost to France nearly five 
 hundred thousand inhabitants, an 
 immense amount of money, and, above 
 all, the arts by which her enemies are 
 enriched. Holland gained excellent 
 officers and soldiers ; the Prince of 
 Orange and the Duke of Savoy had 
 regiments composed entirely of re- 
 fugees. Those same sovereigns of 
 Piedmont and Savoy, who had inflicted 
 such cruelties on the protestants of 
 their own countries, paid French protestants to be their soldiers ; and it 
 was certainly not religious zeal that induced the Prince of Orange to enrol 
 them. Some went so far as the Cape of Good Hope ; the nephew of the 
 celebrated Duquesne, lieutenant-general of the navy, founded a little 
 colony at that extremity of the earth. It has not prospered ; those who 
 embarked in it perished for the most part, but remains of it still exist 
 in the vicinity of the Hottentots. The French have been dispersed more 
 widely than the Jews. 
 
 In vain were prisons and galleys filled with those who were arrested 
 in their flight. What was to be done with so many unfortunate persons 
 
 LARCHEVEQUEDE RHEIMS. ] 
 
 CARICATURE IN BLACK OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF 
 RHEIMS, PERSECUTOR OF PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 (Published by Peters.) 
 
THE HUGUENOT EXODUS 
 
 383 
 
 whose faith was only strengthened by suffering? How were lawyers and 
 infirm old men to be kept at the galleys ? Some hundreds were made to 
 embark for America. At last it occurred to the Council that, if leaving 
 the country were no longer forbidden, the exodus, having lost the charm 
 of disobedience, would not be so serious. This proved to be a fresh dis- 
 appointment ; the ports and frontiers were opened, but only to be closed a 
 second time, and again in 
 vain. 
 
 In 1G85, Calvinists 
 were forbidden to have 
 Catholic servants, lest the 
 masters should pervert their 
 domestics : a year later a 
 second edict commanded 
 them to discharge Hugue- 
 not servants, in order that 
 the latter might be arrested 
 as vagabonds. 
 
 All the temples being 
 destroyed and the ministers 
 banished, the next question 
 was how to retain converts 
 who had changed their 
 faith from persuasion or 
 fear in the Roman com- 
 munion. More than four 
 hundred thousand of these 
 converts remained in the 
 kingdom. They were forced 
 
 to go to Mass and to receive Holy Communion. Some who rejected the 
 Host after having received it, were condemned to be burned alive. The 
 bodies of those who would not receive the last sacraments were dragged 
 on hurdles and cast into the common sewer. 
 
 All persecution makes proselytes when it strikes during the fervour 
 of enthusiasm. The Calvinists assembled everywhere to sing their psalms, 
 despite the death penalty attendant on such meetings. Ministers were 
 forbidden under pain of death to re-enter the kingdom, and a reward of 
 
 -V/tr/cwc a. fJicttc.rxtam 
 
 PIERRE JDRIEU, PASTOR AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY. 
 (From the portrait by Gole, engraved by Marot.) 
 
384 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 five hundred livres was offered to any who would denounce them. Never- 
 theless, several ministers came back and were hanged or broken on the wheel. 
 
 The " sect " still lived, although it seemed to be crushed. During 
 the war of 1G89 a vain hope was entertained that King William III. 
 of England, having dethroned his Catholic father-in-law, would uphold 
 Calvinism in France. But during the war of 1701 rebellion and fanaticism 
 broke out in Languedoc and the neighbouring regions. That rebellion 
 was excited by prophecies. In all ages predictions have been used as a 
 
 "BIO HUE AD ASTRA," — " CAPPA OMNIA TEGIT." 
 (After a satirical Dutch print.) 
 
 means to entice simple and to inflame fanatical minds. Let fortune 
 bring about one single event out of a hundred that knavery has predicted, 
 and the others will be forgotten, while that one will be regarded as a 
 pledge of divine favour and the proof of a prodigy. If none of the 
 hundred predictions be fulfilled, they are invested with a different meaning, 
 which is adopted by enthusiasts and believed by fools. 
 
 The Calvinist minister, Jurieu, was one of the leading prophets. 
 He began by rating himself higher than a number of famous persons 
 whom he regarded as inspired by God, and he then went on to place 
 
JURIUS AND HIS SCHOOL 385 
 
 himself almost on a level with the author of the Apocalypse and with 
 Saint Paul. His partisans, or rather his enemies, had a medal struck 
 in Holland with the inscription, " Jurius Propheta." For eight whole 
 years he prophesied the deliverance of the people of God. His schools 
 of prophecy were established in the mountains of Dauphine, Le Vivarais, 
 and the Cevennes, in places inhabited by ignorant and excitable people, 
 
 THE EEVOCATION OF THE EDICT OP NANTES : PRO CLAMED BY LOUIS XIV. BEFORE THE CLERGY OP FRANCE. 
 
 (Dutch picture.) 
 
 who were inflamed by the heat of the climate, and still more by their 
 preachers. 
 
 The first school of prophecy was established in some glass works on 
 a hill in Dauphine called Peira. An old Huguenot, named De Serre, 
 announced the ruin of Babylon, and the restoration of Jerusalem. He 
 would show the children these words in the Scriptures : " Where two or 
 three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst " ; and 
 tell them that with a grain of faith mountains may be removed. Then he 
 received the Spirit : it was conferred on him by breathing into his mouth, 
 
 3 p 
 
386 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 because it is said in the Gospel of St. Matthew that Jesus breathed on 
 His disciples before His death. De Serre worked in convulsions, his voice 
 was changed, he remained motionless, wild, his hair standing on end, 
 according to the ancient custom of all nations and to those indications 
 of madness that have been handed down from generation to generation. 
 Children too received the gift of prophecy ; and if they did not remove 
 mountains, it was because they had sufficient faith to receive the Spirit, 
 but not enough to work miracles. They prayed with redoubled fervour 
 to obtain this last, greatest gift. 
 
 While the Cevennes were thus burning with zeal and devotion, 
 
 ministers who were called 
 " apostles " returned secretly to 
 preach to the people. 
 
 Claude Brousson, a man of 
 high family at Nlmes, eloquent, 
 full of zeal, much esteemed in 
 foreign countries, who had re- 
 turned to his native land in 
 1698, was convicted not only 
 of persevering in his ministry 
 despite the edicts, but of having 
 carried on a correspondence with 
 enemies of the State ten years 
 previously. In fact, he had 
 formed a plan for introducing 
 English and Savoyard troops into Languedoc. Particulars of this project 
 in his own handwriting, addressed to the Due de Schomberg, had been 
 intercepted, and the document was in the hands of the intendant of the 
 province. Brousson, wandering from town to town, was seized at Oleron 
 and transferred to the citadel of Montpellier. Being interrogated by the 
 intendant and the judges, he replied that he was the apostle of Jesus Christ, 
 that he had received the Holy Ghost, that he must not betray the faith 
 confided to him, that his duty was to distribute the bread of the Word 
 among his brethren. He was asked whether the apostles had set their 
 hand to revolutionary plans, was shown his fatal script, and unanimously 
 condemned by the judges to be broken alive on the wheel (1G98). He 
 died as the first martyr died. The whole sect, far from looking upon 
 
 THE FLIGHT OF JAMES II. 
 
 (From a print of the time, clone in Hollaml.) 
 (Cabinet of Engravings.) 
 
THE ABBE DE LA BOURLIE 
 
 389 
 
 him as an offender against the State, regarded him as a saint who had 
 sealed his faith with his blood, and they published " Le Mar tyre de Brousson." 
 
 Prophets became more numerous, and the spirit of fanaticism grew 
 in strength. It was an unfortunate circumstance that in 1703 a certain 
 Abbe du Chaila, inspector of missions, obtained an order from the 
 Court to place two daughters of a recently converted gentleman in a 
 convent. Instead of taking them to the convent, he took them first to 
 his own chateau. The Calvinists assembled, burst in the doors, and 
 rescued the two girls with other prisoners. The rioters, seized the Abbe 
 du Chaila, and offered him his life if he would accept their religion. He 
 refused. One of the 
 prophets exclaimed : 
 " Die then, the Spirit 
 condemns thee, thy sin 
 is against thee ! " The 
 Abbe was shot dead. 
 They then seized the 
 collectors of the capita- 
 tion tax, and hung them 
 with their papers round 
 their necks ; after this 
 they fell on the priests 
 and massacred them. 
 The rioters were pur- 
 sued, but they found shelter in the woods and among the rocks. Their 
 number increased, their prophets and prophetesses announced in God's 
 name the re-establishment of Jerusalem and the fall of Babylon. A 
 certain Abbe de la Bourlie appeared suddenly among them in their wild 
 retreat, bringing them money and arms. 
 
 He was the son of the Marquis de Guiscard, one of the wisest men in 
 the kingdom, and " under-governor " to the King. The son was unworthy 
 of such a father. He had fled to Holland, having committed a crime, and 
 endeavoured to incite the Cevennes to revolt. Some time afterwards he 
 was found in London where he was arrested (in 1711) for having betrayed 
 the English ministry after he had betrayed his own country. When before 
 the council, he snatched up a long penknife and struck the Chancellor, 
 Robert Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford. He was taken to prison in 
 
 MEDAL STBtJCK BY THE PROTESTANTS OP THE CEVENNES. 
 
390 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 fetters, and forestalled his inevitable sentence by committing suicide. 
 This was the man who, in the name of England, the Dutch, and the 
 Duke of Savoy, had apjDeared among the fanatics, and promised them 
 substantial aid. 
 
 (1703.) A considerable portion of the country was secretly on the side of 
 the "sect." Their war-cry was: "No taxation and liberty of conscience" — 
 a cry which attracts the populace everywhere. The resolution of Louis XIV. 
 
 to extirpate Calvinism was justi- 
 fied in the eyes of the people 
 generally by this turbulence, 
 but if the Edict of Nantes had 
 not been revoked, there would 
 have been no turbulence. 
 
 The Kinoj sent the Marechal 
 de Montrevel with some troops 
 to the Cevennes. He made war 
 upon the fanatics with a bar- 
 barity surpassing their own. 
 Prisoners were broken on the 
 wheel or burned ; and the soldiers 
 who fell into the hands of the 
 insurgents also perished by cruel 
 deaths. The King, being at war 
 everywhere, could only send a 
 few troops to fight them. It 
 was difficult to surprise them 
 in the then almost inaccessible 
 rocks, in the caverns, in the 
 woods, whither they betook 
 themselves by uncleared ways, and from whence they came down suddenly 
 like wild beasts. They even defeated some of the King's troops in a 
 pitched battle. Three Marshals of France were employed against them 
 successively. 
 
 In 1704 the Marechal de Villars succeeded the Marechal de Montrevel. 
 As it was even more difficult for him to find the rebels than to beat 
 them, Villars proposed an amnesty to them after he had taught them to 
 fear him. Some of their number consented to this, being undeceived 
 
 LE MARECHAL DE VILLARS. 
 (From a print by ltochefort.) 
 
JEAN CAVALIER 
 
 391 
 
 regarding the promises of the Duke of Savoy, who, after the example of 
 other sovereigns, persecuted them in his own dominions, and would have 
 patronised them in an enemy's country. 
 
 Jean Cavalier was the only one of their leaders seriously worthy of 
 mention. I saw him after- 
 wards in Holland and in 
 England. He was a small 
 fair man, of mild and pleasant 
 countenance. By his party 
 he was called David. Origin- 
 ally a journeyman baker, at 
 the age of three-and-twenty 
 he had become the leader 
 of a large following, by the 
 force of his own courage, 
 and the aid of a prophetess 
 who bade the fanatics ac- 
 knowledge his authority by 
 an express command of the 
 Holy Ghost. He was at the 
 head of eight hundred men, 
 whom he was forming into 
 regiments, when the amnesty 
 was proposed to him. He 
 demanded hostages; they 
 were given him. Followed 
 by one of the chiefs he 
 went to Nmies where he 
 treated with the Marechal 
 de Villars. 
 
 (1704.) Cavalier promised to form four regiments of the insurgents, 
 who should serve the King under four colonels, himself to be the first, and 
 to name the other three. These regiments were to have the free exercise 
 of their religion, as the foreign troops in the pay of France had ; but that 
 exercise was not to be permitted elsewhere. These conditions had been 
 accepted when emissaries from Holland came to prevent the effect of them 
 with money and promises. The emissaries detached the principal fanatics 
 
 DUTCH CARICATURE UPON THE EVIL INFLUENCE OF 
 MADAME DE MAINTENON DURING THE LAST 
 TEARS OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
392 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 from Cavalier ; but, having given his word to the Marechal de Villars, he 
 determined to keep it. He accepted the colonel's commission, and began 
 to form his regiment with a hundred and thirty men who were attached 
 to him. 
 
 I have heard from Villars himself, that he asked young Cavalier 
 how he could have had so much authority over such fierce, undisciplined 
 men at his age. He replied that, when any of them disobeyed him, 
 his prophetess, whom they called La Grande Marie, became straightway 
 inspired, and condemned the defaulters to death ; they were then shot 
 without argument. I afterwards put the same question to Cavalier 
 myself, and I received the same answer. 
 
 This singular negotiation took place after the battle of Hochstedt. 
 Louis XIV., who had proscribed Calvinism so severely, now made peace, 
 under the name of amnesty, with a journeyman baker, and the Marechal 
 de Villars presented him with a colonel's commission, and a pension of 
 twelve hundred livres. 
 
 The new colonel went to Versailles ; there he received the orders of 
 the Minister of War. 
 
 The King saw him and shrugged his shoulders. Cavalier, being kept 
 under observation by the Ministry, took alarm, and retired to Piedmont. 
 From thence he passed into Holland and England. He fought in the 
 Spanish war, and commanded a regiment of the French refugees in 
 the battle of Almanza. 
 
 The fate of this regiment goes to prove the ferocity of civil warfare. 
 Cavalier's troop found themselves face to face with a French regiment. No 
 sooner did they recognise the fact, than they rushed upon each other with 
 the bayonet without firing. It has been already remarked that the 
 bayonet does little in battle. The bearing of the first line, composed 
 of three ranks, after they have fired, decides the fate of the day, 
 but in this case rage effected that which valour hardly ever accomplishes. 
 Not three hundred men remained out of the two regiments. The Marechal 
 de Berwick often related this incident with astonishment. 
 
 Cavalier died a general officer, and Governor of the Island of Jersey, 
 with a great reputation for valour, having retained nothing of his former 
 ferocity, save its courage, and having substituted prudence for a fanaticism 
 that was no longer sustained by example. 
 
 The Marechal de Villars was recalled from Languedoc, and replaced 
 
THE MARECHAL DUC DE BERWICK 393 
 
 by the Marechal de Berwick. The ill-fortune of the King's foreign wars 
 gave heart to the fanatics of Languedoc, w T ho hoped for help from Heaven, 
 and received it from the allies. Money reached them by way of Geneva. 
 They expected officers to be sent them from Holland and England, and 
 had sources of information in all the towns of the province. 
 
 Among the greatest of conspiracies we may rank the plot formed by 
 the fanatics to seize the Due de Berwick and Intendant Baville at Nimes, 
 and to rise in Languedoc and 
 Dauphin e and bring in the 
 enemy. The secret was kept by 
 over a thousand conspirators. 
 The indiscretion of one revealed 
 everything. More than two 
 hundred persons were put to 
 cruel deaths. The Marechal de 
 Berwick had every one of the 
 unfortunate men who were taken 
 executed. Some died fight- 
 ing, others on the wheel or in 
 the flames. Some of the rebels, 
 more given to prophecy than to 
 arms, found means of going to 
 Holland. There the French 
 refugees received them as celes- 
 tial messengers : they walked 
 before them, singing psalms 
 and strewing their path with 
 green foliage. Many of these 
 prophets went to England, but as they regarded the Church of England 
 as too much like the Church of Eome, they resolved to make their 
 own dominant. So implicit and full was their conviction of the wonder- 
 working power of faith that they undertook to resuscitate a dead man — 
 any corpse which might be chosen. The people are ignorant everywhere. 
 Who would believe that Fatio Duiller, one of the greatest European 
 geometricians, and an accomplished man of letters, Daude by name, were 
 at the head of these demoniacs ? But fanaticism can make even science its 
 accomplice. 
 
 3 E 
 
 fir ho ' /"/ /' 
 
 THE GREAT BELL OF NuTRE DAME DE PARIS. 
 
394 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 The English Government took the course that ought always to be 
 adopted with pretenders to miraculous powers. They were permitted to 
 disinter a corpse from the graveyard of a cathedral. The place was 
 surrounded with soldiers. Everything was done judicially. The scene 
 ended with the appearance of the prophets in the pillory. 
 
 This excess of fanaticism could not succeed in England, where 
 philosophy was beginning to reign. The fanatics no longer troubled 
 Germany, where the three religions, Catholic, Evangelical and Eeformed, 
 were equally protected by the Treaty of Westphalia. The United 
 Provinces, with politic toleration, admitted all religions into their territory. 
 In fact, at the close of the century, France only was exposed to serious 
 ecclesiastical quarrels. Reason, which makes its way so slowly among the 
 learned, had hardly reached the doctors, to say nothing of the common herd. 
 Reason must first be established in the principal heads ; it comes down to 
 the others by degrees. It finally governs even the people, who do not 
 know it, but who learn to be moderate from seeing that their superiors 
 are so. This is one of the great works of Time. The hour had not 
 yet come. 
 
 * 
 
 Voltaire is very hard on the Camisards (White Shirts), whose revolt 
 was partly the effect of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which he 
 has strongly condemned. Saint-Simon is more indulgent and more 
 equitable. 
 
 " This name of Phanatiques had been given them," he says, " because 
 each band of the rebellious Protestants was accompanied by a so-called 
 prophet or prophetess, who claimed to be inspired, and acting in 
 complicity with the leaders, led these people whithersoever they would. 
 Languedoc had suffered for many years from the tyranny of the 
 Intendent Baville. He was a man of ability, very active, and a very 
 hard worker. He was also cunning, artful, and implacable ; he knew how 
 to serve his friends, and how to secure ' creatures,' above all he had a 
 masterful way with him, which broke down all resistance, and was not 
 checked by any scruple as to the means of attaining his ends. This 
 man of great, luminous, and imperious mind was dreaded by the 
 ministers, who would not let him approach the Court, and in order to 
 keep him in Languedoc left him full powers, which he abused without 
 
VOLTAIRE 
 
 AND 
 
 SAINT-SIMON 
 
 395 
 
 stint.. Less Intendant than King, he resolved, together with Broglio his 
 brother-in-law, to keep up his importance, and harassed the non- 
 converted, or the half-converted, into rioting." 
 
 Saint-Simon adds : " Had they not maltreated anyone except within 
 the bounds of legitimate warfare ; had they merely demanded liberty of 
 conscience and lighter taxation ; many Catholics would have joined them, 
 and under their protection thrown off the mask which fear and the hope 
 that these troubles would lead to some relief in the general condition 
 made them wear. Then the Camisards would have been in a majority. 
 The country has reason to thank the access of fanaticism that made them 
 commit the worst excesses 
 in sacrilege, in murder, 
 and in the torture of 
 priests and monks." 
 
 It is curious to find 
 a Catholic like Saint-Simon 
 more just than a philo- 
 sopher such as Voltaire. 
 The whole truth is all 
 there: the effects of the 
 religious policy of the 
 Ministers of Louis XIV. in 
 the provinces according to 
 the "mot d'ordre" given 
 in 1685, so evident that 
 for a whole year Madame de Maintenon hid the first troubles in the 
 Ce venues from the King, the zeal of the Catholics, and especially 
 the ecclesiastics against the " sect," the 'principal cause, says Saint Hilaire, 
 the general discontent in Languedoc had far more to do with the sedition 
 than had the spirit of revolt and fanaticism among the Protestants. 
 But the Government was too glad of their excesses, which enabled it to 
 conceal its own mistakes, and to throw the whole responsibility upon 
 them. The avowal, made by Saint-Simon, is precious. It explains, on 
 the other hand, how, thirty years later, Voltaire was led to judge the 
 Camisards so severely. In the opinion of all the subjects of Louis XIV. 
 and in his own, a revolt against the King's authority, accompanied by 
 the sanguinary excesses of an unrestrained populace, condemned the 
 
306 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Protestants of the Cevennes absolutely. As a philosopher, in short, 
 Voltaire considered their fanaticism unpardonable and their prophecies 
 ridiculous. Although we may explain the conclusion at which he arrived 
 on these grounds, we cannot but think that Saint- Simon reaches a 
 sounder one respecting the deplorable strife between Louis XIV. and the 
 French Calvinists. 
 
 TAILPIECE ENGRAVED BY SKBASTIEN LECLERC. 
 
COMPOSITION BY LEBRUN IN HONOUR OF LOUIS XIV. 
 (Engraved by S. Leclerc.) 
 
 Ill 
 
 JANSENISM. 
 
 T T was inevitable that Calvinism should give 
 rise to civil wars, and shake the foundations 
 of States. Jansenism could excite only theological 
 quarrels, and wars of the pen ; for, the reformers 
 of the sixteenth century having burst the bonds 
 by which the Roman Church held men ; having 
 treated as idolatrous all that she held most 
 sacred ; having opened the doors of her cloisters, 
 and given her treasures into secular hands ; one of the two parties must 
 needs be destroyed by the other. In fact, wherever the religion of Calvin 
 and of Luther has appeared, it has given rise to persecution and war. 
 But the Jansenists, who did not attack the Church, did not object to 
 its fundamental dogmas, or its worldly wealth, and who wrote upon 
 abstract questions against the reformed sects, and against the constitutions 
 of the Popes, had no influence anywhere after a while, and their sect was 
 despised throughout almost the whole of Europe, although it had possessed 
 many adherents of ability and high character. 
 
 At the same time that the Huguenots were attracting serious attention, 
 Jansenism was causing more disquiet than concern in France. These 
 disputes, like many others, were not home-made. About 1552, a learned 
 
398 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 doctor of Louvain, named Michel Bay, or Bai'us, according to the pedantic 
 fashion of those times, thought proper to assert certain propositions 
 respecting grace and predestination. This question leads into the labyrinth 
 of fatality and liberty of will, in which all antiquity lost its way, and to 
 which man holds not the clue. The spirit of curiosity given by God to 
 man, the impulsion necessary for our instruction, carries us beyond the goal, 
 like all the other impulses of our mind, which, if they could not push 
 us too far, would perhaps never excite us sufficiently. And so men 
 
 have disputed on that which they 
 do know, and that which they do 
 not know ; but the disputes of 
 the philosophers of antiquity 
 were always peaceable, while 
 those of theologians have often 
 been sanguinary, and always 
 turbulent. 
 
 Certain Franciscans, who 
 understood these questions no 
 more than did Michel Bai'us, 
 believed free will to be denied, 
 and the doctrine of Duns Scotus 
 imperilled. Being angry besides 
 with Bai'us on the subject of a 
 quarrel of a somewhat similar 
 nature, they tendered seventy- 
 It was Sixtus V., then General 
 of the Franciscans, who drew up the bull of condemnation in 1567. 
 
 The seventy-six propositions were condemned wholesale, as heretical, 
 breathing heresy, offensive and rash ; but the judgment specified nothing, 
 and entered into no detail. 
 
 Such a method attaches to supreme pow T er, and leaves little matter 
 for dispute. The learned doctors of Lou vain were greatly embarrassed on 
 receiving the bull, especially by a phrase in which a comma put one way 
 condemned, but put another way tolerated, certain opinions of Michel 
 Bai'us. The University sent a deputation to Rome to learn from the 
 Holy Father w T here the comma was to be placed. The Court of Rome, 
 having other affairs on hand, for an answer sent the Flemish savants 
 
MOLINOS THE JESUIT 
 
 399 
 
 a copy of the bull on which the comma did not appear at all. This 
 was deposited in the archives. Morillon, the Grand Vicaire, said that the 
 papal bull must be received even though there should be errors in it. 
 Morillon was right in his policy, for it is certainly better to receive a 
 hundred eroneous bulls than to burn a hundred towns, which was done by 
 the Huguenots and their adversaries. Baius acted on what Morillon said, 
 and made his retractation quietly. 
 
 Some years later, Spain, always fertile in scholastic writers, though so 
 barren of philosophers, produced Molinos the Jesuit, who believed he had 
 
 THE NOVITIATE AND THE HOUSE OP THE JESUIT PROFESSORS AT ST. GERMAIN-DES-PRES. 
 (From a print by Lepautre and Van Merlen.) 
 
 discovered precisely how God acts upon creatures, and how creatures resist 
 Him. He made a distinction between the natural order and the supernatural 
 order, predestination to grace and predestination to glory, grace prevenient 
 and grace co-operative. He was the inventor of concomitant concurrence, 
 medium knowledge [science moyenne) and congruism. The two latter 
 especially were strange ideas. God by His medium knowledge (science 
 moyenne) consults a man's will in order to know what that man will do 
 when he shall have grace ; and then, according to that use of free will 
 which He divines, He makes His arrangements to influence the man ; and 
 these arrangements are congruism. 
 
 The Spanish Dominicans, who no more understood this explanation 
 than did the Jesuits, but who were jealous of them, wrote that the book 
 of Molinos was the precursor of Antichrist 
 
400 
 
 THE 
 
 CENTURY 
 
 OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 The Court of Rome took cognizance of the dispute, which was already 
 in the hands of the Grand Inquisitors, and with much wisdom enjoined 
 silence on both parties, neither of whom heeded the injunction. At length 
 the case was seriously pleaded before Clement VIII., and all Rome took 
 part in the suit. The proceedings were tedious, incomprehensible and 
 inconclusive. 
 
 Clement VIII. died before he had been able to elucidate the argu- 
 ments on either side. Paul V. 
 resumed the suit, but, as he 
 himself was engaged in a 
 more important one with the 
 Republic of Venice, he put a 
 stop to all the meetings, then 
 and still called de auxiliis. 
 Paul V. ended by calling 
 on both parties to live in 
 peace. 
 
 While the Jesuits were 
 establishing their science moy- 
 enne and their congruism, 
 Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of 
 Ypres, was reviving some of 
 the ideas of Bai'us in a large 
 book on St. Augustine, which 
 was not printed until after 
 his death. Thus he became the 
 head of a sect without ever 
 knowing it. His book, which has caused so much disturbance, had hardly 
 any readers, but Duverger de Hauranne, Abbe de Saint-Cyran, a friend 
 of Jansen, who was as ardent in his opinion as he was diffuse and obscure 
 in his writings, came to Paris and persuaded young doctors and a few 
 old women. The Jesuits demanded the condemnation of Jansen's 
 book, as a sequel to that of Bai'us, and obtained this in 1641. But 
 in Paris, the Faculty of Theology and all reasoning folk were divided. 
 There was not much to gain in thinking with Jansen that God 
 commands impossible things ; that is neither philosophic nor consoling ; 
 but the secret satisfaction of belonging to a party, the enmity 
 
THE FAMOUS ARNAULD 401 
 
 inspired by the Jesuits, the love of cheating and excitement, created a 
 sect. The Faculty condemned five propositions of Jansen's. These were 
 taken from the book quite faithfully, as to the sense, but not as to the 
 exact words. Sixty doctors appealed against the condemnation, and ordered 
 the parties to appear before the Court. 
 
 The parties to the suit did not appear ; but, on one side, a doctor, 
 named Habert, attacked Jansen ; on the other, the famous Arnauld, a 
 
 TRUE RELIGION TRIUMPHANT UNDER LOUIS XIV. 
 (Picture by Lebrun, engrave 1 by Edelinck.) 
 
 disciple of Saint-Cyran, defended Jansenism. He hated the Jesuits even 
 more than he loved efficacious grace ; and he was disliked by them as 
 the son of a father who had pleaded strongly at the bar with the 
 University against their establishment. His kinsmen were of good repute, 
 both in the law and in the army. His talent, and the circumstances in 
 which he was placed, gave him a taste for literary warfare, and his ambition 
 to become the leader of a party absorbed every other. He disputed 
 with Jesuits and protestants impartially until he was eighty years of 
 age. We have four hundred volumes from his pen. Hardly one of 
 
 3 F 
 
402 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 these can rank with the classic literature that does honour to the 
 century of Louis XIV., and is included in the libraries of every country. 
 
 The works of Arnauld had great influence in his day, on account of 
 the renown of the author and the heat of the debate. That warmth has 
 
 cooled down : the books have been 
 forgotten. These only remain : "La 
 Geometrie," " La Grammaire raison- 
 nee," and " La Logique." Arnauld's 
 mind was essentially philosophic, but 
 his philosophy was tainted by party 
 spirit and obstinacy ; for sixty years 
 these diverted a great intellect from 
 its true purpose, which was the 
 enlightenment of mankind. 
 
 The University was divided 
 upon these five famous propositions, 
 and the bishops also were of two 
 opinions. Eighty-eight French 
 bishops wrote collectively to Inno- 
 cent X. begging for his decision, 
 and eleven others wrote begging 
 him to do nothing. Innocent X. 
 gave judgment ; he condemned each 
 of the five propositions severally, 
 but without quoting the pages 
 from which they were taken, those 
 which preceded or those which 
 followed them. 
 
 THE UOAD TO HEAVEN. 
 
 (A popular print of the Jansenist party, show hip;, on the light, 
 the road to Paradise for the elect, on the left, the road 
 to Hell for the Jesuits and their partisans.) 
 
 This omission, which could not 
 have occurred in a civil suit in any 
 court, was made by the Sorbonne, 
 the Jansenists, the Jesuits, and the Sovereign Pontiff'. The ground of 
 the five condemned propositions is evidently in Jansen. In the third 
 volume, page 138, of the Paris edition of 1641, the following passage 
 is to be found, word for word : — 
 
 " All this demonstrates plainly and evidently that there is nothing 
 more certain and more fundamental in the doctrine of Saint Augustine than 
 
ARNAULD'S INDEFATIGABLE PEN 
 
 403 
 
 that certain commandments are 
 impossible, not only to un- 
 believers, the blind, and the 
 impenitent, but to the faithful 
 and the just, in spite of their 
 good will and their efforts, 
 according to the strength they 
 possess ; and that the grace which 
 can make these commandments 
 possible is wanting in them.." 
 On page 165 are these words : — 
 " That Jesus Christ, according 
 to Saint Augustine, did not die 
 for all men." 
 
 Cardinal Mazarin caused 
 the Pope's Bull to be unani- 
 mously received by the Assembly 
 of the Clergy. He was then 
 on good terms with the Pope ; 
 he did not like the Jansenists, 
 and he justly disliked factions. 
 
 Peace seemed to be restored 
 
 , /MM/,',, '/hyxf, 
 
 / - r~ - 
 
 POPE INNOCENT X. 
 
 (From the portrait by Velasquez, preserved in England, 
 engraved by Green.) 
 
 to the Church of France ; but 
 
 the Jansenists wrote so many letters ; Saint Augustine was so much quoted ; 
 so many women were set to work, that after the Bull had been accepted 
 
 there were more Jansenists than 
 ever. 
 
 A priest of Saint- Sulpice 
 refused absolution to the Due 
 de Liancourt -Dondeauville 
 because it was said that he did 
 not believe the five propositions 
 were in Jansen's work, and 
 that he had heretics in his house. 
 This was a new scandal, a fresh 
 
 A JANSENIST SATIRE UPON THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE POPES SU W C t for Amauld's pen. He 
 
 (1661-1665). J x 
 
 (From an engraving in' the Cabinet of Prints.) immediately declared 111 a 
 
404 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 letter to a duke and peer, real or imaginary, that the condemned 
 propositions of Jansen were not in Jansen, but that they were to be 
 found in the works of Saint Augustine and other Fathers. He added, " Saint 
 Peter was a just man to whom grace, without which one can do nothing, 
 was wanting." 
 
 It is true that Saint Augustine and Saint John Chrysostom had said 
 
 DEFEAT OF THK JANSENISTS BY THU POPE, RELIGION, AND LOUIS XIV. 
 (After an Almanac of IGS.'i.) 
 
 the same thing ; but circumstances, which alter cases, convicted Arnauld. 
 The Faculty assembled ; the Chancellor (Seguier) attended on behalf of 
 the King. Arnauld was condemned, and excluded from the Sorbonne, in 
 1654. The presence of the Chancellor among theologians had an air 
 of despotism that displeased the public, and the number of doctors who 
 crowded the hall caused Pascal to remark in his " Lettres Provinciales," 
 that " it was easier to find monks than reasons." 
 
 The greater number of these monks denied the peculiar doctrines of 
 Molinos ; but they maintained a " grace sufficient," to which the will can 
 
PETTY PERSECUTION 
 
 405 
 
 consent, and never consents ; a 
 ofrace efficacious, which the will 
 can resist, and does not resist ; 
 and they explained this clearly 
 by saying that the will can 
 resist that grace in the divided, 
 and not in the composite sense. 
 
 The opinion of Arnauld 
 and the Jansenists seemed to 
 approach pure Calvinism too 
 closely. This was precisely 
 the ground of the quarrel 
 between the Gomarists and the 
 Arminians. That quarrel di- 
 vided Holland, as Jansenism 
 divided France ; but in Holland 
 it became a political faction 
 rather than a learned discussion, 
 and led to the execution of 
 Jan de Barnevelt, Grand Pen- 
 sionary of Holland. This atrocious deed is now deplored by the Dutch, 
 whose eyes have been opened to the absurdity of these disputes, the 
 horrors of persecution, and the necessity for toleration, which is the resource 
 
 of wise rulers against the vehe- 
 ment passion of disputants. In 
 France the dispute produced only 
 episcopal pastorals, Bulls, " let- 
 tres de cachet," and pamphlets, 
 because the country had more 
 important quarrels on hand. 
 
 Arnauld was then merely 
 excluded from the Faculty. 
 This petty persecution secured 
 him a number of friends, but 
 he and the Jansenists had the 
 Church and the Pope against 
 them always. One of the first 
 
 DUVERGIER DUHADEANNE, ABBE DE SAINT-CYRAN, 
 (Original portrait by Philippe de Champagne. — Musee de Versailles.) 
 
 NUNS IN CHAPTER, — -THE CHOIR OF TORT-ROYAL 
 DES CHAMPS. 
 (Copied from an anonymous print.) 
 
4or, 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 proceedings of Alexander VII., who succeeded Innocent X., was to renew 
 the censures upon the five propositions. The bishojjs of France, who 
 had already drawn up a formula, drew up a second, which concluded as 
 follows : "I condemn with heart and voice the doctrine of the five 
 propositions contained in the hook of Cornelius Jansen ; the doctrine is 
 not that of Saint Augustine, which Jansen has misconstrued." 
 
 Afterwards this formula had to be subscribed ; and each of the bishops 
 presented it to all suspected persons in his diocese. The nuns of Port- 
 Royal of Paris and Port-Royal des Champs were called upon to sign 
 it. These two houses were the sanctuary of Jansenism : Saint-Cyran and 
 Arnauld governed them. 
 
 ('lose by the Monastery of Port-Royal des Champs, they had estab- 
 lished a house in which several 
 excellent and learned, but 
 wrong-headed men, united by 
 their common opinions, lived 
 in retirement, engaged in 
 the teaching of select pupils. 
 From this school came Racine, 
 the poet, who of all poets 
 best knew the human heart. 
 Pascal, first of French sati- 
 >ut was the second, was intimately associated 
 and dangerous solitaries. The formula was 
 
 THK SISTERS OF PORT-ROYAL EXPELLED BY ORDER 
 OK THIS KING. 
 (Frtm a print of the time.) 
 
 rists, for Boileau 
 with these illustrious 
 presented to the nuns of Port-Royal of Paris and Port-Royal des 
 Champs for their signatures. They replied that they could not 
 conscientiously affirm with the Pope and the bishops that the five 
 propositions were in the book written by Jansen, which they had not 
 read; that no doubt his meaning had been mistaken; that the five 
 propositions might be erroneous, but Jansen was not in the wrong. 
 
 Their obstinacy made the Court angry. Civil Lieutenant d'Aubray 
 (there was not as yet a Lieutenant of Police) went to Port-Royal to turn 
 out all the recluses who had retired thither, and all the youths whom they 
 were educating. The demolition of the two monasteries was threatened : 
 a miracle saved them. 
 
 Mademoiselle Perrier, a pupil at Port-Royal of Paris, and niece of 
 the celebrated Pascal, was suddenly cured of a malady of the eyes, which 
 
THE CURE OF MADEMOISELLE PEERIER 
 
 407 
 
 had been pronounced hopeless, by kissing a relic of the Crown of Thorns 
 that had been for some time in the possession of the nuns of Port-Royal. 
 It was asserted that the cure had been instantaneous, but the lady lived 
 until 1728, and persons who lived for a long time with her have assured 
 me that cure in her case was remarkably slow. However, the miracle 
 established the credit of the nuns, who persisted in repeating that either 
 Cornelius Jansen had not written the lines which are attributed to him, or 
 that he had not intended them in the imputed sense. 
 
 The miracle became so famous that the Jesuits wrote against it. Pere 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE MONASTERY OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT, OR PORT- ROYAL OF PARIS 
 (FAUBOURG SAINT-JACQUES). 
 (A print by Marot.) 
 
 Annat, the confessor of Louis XIV., published " Le Rabat-joie des 
 Jansenistes, a l'occasion du miracle qu'on dit etre arrive a Port-Royal, 
 par un docteur catholique." Pere Annat was not a " doctor," nor was 
 he learned (docte). He attempted to demonstrate that if a thorn taken 
 from the Holy Crown in Judea had cured the little Perrier girl in Paris, 
 the fact was a proof that Christ had died for all, not for several. 
 Everybody laughed at Pere Annat. The Jesuits had no chance : the 
 Jansenists were all the fashion. Some years afterwards the latter 
 proclaimed a second miracle. A certain Sister Gertrude was cured at 
 Port-Royal of a swelling in her leg. This prodigy fell flat : time had 
 passed, and Sister Gertrude was not the niece of a Pascal. 
 
 The Jesuits had popes and kings on their side, but they were of no 
 account among the people anywhere. Old stories, such as the assassination 
 of Henri IV., their banishment from France and Venice, the Gunpowder 
 
408 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 piim. it***' jf'^^A^tj' i/c 
 
 * p J*/ 
 
 Plot, and the bankruptcy of Seville were raked up against them. Every 
 means was employed to make them odious ; but Pascal did worse : he 
 made them ridiculous. His " Lettres Provinciales " which appeared at that 
 time were a model of eloquence and humour. The best comedies by 
 Molitre are not more witty than the first " Lettres Provinciales ; " 
 Bossuet has not equalled the last in sublimity. 
 
 It is true that the whole 
 book was destitute of foun- 
 dation. The extravagant 
 notions of some Spaniards and 
 Flemings among its members 
 were imputed to the whole 
 Society of Jesus. These notions 
 might have been discovered as 
 readily among the Dominican 
 and Franciscan casuists ; but 
 Pascal aimed at the Jesuits 
 only. The famous letters at- 
 tempted to prove that the 
 definite purpose of the Society 
 of Jesus was to corrupt the 
 morals of mankind — a design 
 which no sect, no society has 
 ever entertained and cannot 
 entertain ; but the matter in 
 hand was not to be in the 
 right, it was to amuse the 
 
 PASCAL AS A CHILD. 
 
 (From an original drawing liv Domiat, found in a corpus juris 
 in hi- library by liis son.) 
 
 public. 
 
 The Jesuits, who had no good writer at that time, could not get rid 
 of the opprobrium with which the most ably-written book that had yet 
 appeared in France covered them ; but almost the same thing occurred in 
 their quarrels that had happened to Cardinal Mazarin. Blot, Marigny, 
 Barbancon, and others had made all France laugh at his expense, and he 
 was the master of France. The Jesuits had influence enough to get 
 the "Lettres Provinciales" burned by a decree of the parliament of 
 Provence, but they were none the less ridiculous for that, and the fad 
 made them more hateful to the nation. 
 
PORT-ROYAL OF PARIS 
 
 409 
 
 The principal nuns of the Abbey of Port-Royal of Paris were removed 
 under escort of two hundred guards, and dispersed among other convents : 
 only those who consented to sign the formulary were permitted to remain. 
 All Paris was astir at the dispersion of these nuns. Sister Perdreau and 
 Sister Passart, who signed and made others sign, were made the subject 
 of jests and songs by the sort of idlers who never see any but the 
 funny side of things, and who 
 go on amusing themselves, 
 while true believers groan, 
 malcontents vociferate, and the 
 Government acts. 
 
 The Jansenists throve on 
 persecution. Four prelates, 
 Arnauld, Bishop of Angers, 
 the doctor's brother ; Buzenval, 
 Bishop of Beauvais ; Pavilion, 
 Bishop of Aleth, and Caulet, 
 Bishop of Pamiers (he who 
 afterwards resisted Louis XIV. 
 in the matter of the regalia) 
 declared against the formulary. 
 This was a new formulary com- 
 posed by Pope Alexander VII. 
 himself ; its grounds were the 
 same as the former in every 
 respect ; it was accepted in 
 France by the bishops, and 
 even by the parliaments. 
 
 Alexander VII. was indignant, and appointed nine French bishops to 
 try the four refractory prelates. On this the public mind became more 
 than ever excited. 
 
 But, just as everybody was in a fever to know whether the five 
 propositions were or were not in the writings of Jansen, Cardinal 
 Rospigliosi became Pope, under the name of Clement IX., and pacified 
 everything for some time. He induced the four prelates to sign the 
 formulary "sincerely," instead of "purely and simply;" so that it seemed 
 to be allowable to believe, while condemning the five propositions, that they 
 
 (From an anonymous coloured drawing which might be attributed 
 to Edelinck, in the Cabinet of Prints.) 
 
 3 G 
 
410 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 were not taken from Jansen. The four Bishops gave some feeble explana- 
 tions ; and Italian affability quieted down French vivacity. One word 
 substituted for another effected that peace which was called " the peace 
 of Clement IX.," and even "The peace of the Church," although the 
 existence of the dispute was hardly known outside of France. It appears 
 that since the time of Baius the Popes had always tried to suppress these 
 
 controversies, in which no un- 
 derstanding can be reached, 
 and to induce the two parties 
 to inculcate a uniform morality, 
 which everybody understands. 
 Nothing could be more reason- 
 able ; but the Popes had to deal 
 with men. 
 
 The Government liberated 
 the Jansenists who were im- 
 prisoned in the Bastille, and 
 among them Sacy, author of 
 " La Version du Testament." 
 The banished nuns were 
 brought back ; they signed 
 "sincerely," and believed the 
 word to be a triumph for 
 them. Arnauld emerged from 
 his retreat and was presented 
 to the King, received by the 
 Nuncio, and regarded by the 
 public as a Father of the 
 Church. He undertook to fight 
 none but Calvinists henceforth ; for fight he must. This period of 
 tranquillity produced his book entitled, " La Perpetuite de la Foi," in 
 which he was assisted by Nicole (Jansenist, theologian, and moralist). 
 Their joint work was the subject of the great controversy between them 
 and Claude (the French protestant minister, controversialist, and author), 
 in which each party claimed the victory as usual. 
 
 The peace of Clement IX. was but a temporary truce. Cabals, 
 intrigues, and reciprocal accusations continued on both sides. 
 
 ISAAC LOUIS LE MAISTRE DE SACY (1613-1684.) 
 (After a print of Van tH-hui>rien.) 
 
MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE URGING HER BROTHERS, THE PRINCES DE CONDE AND DE CONTI, 
 AS CHILDREN, TO CULTIVATE LITERATURE AND ELOQUENCE. 
 (From a composition by Greg. Huret.) 
 
JESUITS AND JANSENISTS 
 
 413 
 
 The Duchesse de Longueville, sister of the Great Conde, had become 
 devout late in life, and as she hated the Court, but could not live without 
 scheming, she turned Jansenist, built a house for herself at Port-Royal 
 des Champs and occasionally retired thither with the recluses. This 
 was their most flourishing period. Arnauld, Nicole, Le Maistre, De Sacy, 
 Herman, and many other men of great descent and reputation, although 
 less celebrated, assembled at 
 her abode. The wit which 
 Madame de Longueville 
 brought from the Hotel de 
 Rambouillet they supplemented 
 by serious conversation, and 
 that manly, vigorous and lively 
 spirit which characterized their 
 books and their discourses. 
 They contributed not a little 
 to the spread of taste and 
 eloquence in France ; but they 
 were unfortunately more intent 
 on propagating their opinions. 
 They afforded in themselves a 
 proof of that fatality which 
 they were blamed for teaching ; 
 for they seemed to be bent on 
 courting persecution by pur- 
 suing chimerical ideas, while 
 they might have lived happily, 
 in the highest consideration, if they would only have refrained from vain 
 disputes. 
 
 (1679). The Jesuits, still smarting under the " Lettres Provinciales," 
 worked hard against the Jansenists. The Duchesse de Longueville, not 
 having the Fronde to scheme for, schemed for Jansenism. Meetings were 
 held in Paris, now at her hotel, again at Arnauld's. The King, who had 
 already resolved to extirpate Calvinism, would not tolerate a new sect. He 
 began to threaten, and at length, Arnauld, being deprived of the support of 
 Madame de Longueville by her death, and in dread of enemies armed with 
 the royal authority, made up his mind to leave France. He went to live in 
 
 L ' , . ""- . ■■. ■ . ■' A 
 
 ANTOINE LE MAITRE, ATTORNEY TO THE PARLIAMENT 
 (1608-1653.) 
 (From a print by Lubin.) 
 
414 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 the Low Countries, in obscurity, without fortune, without servants— he who 
 might have been a Cardinal, and whose nephew had been a Minister of State. 
 The pleasure of writing in full freedom made up to him for everything. 
 He lived until 1694, in a retreat known to his friends only, a philosopher 
 always, superior to evil fortune, constantly writing, and to his last horn- 
 setting the example of a pure, strong and resolute mind. 
 
 His party was still persecuted in the Catholic Low Countries — those 
 
 that are called " of obedience," 
 and where papal Bulls are 
 sovereign laws. It was even 
 more persecuted in France. 
 
 It is strange that the 
 ■question whether the five 
 propositions really were in 
 Jansen's writings was still the 
 sole pretext for this state of 
 petty civil war. All minds 
 were occupied with the dis- 
 tinction between the fact and 
 the right At last, in 1701, a 
 theological problem, which was 
 called " the case of conscience 
 par excellence" was propounded 
 as follows : " Might the sacra- 
 ments be given to a man 
 who had signed the formu- 
 
 CAKDINAL ANTOINE DE NOAILLES. , , . ,. . , . 
 
 lary while believing m his 
 
 (After an anonymous portrait in the Musee tie Versailles.) ° 
 
 heart that the Pope, and even 
 the Church, may be mistaken on the fact ? " Forty doctors signed that 
 absolution might be given to such a man. 
 
 The war began again immediately. The Pope and the bishops desired 
 that they should be believed on the facts. Cardinal de Noailles proclaimed 
 that the right was to be believed by a divine faith, and the fact by a 
 human faith. The others, and even the Archbishop of Cambray (Fenelon), 
 who was not pleased with M. de Noailles, required divine faith for the 
 fact. It would perhaps have been better to take the trouble of quoting 
 the pages of the book ; this, however, never was done. 
 
NUNS SIGNING A PAPAL BULL 
 
 415 
 
 Pope Clement XI. issued the Bull Vineam Domini, in 1705, by which 
 he declared that the fact was to be believed, without explaining whether 
 it was to be believed by a divine or a human faith. 
 
 It was quite new to the Church to make nuns sign Bulls, yet that 
 honour was done to the nuns of Port-Koyal des Champs. Cardinal de 
 Noailles was obliged to send 
 the Bull to them to test them. 
 They signed, without derogating 
 from the peace of Clement IX., 
 and took refuge in a respectful 
 silence concerning the fact. 
 
 The King asked for a 
 Bull from the Pope for the 
 suppression of their convent. 
 Cardinal de Noailles deprived 
 them of the sacraments. Their 
 counsel was sent to the Bastille. 
 All the nuns were removed 
 to less disobedient convents. 
 The Lieutenant of Police had 
 their house entirely demolished 
 in 1714, and the bodies which 
 were buried in the church in 
 the cemetery were disinterred, 
 and carried away elsewhere. 
 
 The troubles were not de- 
 stroyed with the convent. The 
 Jansenists were still bent on 
 caballing, and the Jesuits on making themselves necessary. Pere Quesnel, 
 a priest of the Oratoire, and a friend of the celebrated Arnauld, who 
 was his companion in retirement to the very last, composed a book of 
 Keflections on the text of the New Testament. This book contains 
 some passages which might appear favourable to Jansenism ; but they 
 are mingled with so much that is holy and full of that unction 
 which wins hearts, that the work was received with universal applause. 
 Good abounds in it on every side, and evil has to be closely sought for. 
 Several bishops bestowed the greatest praise upon it at its birth, and 
 
 wmi — m 
 
 PERE QUESNEL. 
 (A portrait by Pitau.) 
 
416 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 confirmed this when the book had received the last perfecting touches 
 from its author. I know that the Abbe Eenaudot, one of the most 
 learned men in France, when he was in Eome during the first year of 
 the pontificate of Clement XL, went to see the Pope, and found him 
 reading the work. "Here," said His Holiness, "is an excellent book. We 
 have no one at Rome who would be capable of writing this. I wish I 
 could have the author with me here." The same Pope afterwards con- 
 demned the work. We must not, however, regard the praise of Pope 
 
 Clement XI. and the censure 
 that followed that praise as a 
 contradiction. One may be 
 struck by the beauties of a 
 book at a first reading, and 
 afterwards discover its serious 
 faults. Cardinal de Noailles, 
 Archbishop of Paris, was one 
 of the prelates who had most 
 sincerely praised the work of 
 Pcre Quesnel. He announced 
 himself as its patron when he 
 was Bishop of Chalons, and it 
 was dedicated to him. The 
 Cardinal, who abounded in 
 knowledge and in virtues, and 
 was the gentlest and most 
 peace-loving of men, patronised some of the Jansenists without agreeing 
 with them, and had no liking for the Jesuits, but neither feared nor 
 harmed them. 
 
 The Jesuits had been advancing in reputation since Pere de La Chaise, 
 the director of Louis XIV., had become virtually the head of the 
 Gallican Church. Pere Quesnel, who was afraid of them, had retired to 
 Brussels with the learned Benedictine Gerberon, a priest named Brigode, 
 and several others of the same party. He had become its chief after the 
 death of the famous Arnauld, and enjoyed like him the pleasure and 
 triumph of establishing a secret empire for himself, independent of 
 sovereigns ; of reigning over consciences, and being the soul of a faction 
 composed of persons of high intelligence. The Jesuits, who were more 
 
 TIME CHASES AWAY TYRANNY, FRAUD, AND DISCORD : THE 
 ARCHBISHOP OF SFjBASTE RECOGNISES GOOD JANSENISTS 
 BY PASSING THEM THROUGH A SIEVE. 
 
 (From a Jansenist print of 17og.) 
 
PERE QUESNEL 
 
 41f 
 
 widely-spread and more powerful than his faction soon unearthed Quesnel 
 in his solitude. They injured him with Philip V., who was still master 
 of the Low Countries, as they had injured Arnauld, his master, with 
 Louis XIV. They obtained an order from the King for the arrest of 
 these solitaries (1703). Quesnel was put into the Archbishop's prison in 
 Mechlin. A gentleman, who thought the Jansenist party would make 
 his fortune if he could deliver 
 the chief, broke through the 
 wall, and got out Quesnel, 
 who retired to Amsterdam, 
 where he died at a great age 
 in 1719, after he had assisted 
 in forming a few Jansenist 
 congregations. The flock was 
 one of weaklings, however, 
 and fell off day by day. 
 
 When he was arrested his 
 papers were seized, and found 
 to contain all the indications 
 of a regularly constituted 
 party. There was among them 
 a copy of an old contract made 
 by the Jansenists with Antoi- 
 
 PEUU BE LA CHAISE. 
 
 (From a print by Trouvaiu.) 
 
 nette Bourignon, a famous 
 visionary and a rich woman, 
 who had bought the island of 
 Nordstrand, near Holstein, in 
 the name of her director, for 
 the purpose of forming a settlement for a sect of mystics which she desired 
 to establish. 
 
 Bourignon printed nineteen big volumes of pious meditations, and 
 expended half of her money in making proselytes. She had done nothing 
 except to make herself ridiculous, but she had met with some of the annoy- 
 ances which attend every innovation. At length, in despair of settling- 
 down in her island, she sold it to the Jansenists, who did not settle 
 down any more than herself. 
 
 A second plan, which would have been more culpable than the first, 
 
 3 H 
 
418 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 had it not been insensate, was found in the papers taken from Quesnel. 
 In 1G84, Louis XIV., having sent the Comte d'Avaux to Holland fully 
 authorised to make a truce of twenty years with the powers who might 
 desire to enter into it, the Jansenists, under the name of " The disciples 
 of Saint Augustine," proposed to have themselves comprehended in 
 
 that truce, as if they had been 
 in reality a formidable party 
 such as the Calvinists were for 
 so long. This idea had not 
 been acted on, but proposals 
 of peace between the Jansen- 
 ists and the King of France 
 had actually been drawn up 
 in writing. Such a project 
 proved their desire to make 
 themselves out very important ; 
 this was enough to criminate 
 them in appearance, and 
 Louis XIV. was easily per- 
 suaded to believe that they 
 were dangerous. 
 
 The King was not suffi- 
 ciently instructed to know that 
 vain speculative opinions will 
 of themselves come to nothing, 
 if they be left to their futility. 
 To make them matters of State 
 was to give them an unreal 
 weight and importance. It 
 was not difficult to cause the 
 book Pere Quesnel had written to be regarded as culpable, after its 
 author had been treated as seditious. The Jesuits induced the Kino- 
 himself to demand the condemnation of the book from Rome. This 
 was, in fact, to have Cardinal de Noailles, who had been its most active 
 patron, condemned. In 1708, Pope Clement XI. did issue a decree against 
 the approbation lavished on Quesnel. Temporal affairs, however, interfered 
 with the success of this spiritual matter. The Court was displeased 
 
 GOD CONFOUNDS THE DESIGNS OF THE PHOUD. 
 (A Janseuist print by Jardieu.) 
 
PERE LA CHAISE 
 
 419 
 
 with Clement XL, who had recognised the Archduke Charles as King of 
 Spain, after having recognised Philip V. The decree was not received in 
 France ; and quarrels were suspended until the death of Pere La Chaise, 
 an amiable man with whom the way to conciliation was always open, 
 and who protected the ally of 
 Madame de Maintenon in the 
 person of the Cardinal de 
 Noailles. 
 
 The Jesuits were in a position 
 to appoint a confessor to the 
 King, and, indeed, they could do 
 the same in the case of almost 
 all the Catholic princes. That 
 prerogative was due to the con- 
 stitution of their society, by 
 which they renounced ecclesi- 
 astical dignities. This rule, 
 which their founder established 
 from humility, had helped them 
 to greatness. As Louis XIV. 
 advanced in years, the place of 
 his confessor assumed more and 
 more of a ministerial character. 
 The post was given to Le Tellier, 
 who was the son of a magistrate 
 at Vire, in Lower Normandy, 
 a gloomy, ardent, inflexible man, 
 who concealed violent impulses 
 under a phlegmatic appearance. 
 He did all the harm that he 
 
 could do in his important position, where it was easy for him to suggest 
 his own wishes, and to ruin his enemies. He had certain personal 
 injuries to avenge. The Jansenists had succeeded in getting one of his 
 books condemned. He was on bad terms with Cardinal de Noailles, and 
 he was quite deficient in tact. He stirred up the whole Church of 
 France, and in 1711 drew up letters and pastorals which the bishops 
 were to sign. He sent them accusations against Cardinal de Noailles, 
 
 A DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND OF JANSENISM. 
 (Cabinet of Prints.) 
 
420 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 directing them to affix their signatures to those documents. In profane 
 matters such doings are punished ; these were discovered, and succeeded 
 none the less. 
 
 The King's conscience was alarmed by his confessor, as keenly as his 
 pride of authority was hurt by the idea of a rebellious party. In 
 vain did Cardinal de Noailles demand justice for " these mysteries of 
 iniquity : " the confessor persuaded him that he had used human means 
 
 to ensure the success of things 
 that were divine, and, as in fact 
 he was defending the authority 
 of the Pope and the unity of 
 the Church, appearances were 
 favourable to him. The 
 Cardinal - Archbishop addressed 
 himself to the Dauphin (Due 
 de Bourgogne), but he found 
 himself forestalled by the 
 letters and the friends of the 
 Archbishop of Cambray. Human 
 weakness has a place in every 
 heart. Fenelon was not yet 
 sufficiently philosophic to forget 
 that Cardinal de Noailles had 
 contributed to his condemna- 
 tion ; and then Quesnel paid 
 for Madame Guyon. 
 
 The Cardinal fared equally 
 ill with respect to Madame de 
 Maintenon. The character of 
 that lady might have been read by the light of this affair only : she 
 had no feelings of her own, and was exclusively occupied in adapting 
 herself to those of the King. Three lines written by her to Cardinal de 
 Noairfes teach us exactly what we ought to think of her, the duplicity of 
 Pere Le Tellier, the King's ideas, and the conjuncture. "You know me 
 enough to know what I think on the matter of the new discovery ; 
 but several reasons must restrain me from speaking. It is not for me 
 to judge and to condemn ; I have only to be silent and to pray for the 
 
 PERE MICHEL LE TELLIER. 
 
 (From a print by Desrochers.) 
 
LE TELLIER 
 
 421 
 
 Church, for the King, and for you. I have given your letter to the 
 King ; it has been read ; that is all I can say to you about it, for I am 
 cast down with sadness." 
 
 The Cardinal- Archbishop, being oppressed by a Jesuit, deprived all the 
 Jesuits, except a few of the most prudent and moderate among them, of 
 faculties to preach and hear confessions. His office gave him the dangerous 
 right of preventing Le Tellier from hearing the King ; but he dared not 
 irritate his enemy to that 
 
 point. " I 
 to Madame 
 
 fear," he wrote 
 de Main tenon, 
 
 " that I am showing too much 
 submission to the King in 
 giving faculties to that person 
 who deserves them the least. 
 I pray God to make him 
 know the peril he incurs in 
 entrusting his soul to a man 
 of such character." 
 
 It is recorded in several 
 memoirs that Pere Le Tellier 
 said either one or the other 
 of them — the Cardinal and 
 himself — must lose his place. 
 It is very likely he thought 
 this, but not at all likely that 
 he said it. When men's 
 minds are full of enmity, 
 both parties are certain to 
 make mistakes. Partizans of Pere Le Tellier, bishops who hoped to be 
 made cardinals, employed the royal authority to fan the sparks, that might 
 have been extinguished, into flame. Instead of following the example of 
 Rome, which had imposed silence on both parties several times, Louis XIV. 
 thought fit to solicit a declaration of war from Rome himself, and the 
 famous constitution, Unigenitus, which embittered the rest of his life, 
 was the result. 
 
 Le Tellier and his party sent three hundred propositions to Rome 
 to be condemned. The Holy Office proscribed one hundred and one of 
 
 MADAME DE MAINTENON AS SAINT FRANCES OF ROME. 
 (Original Portrait by Pierre Mignard. — Musee de Versailles.) 
 
422 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 these. The Bull was issued in September, 1713, and almost all France 
 rose against it. The King had asked for it in order to prevent a schism, 
 and it was likely to cause one. The clamour was general, because 
 everybody saw that some of the condemned propositions conveyed the 
 most innocent meaning and the purest morality. A convocation of bishops, 
 numerously attended, was held at Paris. Forty of the prelates accepted 
 the Bull for the sake of peace ; but at the same time they gave explanations 
 
 A SATIRICAL COMPOSITION BY JANSENISTS AGAINST THE CONSTITUTIONISTS WHO REMAIN IN THEIR 
 PARTY SOLELY FOR THE SAKE OF TEMPORAL GAIN (1713). 
 (Cabinet of Prints.) 
 
 of it, to quiet the scruples of the public. The acceptation pure and 
 simple was sent to the Pope ; the modifications were kept for the people. 
 It was expected that the Pontiff, the King, and the multitude would be 
 satisfied by this course ; but Cardinal de Noailles and seven other bishops 
 who joined him would have neither the Bull nor its corrections. They 
 wrote to the Pope, asking for these corrections from His Holiness himself. 
 This was an affront respectfully offered, and the King would not suffer it- 
 He prevented the despatch of the letter, sent the bishops back to their 
 dioceses, and forbade the Cardinal- Archbishop to appear at Court. The 
 
THE BULL 
 
 423 
 
 Archbishop, being persecuted, became at once an object of increased 
 respect and consideration to the public. Seven other bishops came over 
 to his side. There was a division in the episcopate, in the clergy, in the 
 religious orders. Everybody acknowledged that the fundamental truths of 
 religion were not concerned at all ; nevertheless there was a civil war in 
 men's minds, just as though 
 the overthrow of Christianity 
 were in question, and on both 
 sides political springs were set 
 in motion as they might have 
 been in the most mundane 
 matter. 
 
 These springs were worked 
 to make the Sorbonne accept 
 the constitution. The plurality 
 of votes was not for it, and 
 yet it was registered. Its 
 opponents were sent to prison 
 by " lettres de cachet," or 
 banished, in large numbers. 
 
 (1714.) The Bull, Uni- 
 genitus, had been registered at 
 the parliament, with reserve 
 of the ordinary rights of the 
 Crown, the liberties of the 
 Gallican Church, the power 
 and jurisdiction of bishops ; 
 but the public voice made 
 itself heard, notwithstanding 
 this obedience. Cardinal de 
 Bissy, one of the most ardent defenders of the Bull, admitted, in a letter, 
 that even at Geneva it could not have been treated with more indignity 
 than in Paris. 
 
 The anger of the people was chiefly directed against Pere Le Tellier. 
 The prisons had been filled for some time past with citizens accused of 
 Jansenism. Louis XIV., who was very ignorant in these matters, was made 
 to believe that it was the duty of a Most Christian King to persecute 
 
 FRONTISPIECE OP THE PROTEST OP PERE QUESNEL AGAINST 
 THE CONDEMNATION OF HIS PROPOSITIONS. 
 
 (Cabinet of Prints.) 
 
424 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 heretics, and that lie could expiate his sins by this means only. The most 
 shameful proceeding of all was that copies of the " interrogatories," in the 
 cases of those unfortunates, were sent to Le Tellier. Never was there 
 a more flagrant betrayal of justice. In 1768, after the Jesuits had been 
 expelled by all the parliaments of the kingdom, by the desire of the people, 
 and by an edict of Louis XIV., the papers were found in their house. 
 
 Le Tellier ventured to presume upon his credit to the extent of 
 proposing that Cardinal de Noailles should be deposed by a national council. 
 
 A SATIRICAL COMPOSITION BY THE JANSENISTS AGAINST THE CONSTITUTIONISTS WHO ARE KEPT IN THEIK 
 PARTY BY THE LOVE OF WEALTH ONLY (1713). 
 (Cabinet of l'riuts.) 
 
 As a preliminary of this council, at which the deposition of a 
 prelate who had won the hearts of Paris and of France, by the purity 
 of his morals and the gentleness of his nature, and still more because he 
 was persecuted, was to be debated, Louis XIV. was induced to have a 
 declaration registered by the parliament by which a bishop who had not 
 accepted the Bull purely and simply should be obliged, to subscribe to it, 
 on pain of being prosecuted according to the canons. Voisin, the Chan- 
 cellor, a hard and despotic man, had drawn up this edict. D'Aguesseau, 
 who was better versed than Voisin in the laws of the kingdom, and then 
 
A PITILESS CONFESSOR 
 
 425 
 
 possessed the courage of youth, absolutely refused to take charge 
 of the document. The first president, De Mesme, pointed out the 
 consequences of it to the King. The matter was then allowed to drag 
 on unsettled. The King was dying ; these wretched disputes troubled and 
 hastened the close of his life. His pitiless confessor wearied him in his 
 weakness by continual exhortations to conclude a work which was not 
 likely to endear his memory 
 to his people. The King's 
 servants indignantly refused 
 twice over to admit Le Tellier ; 
 and at last they entreated him 
 not to speak of the constitution 
 to the King. The sovereign 
 died, and everything was imme- 
 diately changed. 
 
 The Due d'Orleans, Regent 
 of the kingdom, began by 
 entirely doing away with the 
 form of the government of 
 Louis XIV. Having substi- 
 tuted councils at the offices of 
 the Secretaries of State, he 
 formed a Council of Conscience, 
 with Cardinal de Noailles as 
 president. Le Tellier was 
 banished, laden with obloquy 
 by the public, and little loved 
 by his brethren. 
 
 The bishops who opposed 
 the Bull appealed to a future council, though such a council might 
 never be held. The Sorbonne, the cures of the diocese of Paris, and 
 several religious communities did the same ; and finally Cardinal de 
 Noailles made his appeal in 1717, but he would not give publicity to 
 it at first. The Church of France was divided into two factions, the 
 "acceptors" and the "refusers." The acceptors were the five bishops 
 who had adhered under Louis XIV. with the Jesuits and the Capuchins. 
 The refusers were fifteen bishops and the whole country. The acceptants 
 
 3 I 
 
 npit v premier urj. i/tio u 
 
 liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iipiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir : , -i-^ . mi MiigjiimiMiil 
 
 CARDINAL DUBOIS. 
 (From the portrait by Rigaud, engraved by C. Roy.") 
 
426 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 prided themselves on Rome ; the others on the universities, the 
 parliaments, and the people. Volume upon volume, letters upon letters 
 were printed, and the opprobrious epithets "heretic" and "schismatic" 
 were freely interchanged. 
 
 An Archbishop of Rheims (Mailly), who was strong on the side of 
 Rome, put his name to two documents which the parliament of Paris 
 ordered to be burned by the public executioner. The Archbishop, on 
 
 MONUMENT ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE FOLLY OF LAW'S SYSTEM. 
 (From a Dutch satire of the time.) 
 
 learning this, had a Te Deum sung in thanksgiving for the outrage 
 inflicted upon him by schismatics. He was made a cardinal. A Bishop 
 of Soissons (Languet), having been similarly treated by the parliament, 
 informed that body that it " was not for it to judge him, even for a 
 crime of high treason," and was condemned to pay a fine of ten thousand 
 livres. But the Regent would not allow him to pay the fine, " lest," he 
 said, " the Bishop of Soissons should also be made a Cardinal." 
 
 The folly of the system of national finance had more to do with 
 
THE REGENT'S POLICY 427 
 
 restoring peace to the Church than is generally known. The public rushed 
 so eagerly into speculation in shares at this point, the bait held out to 
 cupidity by the transactions of Law was so ravenously swallowed, that 
 thenceforth those who talked about Jansenism and the Bull Unigenitus 
 found none to listen to them. Paris was no more concerned with these 
 things than with the war that was being waged on the frontiers of Spain. 
 The rapid and incredible for- 
 tunes that were then made, 
 the luxury and enjoyment of 
 life, carried to the greatest 
 excess, silenced the ecclesiasti- 
 cal disputes, and that which 
 Louis XIV. had failed to do, 
 pleasure accomplished. 
 
 The Due d'Orleans availed 
 himself of this conjuncture to 
 re-unite the Church of France 
 in the interests of his own 
 policy. He lived in dread of 
 a time when he might have 
 Eome, Spain, and one hundred 
 bishops against him. 
 
 The Regent's task was not 
 easy. The first necessity of 
 the case was that Cardinal de 
 Noailles should be induced not 
 
 CARDINAL DE TENCIN. 
 
 Only tO aCCept the Constitution ^ vom the pol . tt . ait by Heilraami, engraved by J. G. Wille.) 
 
 which he regarded as scanda- 
 lous, but to retract his appeal which he regarded as legitimate. The 
 Regent would have to obtain from the Cardinal more than Louis XIV., 
 his benefactor, had asked in vain. He would also have to encounter 
 the strong opposition of the parliament, which he had banished to 
 Pontoise ; nevertheless he got the better of all these difficulties. A 
 " body of doctrine " was composed which almost contented both parties. 
 The Cardinal was induced to give his word that he would "accept." The 
 Due d'Orleans went in person to the Great Council with the princes 
 and the peers to procure the registration of an edict which directed 
 
•428 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 acceptation of the Bull, suppression of the appeals, unanimity, and peace. 
 The parliament, being annoyed by the carrying of declarations which it 
 was qualified to receive to the Great Council, and threatened besides 
 with being transferred from Pontoise to Blois, registered what the Grand 
 Council had registered, but with the customary reservations, that is to 
 say, the maintenance of the liberties of the Gallican Church and of the 
 laws of the kingdom. 
 
 THE TOMB OP BLESSED FRANCOIS DE PARIS, DIED 1ST MAY, 1717, AND ILLUSTRIOUS FOR UNTOLD MIRACLES. 
 (Print in the Series of Les Miracles da Diacre Paris.) 
 
 The Cardinal- Archbishop, who had promised to retract when the 
 parliament should obey, was then obliged to keep his word, and his 
 pastoral of retractation was issued on the 20th of August, 1720. 
 
 From that time forth Jansenism, Quietism, and all theological 
 cpuarrelling sensibly declined in France. It is not necessary to the illustration 
 of the Great Century to pursue the subject of Jansenism farther, but the 
 episode of the " Convulsionnaires " is so strange a feature of the time that 
 it must find brief mention here. 
 
THE 
 
 " CONVULSIONS AIRES 
 
 429 
 
 In 1727, when the party of Jansenism 
 was declining rapidly, it occurred to certain 
 enthusiasts that a deacon named Paris, brother 
 of a counsellor of the parliament, who was 
 buried in the cemetery of Saint-Medard, might 
 work miracles. Some persons belonging to 
 the party went to pray at his tomb, and, in 
 the excited state of their fancy, were seized 
 with slight convulsions. The tomb was 
 immediately surrounded by people ; presently 
 a crowd filled the spot day and night, and 
 extraordinary scenes took place. The govern- 
 ment 
 
 A MEETING OF THE JESUITS. 
 
 (Fragment of an Almanac, engraved by 
 Lepautre.) 
 
 LE DIACRE PARIS AT PRAYER. 
 (From a print of the time.) 
 
 allowed this epileptic 
 malady to run its course for 
 a month, but the concourse 
 increased with the stories of 
 sight restored to the blind, 
 hearing to the deaf, and 
 speech to the dumb, and, 
 with the concourse, the con- 
 vulsions ; so that it became 
 necessary to close the ceme- 
 tery and place a guard over 
 it. The tomb of the " Diacre 
 Paris " was, in fact, also that 
 
 of Jansenism, which was no longer supported 
 by such men as Arnauld, Pascal, and Nicole. 
 
 It was during the period of the Regent's 
 conciliatory and successful efforts to settle 
 the great historical quarrel that two very 
 different men came into view. One was 
 Pierre de Tencin, Archbishop of Embrun, 
 afterwards Cardinal, who was appointed by 
 Cardinal Fleury to preside over a council 
 assembled to try a Jansenist bishop eighty years 
 old. The other was Cardinal Dubois, who 
 succeeded Fenelon as Archbishop of Cambray, 
 
 THE JESUITS. 
 
 (Fragment of an Almanac, engraved by 
 Lepautre.) 
 
430 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 and was a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, and Prime Minister. It was 
 this prelate who persuaded Cardinal de Noailles to give the promise which 
 he had to redeem by his famous retractation. The history of each of these 
 eminent churchmen and politicians stretches beyond our bounds, but their 
 portraits are fitly placed in this volume. 
 
 FAME GJ.OKIl'VIXG LOUIS XIV. 
 (Composition ljy S. Lecierc." 1 
 
THE GLORIOUS ARMS OF LOUIS XIV. 
 (Composition by Sebastien Leclerc.) 
 
 IV 
 
 QUIETISM. 
 
 MID the factious disputes of Calvinism and the 
 quarrels of Jansenism, yet another division took 
 place in France on the score of Quietism. It 
 was an unfortunate result of intellectual progress 
 in the Century of Louis XIV. that everyone 
 strove to pass the limits that are set to our 
 human knowledge in almost all things ; or rather, 
 it proved that progress to be as yet insufficient. 
 The controversy concerning Quietism would have left no trace in the 
 memory of men but for the illustrious names of the two great rivals who 
 were engaged in it. A woman of no importance or ability had set the 
 two greatest men then in the Church by the ears, by her extravagant 
 imagination. Her name was Jeanne Bouvier de la Motte. Her family 
 originally came from Montargis. She had married a son of that Guyon 
 who engineered the canal of Briare, and became a widow while quite 
 young. With a good fortune, beauty, and a mind made for the world 
 and society, she flung herself eagerly into " spirituality." A Barnabite 
 
432 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 monk, named Lacombe, from Annecy, near Geneva, was her director, 
 and this man, who died insane, encouraged his penitent in the mystic 
 reveries to which she was inclined. Her strong desire to be a Saint 
 Teresa in France prevented her from seeing how widely French genius 
 differs from Spanish genius, and made her go much farther than Saint 
 
 Teresa. Ambition to make dis- 
 ciples, perhaps the strongest of 
 all ambitions, laid hold of her. 
 
 Lacombe took her to his 
 native place, Annecy, in Savoy, 
 where the titular Bishop of 
 Geneva resides. The young 
 widow acquired some influence 
 at Annecy by her profuse alms- 
 giving. She held conferences ; 
 she preached the entire renun- 
 ciation of self, the silence of 
 the soul, the suppression of all 
 its powers, inward worship, and 
 the pure and disinterested love 
 that is neither debased by fear 
 nor animated by the hope of 
 reward. 
 
 The tender and vivid 
 imaginations of some women 
 and some young monks were 
 fired by the preaching of the 
 Word of God by a young and 
 fair woman, and they were 
 fascinated by her eloquence. 
 She persuaded the more or less 
 predisposed among her hearers, and made proselytes. The Bishop of Annecy 
 procured the expulsion of Madame Guyon and her director from Annecy. 
 They went to Grenoble ; there she distributed a little book entitled " Le 
 Moyen Court," and a second under the name of " Les Torrents," written 
 in ' the fervid style of her discourses, and was shortly obliged to leave 
 the place. 
 
MADAME GUYON 
 
 433 
 
 She now flattered herself that she ranked among confessors, had a 
 vision, and prophesied. She sent her prophecy to Pere Lacombe. "All 
 hell," she said, " will band itself together to hinder the progress of the 
 interior life and the formation of Jesus Christ in souls. The storm will 
 be such that no stone shall rest upon another, and it seems to me that 
 in all the earth there shall be trouble, war, and overturning. The woman 
 shall be pregnant by the interior spirit, and the dragon shall uprear 
 himself before her." 
 
 The prophecy came true in 
 part ; hell did not band itself 
 together ; but she and her 
 director returned to Paris, and 
 both of them having preached 
 dogmatically in 1687, the Arch- 
 bishop of Paris (Harlay de 
 Chanvallon) obtained an order 
 from the Kin a; to have Lacombe 
 imprisoned deceiver, and 
 
 Madame Guyon placed in a 
 convent as a person of unsound 
 mind who needed cure. But 
 before this befell her Madame 
 Guyon had secured certain use- 
 ful patronage. In the newly- 
 established convent-school of 
 Saint-Cyr she had a cousin, 
 Madame de La Maisonfort, who 
 was a favourite of Madame de 
 Maintenon ; she had also insinuated herself into the confidence of the 
 Duchesse de Chevreuse and the Duchesse de Beauvilliers. All her friends 
 complained loudly that Archbishop du Harlay should persecute a woman 
 who preached the love of God only. 
 
 The all-powerful influence of Madame de Maintenon imposed silence 
 on the Archbishop of Paris, and restored Madame Guyon to liberty. She 
 went to Versailles, introduced herself at Saint-Cyr, and attended the 
 " conferences " given by the Abbe de Fenelon, after having dined en tiers 
 with him and Madame de Maintenon. The Princesse d'Harcourt, the 
 
 3 K 
 
 FRANCOIS DE SALIGNAC DE LA MOTHE -FENELON 
 (From the original paintiug by Joseph Vivien, JIusee de Versailles.) 
 
434 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Duchesse de Chevreuse, the Duchesse de Beauvilliers, and the Duchesse 
 de Charost had the privilege of attending the "conferences." 
 
 The Abbe de Fenelon, tutor to the Children of France, was the most 
 fascinating man at Court. He possessed a tender heart, brilliant and 
 graceful imagination, and a mind fed with the " fine flower " of elegant 
 literature. His tastes were refined and gracious ; he preferred the sublime 
 and the touching in theology to the sombre and the difficult. With all 
 this, something romantic in him inspired him, not with the mysticism of 
 Madame Guyon, but with an inclination to spirituality according to her ideas. 
 
 His imagination was inflamed by innocence and virtue, as others are 
 inflamed by their passions. His passion was the love of God for Himself. 
 In Madame Guyon he beheld a pure soul filled with a similar aspiration, 
 and he became her friend without scruple. It was strange that he 
 should have been attracted by a woman of revelations, prophecies, and 
 such-like ineptitudes, who was so " suffocated with interior grace " that she 
 had to be unlaced, and who could "empty herself" (so she declared) of the 
 superabundance of grace and make it swell the body of the elect person 
 seated by her side. But Fenelon, with his mystic ideas, overlooked all 
 this, and dwelt only on the conformity of the sentiments that had so 
 charmed him with his own. 
 
 Madame Guyon, sure and proud of her disciple, whom she called 
 her son, and reckoning even on Madame de Main tenon, spread her ideas 
 through Saint-Cyr. Godet, Bishop of Chartres, in whose diocese Saint- 
 Cyr is situated, took alarm at this and complained. The Archbishop of 
 Paris threatened to renew his former proceedings. 
 
 Madame de Maintenon, whose only desire was to make Saint-Cyr an 
 abode of peace, who knew how much the King disliked any novelty, and 
 did not require to put herself at the head of a sect in order to obtain 
 consideration ; who was, in short, solely concerned for her own interests, 
 and her own repose, broke off all intercourse with Madame Guyon, and 
 forbade her to come to Saint-Cyr. 
 
 The Abbe de Fenelon saw that a storm was brewing, and was afraid 
 of losing the high preferment to which he aspired. He advised his friend 
 to put herself into the hands of the celebrated Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, 
 who was regarded as a Father of the Church. She submitted herself to 
 the direction of the great prelate, received Holy Communion from his 
 hand, and gave him all her writings to examine. 
 
BOSSUET 
 
 435 
 
 The Bishop of Meaux, with the consent of the King, selected the 
 Bishop of Chalons (afterwards Cardinal de Noailles) and the Abbe Tronson, 
 Superior of Saint-Sulpice, as his associates in this examination. They met 
 secretly at the village of Issy, near Paris. The Archbishop of Paris, 
 who was displeased that others should act as judges in his diocese, had a 
 public censure of the books 
 under examination posted up. 
 Madame Guyon retired to the 
 city of Meaux itself, consented 
 to everything that Bossuet 
 wished, and promised to dog- 
 matise no more. 
 
 In the meantime Fenelon 
 had been appointed to the Arch- 
 bishopric of Cambray (in 1695), 
 and consecrated by the Bishop 
 of Meaux. It seemed most un- 
 likely that a slumbering scandal, 
 which had hitherto been simply 
 and solely ridiculous, should 
 ever be roused up again. 
 
 But Madame Guyon, being 
 accused of continuing to preach 
 dogmatically after she had 
 promised to be silent, was re- 
 moved from Meaux by order of 
 the King in that same year G0DET DES MARAIS > BISH0P 0F C ™ RES - 
 
 (From the portrait by Paul Bria, engraved by Crespy.) 
 
 (1695) and imprisoned at Vin- 
 
 cennes, as though she had been a person dangerous in the State. This 
 she could not be, and her pious musings were not worth the sovereign's 
 attention. At Vincennes she composed a big volume of mystic verses 
 worse than her prose ; she even parodied the rhymes of the librettos of 
 operas. She frequently sang, for instance : — 
 
 L'amour pur et parfait va plus loin qu'on ne pense ; 
 
 On. ne sait pas, lorsqu'il commence, 
 
 Tout ce qu'il doit couter un jour. 
 Mon cceur n'aurait connu Vincennes ni souffrance, 
 
 S'il n'erit connu le pur amour. 
 
436 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 Bossuet, who had regarded himself for a long time as the father and 
 teacher of Fenelon, had become jealous of the reputation of his disciple, 
 and being desirous of keeping up his ascendency over all his fellows, he 
 required the new Archbishop of Cambray to join him in condemning 
 Madame Guyon and to endorse his pastoral instructions. Fenelon would not 
 sacrifice either his sentiments or his friend. The Archbishop of Cambray, 
 on leaving Meaux for his own diocese, sent " Les Maximes des Saints " 
 
 to Paris to be printed. By this 
 work he intended to rectify all 
 that his friend was reproached 
 with, and to develop the ortho- 
 dox ideas of pious contempla- 
 tives who elevate themselves 
 above the senses, and aim at 
 a state of perfection to which 
 ordinary souls do not aspire. 
 The Bishop of Meaux and his 
 friends opposed the book and 
 denounced it to the King. 
 The King questioned Bossuet, 
 whose talent and reputation he 
 respected, and Bossuet begged 
 the King's forgiveness for not 
 having warned him earlier of 
 the fatal heresy of the Arch- 
 bishop of Cambray. 
 
 The King and Madame de 
 
 P. DE HARLAY DE CHANVALLON, ARCHBISHOP OK PARIS. 
 (From a portrait by I.eiifant, 1071.) 
 
 Maintenon immediately con- 
 sulted Pere de La Chaise, who replied that the Archbishop's book was 
 very good, that all the Jesuits were edified by it, and that only the 
 Jansenists disapproved of it. The Bishop of Meaux was not a Jansenist, 
 but he was deeply read in their best writings. The Jesuits did not like 
 him, and he did not like them. 
 
 The Court and the Town were divided, and the turning of all attention 
 to this vexed question allowed the Jansenists to breathe. Bossuet wrote 
 against Fenelon. Both writers sent their works to the Pope, Innocent XII., 
 and left them to his decision. The circumstances did not seem favourable 
 
S^mp. Lh 'tyiltmann 
 
MICHEL MOLINOS 
 
 437 
 
 to Fenelon : Quietism, of which the Archbishop of Cambray was accused, 
 had recently been severely condemned in the person of the Spaniard 
 Molinos. It was Cardinal d'Estrees, the French Ambassador to Rome, who 
 had prosecuted Molinos to please the enemies of that unfortunate priest, 
 He had even induced the King to solicit his condemnation at Rome ; and 
 this was easily obtained; so that Louis XIV. found himself, without 
 knowing it, the most formidable enemy of the " Pure Love " of the Mystics. 
 
 Nothing is more easy in these delicate matters than to find passages 
 in a book on its trial resembling 
 those in a book already pro- 
 scribed. The Archbishop of 
 Cambray had for him the J esuits, 
 the Due de Beauvilliers, the Due 
 de Chevreuse, and Cardinal de 
 Bouillon, the recently-appointed 
 Ambassador of France to Rome. 
 The Bishop of Meaux had his 
 great name and the adhesion of 
 the principal prelates of France. 
 He brought the signatures of 
 several bishops and a great 
 number of doctors, who all 
 declared against " Les Maximes 
 des Saints." 
 
 Such was the authority of 
 Bossuet that Pere de La Chaise 
 did not venture to support the 
 Archbishop of Cambray with 
 
 the King, his penitent, and Madame de Maintenon absolutely forsook her 
 friend. The King wrote to the Pope that the book written by the 
 Archbishop of Cambray had been brought before him as a pernicious 
 work, that he had caused it to be placed in the hands of the Nuncio, and 
 that he urged His Holiness to give judgment. 
 
 It was alleged, indeed publicly said at Rome, and the rumour still 
 has supporters, that the Archbishop was persecuted thus only because he 
 had opposed the declaration of the private marriage of the King and 
 Madame de Maintenon. The inventors of anecdotes asserted that Madame 
 
 MICHEL MOLINOS AND HIS WORKS AT THE STAKE. 
 (From a popular print of the time.) 
 
438 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 de Maintenon had urged Pere de La Chaise to press the King to 
 acknowledge her as Queen : that the Jesuit had adroitly transferred the 
 hazardous commission to Fenelon, and that the tutor of the Children of 
 France, preferring the honour of France and of his disciples to his own 
 fortune, had knelt to the King beseeching him to abstain from a step 
 which would do him greater harm with posterity than it would bring 
 him happiness during his life. 
 
 It is very true that, as Fenelon had continued to conduct the 
 
 MADAME GU YON WITH THE FEATURES OF THE VIRGIN, "TO WHOM GOD HIMSELF IS SUBJECT." 
 
 (Composition by S. Leclerc.) 
 
 education of the Due de Bourgogne after he became Archbishop of Cambray, 
 some idle talk about his spiritual relations with Madame Guyon and 
 Madame de La Maisonfort had reached the King, who also believed that 
 Fenelon was inspiring the Due de Bourgogne with austere maxims, and 
 with principles of government and morals, which might become an indirect- 
 censure in the future upon the grandeur, the thirst for fame, the wars so 
 lightly undertaken, and the love of fetes and pleasure which had charac- 
 terized the reign of the prince's grandfather. Louis XIV. wished to have a 
 conversation with the new Archbishop on his political principles. Fenelon, 
 full of his own ideas, allowed the King to detect a little of the spirit 
 
FENELON AND THE KING 
 
 439 
 
 which was afterwards revealed in " Telemaque," in passages dealing 
 with, government, which contain maxims more appropriate to the Republic 
 of Plato than to the method of ruling men. After this conversation the 
 King said that he had been talking with the man of finest and flightiest 
 wit in all his kingdom. The Due cle Bourgogne was informed of this 
 saying of the King's. He repeated it some time after to M. de Malezieu, 
 who taught him geometry. This I have from M. de Malezieu himself, 
 and also from Cardinal de Fleury. 
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE COME BACK TO EARTH, UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE DUC DE BOURGOGNE, 
 THE SHEPHERD OF THE PEOPLE, AND MADAME GUYON, A NEW INCARNATION OF THE VIRGIN. 
 (From a print by S. Leclerc ami F. Silvestre.) 
 
 After that conversation the King was ready to believe that Fenelon 
 was as romantic in matters of religion as he was in politics. 
 
 It is certain that Louis XIV. was personally annoyed with the 
 Archbishop of Cambray. Godet des Marais, Bishop of Chartres, influenced 
 the King against him, and the King actually made this ridiculous 
 matter, which he did not understand at all, his particular business. No 
 doubt he was very glad to have done with it when shortly afterwards it 
 collapsed of itself; but it made such a noise at Court that he became 
 more afraid of a cabal than a heresy. This was the real origin of the 
 persecution of Fenelon. 
 
440 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 The King by his letters of the month of August, 1697, commanded 
 Cardinal de Bouillon, then his Ambassador at Rome, to solicit the con- 
 demnation of a man who was to be made out a heretic if possible. 
 He wrote with his own hand to Pope Innocent III., pressing him to 
 decide. The congregation of the Holy Office named a Dominican, a Jesuit, 
 a Benedictine, a Franciscan, a Feuillant, and an Augustine to prepare the 
 statement of the case. These were called in Rome the consulters. 
 
 The consulters examined, in thirty-seven conferences, thirty-seven 
 propositions, and pronounced them erroneous. The Pope, at the head of 
 a congregation of cardinals, condemned them by a brief, which was 
 published and posted up in Rome on the 13th March, 1699. 
 
 The Bishop of Meaux triumphed, but the Archbishop of Cambray 
 extracted a finer triumph from his defeat. He made submission without 
 restriction and without reserve. He condemned his own book from his 
 own pulpit at Cambray. He prevented his friends from defending him. 
 This unique example of the docility of a savant who might have made 
 a great party for himself out of persecution, this act of either simplicity 
 or high art won all hearts for him, and made the victor almost hated. 
 Fenelon lived thenceforth in his diocese, as a wise and worthy prelate 
 and a man of letters. Persecution and his " Telemaque " procured for him 
 the veneration of all Europe. The English, who were making war in his 
 diocese, were eager to give testimony of their respect for him. The Duke 
 of Marlborough took care that the Archbishop's lands were not molested. 
 He was always dear to the Due de Bourgogne (the Dauphin), whom he 
 had brought up, and he would have had a share in the government had 
 that prince lived. 
 
 Even in his philosophic and honourable retirement he still felt that 
 it was very hard to leave such a Court as that of Louis XIV. : there 
 are other Courts which several celebrated men have quitted without 
 regret. 
 
 He always spoke of the Court with liking, and his interest in it showed 
 through his resignation. Much writing on philosophy, theology, and belles- 
 lettres was the fruit of his retirement. The Due d'Orleans, afterwards 
 Regent of France, consulted him on some difficult points which concern 
 all men, but which few men consider. He asked whether the existence 
 of a God could be demonstrated, whether that God desires worship, what 
 is the kind of worship He approves, and whether He can be offended by 
 
FENELON AND THE REGENT 
 
 441 
 
 an erroneous choice. The prince put many questions of this kind, as a 
 philosopher seeking instruction ; the Archbishop answered as a philosopher 
 and theologian. 
 
 It would have been better had he refrained from mixing himself up 
 with the quarrels of Jansenism after his defeat ; but he did not 
 refrain. Cardinal de Noailles had taken the side of the strongest against 
 him : the Archbishop of Cambray treated the Cardinal in the same way. 
 He hoped to be recalled to 
 Court and consulted there : so 
 hard is it for the human mind 
 to detach itself from affairs 
 when once they have fed its 
 natural restlessness. His desires 
 were however moderate, like his 
 writings, and towards the end 
 of bis days he came to despise 
 all disputes. The Archbishop 
 of Cambray (who would believe 
 it !) made the following parody 
 on an air by Lulli : 
 
 Jeune, j'etais trop sage, 
 Et voulais trop savoir : 
 Je ne veux en partage 
 
 Que badinage, 
 Et touche au dernier aare 
 
 Sans rien prevoir. 
 
 He wrote these lines in 
 the presence of his nephew, 
 the Marquis de Fenelon, after- 
 wards ambassador at the Hague. I got them from him. I pledge myself 
 to the authenticity of this fact, which would be of little importance did 
 it not prove how very differently we regard, in the sad tranquillity 
 of old age, that which seemed so great and so interesting at the 
 period when the more active mind is the plaything of its desires and its ' 
 illusions. 
 
 The disputes on which the attention of France was fixed for so 
 long have vanished in the track of many others born of idleness. We 
 
 3 L 
 
442 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 are astonished now that they should have produced so much animosity. 
 The philosophic spirit, which gains ground day by day, tends to secure 
 public tranquillity ; and the very fanatics who rise up against the 
 philosophers owe to them that peace which they enjoy and are seeking 
 to destroy. 
 
 The question of Quietism, which was so unhappily important under 
 Louis XIV., and is now forgotten, ruined Cardinal de Bouillon with the 
 
 Court. He was the nephew 
 of the celebrated Turenne, to 
 whom the King had owed his 
 safety in the Civil "War, and 
 afterwards the aggrandisement 
 of his kingdom. 
 
 The tie of friendship bound 
 him to the Archbishop of Cam- 
 bray ; the commands of the 
 King obliged him to act against 
 him ; he endeavoured to recon- 
 cile these two duties. It is 
 clear from his letters that, while 
 he remained faithful to his 
 friend, he never betrayed his 
 charge. He urged on the 
 Pope's sentence, it is true, ac- 
 cording to the orders of his 
 Court ; but at the same time 
 he endeavoured to bring both 
 parties to a reconciliation. 
 An Italian, named Giori, who was a spy of the opposing faction, 
 told off to watch the Cardinal, got into his confidence and calumniated 
 him in his letters ; then pushing perfidy to the uttermost, he asked him 
 for a gift of one thousand crowns. The Cardinal gave him the money, 
 and never saw him more. 
 
 The letters of this wretch ruined Cardinal de Bouillon. The King 
 overwhelmed him with reproaches as though he had betrayed the State. 
 Nevertheless, it appears from all his despatches that he had conducted 
 himself with equal wisdom and dignity. 
 
 ABBE THEODORE, OP TOUR D'AUVERGNE, DUC D'ALBRET. 
 
 (Cardinal Bouillon in bis yonth, after the portrait 
 from life by Nanteuil.) 
 
CARDINAL DE BOUILLON 
 
 443 
 
 He obeyed the King's command by demanding the condemnation of 
 some piously absurd maxims of the mystics, who are the alchemists of 
 religion, but he was faithful to friendship by warding off the blows that 
 were aimed at Fenelon in person. The King, however, wanted to have 
 Fenelon condemned ; whether from spite against him, which seems beneath 
 a great King, or from sub- 
 jection to the opposite party, 
 
 which would still less become ^ ? ,^ 
 the dignity of the throne. On Jt-f** eeti^dm^ W3<*W^W 
 
 the 16th of March, 1699, he {^^XZZCl^Z . 
 
 ,Jfa tfu^a^ fro* ado/ft? ^2i^<uflJ*0^y 
 
 1st. 
 
 euea. 
 
 UuLf0»>i*»*~'<p te * *T *T ^ ^ 
 
 wrote a letter of very morti- 
 fying reproach to Cardinal de 
 Bouillon. In that letter he 
 states that he desires the con- 
 demnation of the Archbishop of 
 Cambray ; it is the letter of an 
 aggrieved man. " Telemaque " 
 was making a great stir in 
 Europe just then, and " Les 
 Maximes des Saints," which 
 he had not read, were punished 
 on account of the maxims 
 sown broadcast in " Telemaque," 
 which he had read. 
 
 Cardinal de Bouillon was 
 immediately recalled. He set 
 out on his journey, but having 
 learned, when only a few miles 
 from Eome, that the senior 
 Cardinal {doyen) was dead, he 
 was obliged to return in order to take possession of the decanal dignity. 
 It belonged to him of right, as, although a young man, he was the 
 senior cardinal. It was no offence to the King that he should assume 
 his right, and then set out immediately ; nevertheless, his doing this was 
 regarded as an irretrievable offence. The Cardinal was exiled on his 
 arrival in France, and his banishment lasted ten whole years. At length, 
 weary of his prolonged disfavour, he resolved to leave France for ever, 
 
 fewest %W WW- tat2<4-e0*t&> <%u"fo>- 
 
 FACSIMILE OF THE LETTER OF RESIGNATION OF CARDINAL 
 DE BOUILLON TO THE KING. 
 
 (Ill the Cotte Collection, — Cabinet of Prints.) 
 
 / 
 
444 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 in 1710, when Louis XIV. seemed to be overwhelmed by the allies, and 
 the kingdom was threatened on all sides. 
 
 Prince Eugene and the Prince d'Auvergne, his relatives, received him 
 on the frontier of Flanders, where they were victorious. He returned the 
 Cross of the Order of the Holy Ghost to the King, with his resignation of 
 the office of Grand Almoner of France, and wrote to him in these words : 
 " I resume the liberty which is mine by my birth as a foreign prince, 
 son of a sovereign, independent of all but God, and my dignity of 
 Cardinal of the Holy Eoman Church and dean of the Sacred College. . . I 
 shall endeavour to labour for the rest of my days to serve God, and the 
 Church in the first place after the supreme." 
 
 His claim to be an independent prince was well founded, not only on 
 the axiom of several jurists who maintain that "whoso renounces all is 
 no longer bound to anything," and that every man is free to choose his 
 place of abode, but upon the fact that he was born at Sedan during the 
 time that his father was still sovereign there. He regarded his status 
 as an independent prince as immutable ; and, as regarded the title of 
 cardinal-dean, he was justified by the example of all his predecessors, 
 who have always had precedence of kings at the ceremonies in Rome. 
 
 The Court and the parliament of Paris acted on entirely different 
 rules. D'Aguesseau, the procurator-general, afterwards chancellor, indicted 
 the Cardinal before the assembled Courts. The issuing of a decree for 
 the arrest of his person and the confiscation of all his property was the 
 result. He lived in Rome in poor circumstances, and died there, a victim 
 to Quietism, which he despised, and to friendship, which he had nobly 
 reconciled with his duty. 
 
 It must be mentioned here that, when he left the Low Countries 
 for Rome, the French Court feared he might be elected to the papal 
 throne. I have in my hands the King's letter to La Tremouille, written 
 on the 26th of May, 1710, in which he expresses apprehension on this 
 point. " Everything may be presumed," he says, " of a subject who 
 holds the opinion that he is independent of all but himself. Only let the 
 place which now fills Cardinal de Bouillon with pride appear to him 
 inferior to his birth and his talents, and he will think any means 
 allowable by which he may reach the first place in the Church once he 
 has had a closer view of its splendour." 
 
 The decree against Cardinal de Bouillon, and the order to put him 
 
CARDINAL DE BOUILLON 
 
 445 
 
 into the prison of the Conciergerie if he could be taken, were then the 
 results of fear lest he should ascend a throne which all Catholics regard 
 as the greatest in the world, and that, by joining with the enemies 
 of Louis XIV., he might avenge himself even more thoroughly 
 than Prince Eugene had avenged him. The armed forces of the Church 
 could indeed do nothing of themselves, but they could do much with the 
 aid of those of Austria. 
 
 f 
 
 Voltaire connects the history of the differences of Cardinal de 
 
 CARDINAL DE BOUILLON BETWEEN CHARITY AND TRUTH. 
 (Composition by Vemansal, engraved by Tuoniassin.) 
 
 Bouillon with Louis XIV. with the quarrel concerning Quietism. It is 
 certain that the Cardinal- Ambassador of France to the Court of Rome 
 had not obeyed the King, or striven hard to secure the condemnation 
 of Fenelon enough to please him : this was an act of insubordination 
 added to several others which had already incurred the anger of 
 Louis XIV. The Cardinal was, so to speak, an improvised priest ; he was 
 one of the " grand seigneurs " of the Fronde who mistook their epoch, 
 and availed themselves of the end of the reign to renew the discord 
 and disobedience of its beginning. His exile was rather a political penalty 
 than a religious condemnation. 
 
446 
 
 THE CENTURY OF LOUIS XIV 
 
 It may indeed be said, in conclusion, that the severity with which 
 Louis XIV. treated his subjects in matters of conscience was frequently 
 due to political motives. His desire — nay, his firm resolution — never to 
 permit the repetition of the troubles of the Fronde, and the idea of his 
 ministers that the internal unity of his kingdom could be secured by 
 unity of faith, partly explain, although they cannot justify, the persecution 
 to which the Protestants and the Jansenists alike were subjected. Lex una 
 sub una was the motto of the reign and the formula of the century. 
 
 " LEX UNA SUB UNO. 
 (Desigu by Leclerc.) 
 
FRAGMENT OF A PIER-GLASS IN THE KING'S CHAMBER. 
 (Chateau ile Foutaineblean.) 
 
 Alphabetical List 
 
 AND 
 
 Index 
 
Alphabetical 
 
 List 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PRINCIPAL PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, ENGRAVERS, ARCHITECTS, 
 MEDAL ENGRAVERS, DRAUGHTSMEN, AND CARVERS 
 OF OBJECTS OF ART 
 
 WHOSE WORKS ARE REPRODUCED IN THIS VOLUME. 
 
 PAINTERS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Allegrain (Etienne), 1645-1736, born 
 at Paris, Member of the Academy. 
 View of Saint-Cloud (Versailles) 
 (engraving on copper) facing page 248 
 
 Allou (G.), 1670-1751, Member of 
 the Academy, 1711. 
 
 Antoine Coysevox . . .329 
 
 Bourdon (Seb.), 1616-1671, born at 
 Montpellier. 
 
 Portrait of Fouquet (Versailles) . 32 
 Portrait of Descartes (Louvre) . 284 
 
 Bria (Paul). 
 
 Portrait of Godet of Marais . 435 
 
 Champagne (Ph. de), 1602-1674, born 
 at Brussels. 
 
 Portrait of Anne of Austria . 9 
 The Aldermen of Paris (Louvre). 325 
 Portrait of Saint-Cyran (Versailles) 405 
 
 Christophe (Joseph), 1664-1748, born 
 at Verdun, Member of the Academy, 
 1702. 
 
 Baptism of the Dauphin (Ver- 
 sailles) . . . . .85 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Corneille (Michel), called the Elder, 
 1663-1708, Member of the Academy, 
 1708. 
 
 Philippe, Due d'Orleans, the Re- 
 gent (Versailles) (engraving on 
 copper) . . . facing page 422 
 
 Coypel (Noel), 1628-1707, born at 
 Paris, painter and engraver. 
 
 Voisin between Death and the 
 
 Devil .... Bfi|§ 
 
 Dahl (Michel), 1656-1743, born at 
 Stockholm. 
 
 Portrait of Addison . . . 339 
 
 Delamonce (Ferdinand), 1640-1690, 
 born at Paris. 
 
 The Court in the Arc de Triomphe 
 Grove, Park of Versailles. . 55 
 
 Delutel. 
 
 The Grand Dauphin and his 
 family . . . . .155 
 
 Dieu (Antoine), 1662-1727, Member 
 of the Academy, 1722. 
 
 Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Due 
 du Maine 116 
 
 3 M 
 
450 
 
 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PRINCIPAL PAINTERS 
 
 Ferdinand (Louis), 1648-1717, born 
 at Paris, Member of the Academy, 
 1681. 
 
 Madame de Maintenon and her 
 niece, Mademoiselle d'Aubigne . 153 
 
 Halle (Noel), 1711-1781. 
 
 Gold perfume-burner, after the 
 picture " La Reception du Doge 
 de Genes" . . . .75 
 
 Heilmann, 1718-1760, born at Mul- 
 house. 
 
 Cardinal de Tencin . . .427 
 
 Have (de la). 
 
 Louis XIV. in armour, holding 
 the Sceptre (engraving on cop- 
 per) . . . facing page 24 
 
 Hire (Laurens de la), 1606-1656, 
 born at Paris, Member of the 
 Academy. 
 
 Louis XIV. giving Letters Patent 
 to the Benedictines, 1653 . 12 
 
 Hcese (M. de), lived in Flanders in 
 1690. 
 
 Portrait of Philip Sydenham . 344 
 
 Jouvenet (Jean), 1644-1717, born at 
 Rouen. 
 
 Portrait of Bourdaloue . . 297 
 
 Kneller (Godfrey), 1646-1723, born 
 at Liibeck. 
 
 Portrait of Dryden . . . 338 
 Halley . . .341 
 ,, Locke (Jean) . . 343 
 ,, James II., King of 
 England (engraving on copper) 
 
 facing page 356 
 
 Lerrun (Charles), 1619-1690, born at 
 Paris, Director and Chancellor of the 
 Academy. 
 
 Decoration executed for the Am- 
 bassadors' Staircase (Versailles). 1 
 Composition in honour of Louis 
 
 XIV. as conqueror (Versailles) 67 
 Silver portable stand (Versailles) 69 
 
 Lebrun (Charles) — continued. 
 
 Silver orange-tree tub, with gold 
 and precious stones (Versailles) 72 
 
 The King's footmen carrying the 
 collation on a portable stand 
 (Series of "The Seasons") . 73 
 
 Golden vase (Series of " The 
 Seasons," Versailles) . . 87 
 
 A gold ewer (Series of " The 
 Seasons," Versailles) . . 92 
 
 The Vicomte de Turenne (Ver- 
 sailles) . . . . .122 
 
 Louis XIV. on horseback (Ver- 
 sailles) 223 
 
 Pierre Corneille . . . 301 
 
 The Rape of Proserpine (Versailles) 321 
 
 True religion triumphant under 
 Louis XIV 401 
 
 Lefebvre (CI.), 1633-1675, born at 
 Fontainebleau. 
 
 Portrait of Louvois . . .64 
 Portrait of Jean Baptiste de Col- 
 bert, Marquis de Seignelay (Ver- 
 sailles) . . . . . *137 
 Portrait of Jean Baptiste de Col- 
 bert, with his arms — the Snake. 255 
 Portrait of Conrart . . . 293 
 Portrait of Jean Varin . . 333 
 
 Lely, Sir Peter van der Faes, 1618- 
 1680, born in Westphalia. 
 
 Philippe, "Fils de France," brother 
 
 of the King . . . .24 
 Sir William Temple . . .342 
 
 The Lely School. 
 
 A concert by children (Versailles) 321 
 
 Lenain (the brothers Louis and An- 
 toine) died in 1648; Members of the 
 Academy, 1648. 
 
 Peasants at table (Louvre) . . 259 
 Field work (Louvre) . . .280 
 Church procession in the seven- 
 teenth century (Louvre) . . 353 
 
 Markham. 
 
 Jonathan Swift 
 
 . 340 
 
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PRINCIPAL PAINTERS 
 
 451 
 
 PAGIi 
 
 Mignard (Pierre), 1610-1695, born at 
 Troyes, Director of the Academy, 
 1690. 
 
 Louis XIV. at the period of his 
 
 marriage . . . . xii 
 The Grand Dauphin and his family 155 
 Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie (en- 
 graving on copper) . facing page 206 
 
 Moliere 302 
 
 Madame de Maintenon as Saint 
 
 Prances of Rome . . .421 
 Madame Scarron (1659) . .459 
 
 Mouzyn (Michel), Holland, about 1660. 
 
 Portrait of Admiral de Ruyter . 227 
 
 Netschbr (Gaspard), 1639-1684, born 
 at Heidelberg. 
 
 Madame de Montespan . .105 
 
 Nocret (Jean), 1617-1672, born at 
 Nancy, Member of the Academy. 
 
 Mademoiselle de la Valliere . .102 
 
 Poussin (Nicolas), 1594-1665, born at 
 Villiers. 
 
 Time shelters Truth from the 
 attacks of Envy and Discord 
 (Louvre) .... xvi 
 
 Rigaud (Hyacinthe), 1659-1743, born 
 at Perpignan, Member of the 
 Academy, 1700. 
 
 The Princess Palatine, Duchesse 
 
 d'Orleans (Versailles) . . 75 
 Philippe de Courcillon, Marquis de 
 Dangeau (engraving on copper) 
 
 facing page 82 
 Francois Henri de Montmorency, 
 Due et Marechal de Luxem- 
 bourg (engraving on copper) 
 
 facing page 128 
 Louis XV. as a child (Versailles) 169 
 Philip V., King of Spain (Ver- 
 sailles), (engraving on copper) 
 
 facing page 1 80 
 Bossuet ..... 296 
 La Fontaine (engraving on copper) 
 
 facing page 304 
 Boileau Despreaux (Versailles) . 305 
 Pierre Mignard (engraving on 
 copper) . . . facing page 324 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Rigaud (Hyacinthe) — continued. 
 
 Jean Racine (engraving on copper) 
 
 facing page 400 
 Cardinal Dubois . . .425 
 
 Rigaud School. 
 
 Louis XIV. in armour (Versailles) 181 
 
 Romain (Jules). 
 
 Gobelins Tapestry (Fontainebleau) 203 
 
 Seve (Pierre de), 1623-1695, born at 
 Moulins, Member of the Academy, 
 1663. 
 
 Duchesse de Montpensier (engrav- 
 ing on copper) . facing page 104 
 
 Silver portable stand (from ' ' Louis 
 XIV. aux Gobelins ") . . 69 
 
 Silvestre (Louis de), 1675-1760, born 
 at Paris. 
 
 Louis XIV. receiving the Electoral 
 Prince of Saxony (Versailles) . 93 
 
 Tourniere (Robert de), 1668-1752, 
 born at Caen, Member of the 
 Academy, 1702. 
 
 Louis Phelipeaux de Pontchartrain, 
 Chancellor of France (engraving 
 on copper) . . facing page 272 
 
 Van der Meulen (Antoine Francois), 
 1634-1690, born at Brussels. 
 
 Studies of Horsemen (preserved at 
 
 the Gobelins). . . 216, 220 
 Procession of Louis XIV. on the 
 Pont Neuf, 1670 . . . 229 
 
 Velasquez (Diego), Spanish painter. 
 
 Pope Innocent X. 403 
 
 Vernansal (Guy Louis), born at Fon- 
 tainebleau, 1649-1729, Member of 
 the Academy, 1687. 
 
 Cardinal de Bouillon . . .445 
 
 Vivien (Joseph), 1657-1745, born at 
 Lyons, Member of the Academy, 1701 . 
 Francois de Salignac de la Mothe- 
 
 Fenelon . . . -433 
 Francois de Salignac de la Mothe- 
 Fenelon (engraving on copper), 
 
 facing p'jgc 436 
 
452 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PRINCIPAL SCULPTORS 
 
 SCULPTORS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Benoist (Antoine), 1631-1717, Member 
 of the Academy, 1681. 
 
 Louis XIV. in old age (medallion 
 at Versailles) . . .167 
 
 Coustou (Nicolas), 1658-1733, born at 
 Lyons, Member of the Academy, 1693. 
 Apollo presenting the image of 
 
 Louis XIV. to France (Louvre) 40 
 Statue of Louis XIV. at Lyons 
 
 238, 326, 327 
 Pediment of the new custom-house 
 
 at Rouen .... 253 
 The bedchamber of Louis XIV. 
 (Versailles) . . . .315 
 
 Coysevox (Antoine), 1640-1720, born 
 at Lyons, Director of the Academy, 
 1676. 
 
 Marble bust of Louis XIV. 
 
 Frontispiece 
 Marble bust of Louis XIV. 
 
 (Versailles) . . . .63 
 France triumphant (bronze group, 
 
 Versailles) . . . xv 
 Marble vase, " The pre-eminence of 
 
 France acknowledged by Spain " 
 
 (terrace, Versailles) . . 66 
 Bas-relief in honour of Louis XIV. 
 
 as conqueror (Versailles) . . 67 
 The Duchesse de Bourgogne (marble 
 
 bust, Versailles) . . .159 
 The Duchesse de Bourgogne as a 
 
 huntress (marble statue, Louvre) 159 
 The great Conde (Louvre) . . 303 
 Nymph with a shell (Louvre) . 326 
 Antoine Coysevox (from a portrait 
 
 by G. Allou) . . . .329 
 
 Desjardins (Martin van der Bogaerts), 
 1640-1694, born at Breda, Member 
 of the Academy, 1671. 
 
 Duels abolished (medallion, Louvre) 214 
 Statue of Louis XIV. at Lyons . 238 
 Edouard de Colbert, Marquis de 
 
 Villacerf (Louvre) . . .254 
 Heresy destroyed (medallion, 
 
 Louvre) .... 364 
 
 Drouilly, born at Vernon, died in 1698. 
 Large vase on the terrace at Ver- 
 sailles, with the arms of the Sun- 
 King 51 
 
 Dugoulon, born at Paris. 
 
 Large vase on the terrace at Ver- 
 sailles, with the arms of the Sun- 
 King . . . .51 
 
 Girardon (Francois), 1628-1715, born 
 at Troyes, Member of the Academy, 
 1657. 
 
 Equestrian statue of Louis XIV. 
 
 for the Place Vendome (Louvre) 53 
 The cascade of the Baths of Diana 
 
 (Versailles) . . . .311 
 The Rape of Proserpine (Versailles) 321 
 
 Guidi (Domenico), born at Urbino, 
 Member of the Academy, 1676. 
 
 Fame entrusts to Time the image 
 of Louis XIV. (gardens of 
 Versailles) .... 3 
 
 Legros (Pierre), the younger, 1666- 
 1719, born at Paris. 
 
 Geometry (marble bust, Louvre) . 343 
 Charity (marble bust, Louvre) . 354 
 
 Lehongre (Etienne), 1628-1690, born 
 at Paris, Member of the Academy, 
 1669. 
 
 Cresset in bronze, in the " Bosquet " 
 (gardens of Versailles) . .92 
 
 Lespingola (Francois), born at Join- 
 ville, died in 1765, Member of the 
 Academy, 1676. 
 
 The bedchamber of Louis XIV. 
 (Versailles) . . . .315 
 
 Massou (Benoit), 1633-1684, born at 
 Richelieu. 
 
 Group in gilt metal, Loves bearing 
 quivers and supporting an escut- 
 cheon with the King's monogram 460 
 
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PRINCIPAL ENGRAVERS 453 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Puget (Pierre), 1622-1694, born at 
 Marseilles 
 
 Louis XIV., medallion (Versailles) 39 
 Pierre Puget, by himself (Aix) . 330 
 Doorway of the Hotel de Ville 
 
 (Toulon) . . . .332 
 Christ (bust, Marseilles) . .361 
 
 Rousselet (Jean), 1656-1693, Member 
 of the Academy, 1686. 
 
 The Muse of History writing the 
 life of Louis XIV. (Louvre) . 306 
 
 Sarrasin (Jacques), 1588-1660, born 
 at Noyon, first Director of the 
 Academy. 
 
 A female faun (marble bust) . 328 
 Bust of the Virgin . . . 355 
 The Flight into Egypt (Versailles) . 365 
 
 Tuby (Jean Baptiste), 1635-1700, born 
 at Rome, Member of the Academy, 
 1676. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Tuby (Jean Baptiste) — continued. 
 
 France triumphant (bronze group, 
 
 gardens of Versailles) . . xv 
 Louis XIV. victor in the war with 
 Holland (marble vase, Versailles) 318 
 
 Van Cleve (Corneille), 1645-1732, born 
 at Paris, Member of the Academy, 
 1681. 
 
 Frieze of the Salon de l'CEil de 
 Boeuf (Versailles) . . 37, 283 
 
 A lion striking down a wolf (bronze 
 group, Versailles) . . . 327 
 
 Warin (Jean), 1604-1672, born at 
 Liege, Member of the Academy, 1665. 
 Bust of Louis XIV. (Versailles) . 43 
 Marble statue of Louis XIV. 
 
 (Versailles) . . . .59 
 Pierre Gassendi (medallion) . . 289 
 Portrait of himself, by CI. Lefebvre 
 (Versailles) . . . .333 
 
 ENGRAVERS 
 
 Arnoult (Nicolas). 
 
 The Due de Bourgogne visiting the 
 Princess of Savoy at her toilet 
 (engraving on copper) facing page 1 56 
 
 Audran (Gerard and Benoit), 1640- 
 1703, 1661-1721, Members of the 
 Academy. 
 
 Statue of Louis XIV. at Lyons . 238 
 Portrait of Jean Baptist Colbert 
 (after Lefebvre) . . . 255 
 
 Baillieul. 
 
 Bird's-eye view of Marly . .237 
 Frontispiece of the first edition of 
 "Telemaque" (1717) . . 299 
 
 Bonnart (Robert Francois), born about 
 1649 at Paris. 
 
 Lulli and his orchestra . . vi 
 Mary Ann Stuart, Queen of Eng- 
 land 90 
 
 " Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr," in 
 
 1686 . . . .150 
 " Dame Religieuse " of Saint-Cyr . 151 
 
 Bonnart (Robert Francois) — continued. 
 Sister of charity carrying succour 
 
 to the wounded . . .199 
 The clock-maker . . . 206 
 The mirror-maker . . .207 
 
 I A lady in summer 
 dress . .273 
 A man in winter 
 costume. . 274 
 A harpsichord of the seventeenth 
 
 century .... 312 
 Damon and Urania . . 322, 323 
 The dancing master . . . 324 
 An abbe wearing a cassock . .351 
 
 Burford (Thomas), English engraver, 
 1710-1770. 
 
 Jonathan Swift (after Markham) . 340 
 
 Chauveau (Francois), 1613-1676, born 
 at Paris, Member of the Academy, 
 1663. 
 
 Fouquet protecting the arts and 
 sciences, and rendering justice . 27 
 
454 
 
 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PRINCIPAL ENGRAVERS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chauveau (Francois) — continued. 
 
 The Royal Tournament in the 
 Courtyard of the Tuileries, 1662 
 
 47-49 
 
 Ornamental letters 99, 253, 283, 291, 
 
 311, 335 
 
 Chevardi. 
 
 Louis XIV. all-powerful on land 
 and sea .... 156 
 
 Cossin the Elder (called Coquin Louis), 
 1623-1687, born at Troyes 
 
 Giovanni Domenico Cassini. . 286 
 Portrait of Conrart (after Lefeb- 
 vre) 293 
 
 Crespy (Jean), born in 1650 at Paris. 
 
 Godet des Marais (after Bria) . 435 
 
 Desmaretz. 
 
 An entertainment in Paris in the 
 seventeenth century . .187 
 
 Desrochers (Etienne Johandier), 
 1661-1741, born at Lyons. 
 
 Georges de Scudery . . . 300 
 Pere Michel le Tellier . . 420 
 
 Duflos (Claude), 1662-1727, born at 
 Paris. 
 
 Fenelon 299 
 
 Drevet (Pierre), 1664-1738, born at 
 Saint-Colombe (Dauphine). 
 
 Philippe de Courcillon, Marquis de 
 Dangeau (after H. Rigaud) (en- 
 graving on copper) facing page 82 
 Fenelon (after Vivien) (engraving 
 on copper) . facing page 436 
 
 Edelinck (Gerard), 1640-1707, born at 
 Anvers. 
 
 Francois Henri de Montmorency, 
 Due de Luxembourg (after H. 
 Rigaud) (engraving on cojjper) 
 
 facing page 128 
 La Fontaine (engraving on copper) 
 
 facing page 304 
 Louis XIV. patronises art and 
 
 science ..... 308 
 John Dryden .... 338 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Edelinck (Gerard) — continued. 
 
 Jean Racine (engraving on copper) 
 
 facing page 400 
 True religion triumphant under 
 
 Louis XIV 401 
 
 Portrait of Pascal . . .409 
 
 Frosne (Jean), 1623-1676. 
 
 The Hotel de Ville, Paris, in 1687 235 
 
 Gole (Jean), born at Amsterdam. 
 
 Pierre Jurieu .... 383 
 
 Green (Valentin), 1707-1800, born in 
 London. 
 
 Pope Innocent X. (after Velasquez) 403 
 
 Guerard. 
 
 The Villager or Peasant who is 
 born to labour . . . 275 
 
 Houbroken (Jacques), 1698-1780, born 
 at Dordrecht. 
 
 Sir William Temple (after Lely) . 342 
 
 Houchlenburgh (J. Van). 
 
 The King's Procession on the Pont 
 Neuf (from Van der Moulen) . 229 
 
 Huret (Gregoire), 1610-1670, born at 
 Lyons, Member of the Academy, 
 1663. 
 
 Madame de Longueville urging 
 her brothers to cultivate litera- 
 ture and eloquence . . .411 
 
 Jollain. 
 
 The glory of Paris and the splen- 
 dour of its Bourgeois in 
 Louis XIV.'s reign . . 244 
 
 Lagniet (Jacques). 
 
 A Noble and his wife . . 5 
 
 An alchemist's laboratory in the 
 
 seventeenth century. . .162 
 
 The Spider and the Fly . . 200 
 
 Landry (Pierre), born about 1630 at 
 Paris. 
 
 The revenue-farmer or the miser . 34 
 
 Larmessin (Nicolas de), 1640-1694, 
 born at Paris. 
 
 The baptism of the Due de Bour- 
 gogne ..... 146 
 
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PRINCIPAL ENGRAVERS 455 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Leclerc (Sebastien), 1637-1714, born 
 at Metz, Member of the Academy, 
 1672. 
 
 Fame proclaiming the glories of 
 Louis XIV. (1674) ... 4 
 
 Councillor to the parliament . 26 
 
 A chief justice . . . .28 
 
 Louis XIV. converses with the 
 Muses ."'._> . . .94 
 
 A gipsy telling his fortune to a 
 soldier . . . . .130 
 
 Love at the Chateau . . .135 
 
 The " Galerie des Glaces " at 
 Versailles . . . .174 
 
 Enigmatic print to the praise of 
 Louis XIV. . ' . . .175 
 
 The colonnade of the Louvre 
 during its construction . .194 
 
 " Fide et obsequio : " Louis XIV. 
 giving orders to his Ministers . 197 
 
 The French trader . . .201 
 
 A fete at the Gobelins in honour 
 of Lebrun . . . .202 
 
 Pikeman at drill . . .217 
 
 French artillery in action, Feb- 
 ruary 28th, 1674 . . .219 
 
 A picture of military life, 1672 . 222 
 
 French pikemen attacking a for- 
 tress : Siege of Tournay . . 225 
 
 French fleet in battle array : Battle 
 of Agouste, 1676 . . .226 
 
 Composition in honour of Louis 
 XIV 281 
 
 Louis XIV. visiting the Academy 
 of Sciences .... 285 
 
 Chemistry at the Academy of 
 Sciences in the seventeenth 
 century . . . .287 
 
 Composition by, in the series called 
 " The Lorraine" . . .291 
 
 Chancellor Seguier . . . 307 
 
 Composition by, in honour of the 
 foundation of the Academies by 
 Louis XIV. . . . 313 
 
 Louis XIV. visiting an exhibition 
 of painting at the Gobelins, 1699 314 
 
 Composition in honour of Louis 
 XIV. (after Lebrun) . . 397 
 
 Fame glorifying Louis XIV. . 430 
 
 The glorious arms of Louis XIV. 431 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Leclerc (Sebastien) — continued. 
 
 Madame Guyon with the features 
 of the Virgin, "to whom God 
 Himself is subject " . . 438 
 
 The Golden Age come back to 
 earth 439 
 
 "Lex una sub uno" . . . 446 
 
 Ornamented Letter . . xxvii 
 
 Lenfant (Jean), born at Paris, died 
 about 1674. 
 
 Harlay de Chanvallon . .436 
 
 Lepautre (Jean), 1617-1682, born at 
 Paris, Member of the Academy, 1677. 
 
 The Court at Fontainebleau in 1662 25 
 
 " Alceste " by Moliere, acted before 
 the King at Versailles, 1674 . 106 
 
 Lonis-Auguste de Bourbon, Due 
 de Maine (after Dieu) . .116 
 
 The Requiem Mass for Madame . 123 
 
 The Loves weeping around the 
 coffin of Henrietta of England . 125 
 
 An old street in Paris : La Rue 
 aux Ours in the seventeenth 
 century .... 208 
 
 A duel in the seventeenth century 214 
 
 "My master sees everything" (De 
 Lionne) . . . .232 
 
 A sermon in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury : the Capuchin . . 295 
 
 Mass in a Church of the seven- 
 teenth century . . 349, 350 
 
 Rights of the " Regale" . . 360 
 
 House of the Jesuit Professors at 
 St. Germain des Pres . . 399 
 
 The Jesuits . . . .429 
 
 Lubin (Jacques), 1637-1695, born at 
 Paris. 
 
 Antoine le Maitre (1608-1658) . 413 
 
 Mariette (Jean), 1660-1742, born at 
 Paris. 
 
 Louis XIV. in 1698, surrounded by 
 
 his family (almanac print) . 158 
 Fountains in Paris . . .242 
 The Seine, Notre Dame, and the 
 gardens of lTle du Palais . .250 
 
 Marot (Daniel), born at Paris about 
 1661, died in Holland. 
 
 Pierre Jurieu (after Gole) . . 383 
 
45G 
 
 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF 
 
 PRINCIPAL ENGRAVERS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Marot (Jean), 1619-1679, born at 
 Paris. 
 
 The Hotel of Madame de Beauvais, 
 
 Paris 241 
 
 Port-Royal of Paris . . .407 
 
 Masson (Antoine), 1636-1702, born at 
 Loury (Loiret), Member of the 
 Academy, 1679. 
 
 Guy Patin (a type of the Paris 
 doctor) 162 
 
 Mellan (Claude), 1598-1688, born at 
 Abbeville. 
 
 Allegorical print in honour of 
 the publication of the Code of 
 
 Louis XIV 211 
 
 Principal points of the Catholic 
 Faith 369 
 
 Moncornet (Balthasar), 1615- 1668, 
 born at Rouen. 
 
 The royal hunt at Vincennes . 6 
 
 Morin (Jean), 1609-1650, born at Paris. 
 Anne of Austria (engraving on 
 
 copper) . . . facing page 4 
 Corneille Jansen . . . 400 
 
 Nanteuil (Robert), 1625-1678, born 
 at Rheims. 
 
 Marie Therese .... xiii 
 The Marquise de Sevigne (engraving 
 
 on copper) . . facing page 42 
 S. Arnauld de Pomponne (engrav- 
 ing on copper) . facing page 62 
 The Civil Lieutenant d'Aubray . 126 
 Denis Talon, Lord Chief J ustice 
 
 (engraving on copper) facing page 240 
 Abbe Theodore, of Tour d Auvergne, 
 Due dAlbret . . . .442 
 
 Perelle (Adam), 1638-1695, born at 
 Paris. 
 
 The Porte Saint-Bernard . . 246 
 The Seine, Notre Dame, and the 
 
 gardens of 1'IIe du Palais . 250 
 
 The amphitheatre of Saint-Coure . 319 
 
 Pitau (Nicolas), 1670-1724, born at 
 Paris. 
 
 Pere Quesnel . . . .415 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pitteri (Marcus), 1703-1767, born at 
 Venice. 
 
 Scipio Maffei . . . .346 
 
 Poilly (Francois de), 1622-1723, born 
 at Abbeville. 
 
 Tail-piece ..... viii 
 Louis XIV. as conqueror : a tribute 
 
 to the memory of Mazarin . 3 
 Mademoiselle de Montpensier as 
 
 Minerva . . . .109 
 Medallion in honour of Louis XIV. 251 
 
 Regnesson, 1630-1670, born at Rheims. 
 
 Wisdom triumphs over Destiny . 165 
 
 ROCIIEFORT. 
 
 Le Marechal de Villars . .390 
 
 ROSSLER. 
 
 Bourdaloue at prayer (from 
 Jouvenet) . . . .297 
 
 Rottiers or Roettiers (Joseph), 1692— 
 1779, born at Paris, Engraver to the 
 King's Mint. 
 
 God confounds the designs of the 
 proud . . . . .418 
 
 Roy, C. 
 
 Cardinal Dubois . . . 425 
 
 Saint-Jean. 
 
 The toilet of a lady of quality . 89 
 Portrait of a young lady by Rethel 240 
 A lady reclining on a tent-bedstead 245 
 A lady of quality in deshabille . 248 
 The bathroom of a lady of quality. 265 
 
 Sarrabat (Isaac), born at Paris, 1667. 
 J. B. Bossuet at the age of seventy- 
 two 296 
 
 Scotin (the elder) (Girard), 1643-1715, 
 born at Anvers, died in Paris. 
 
 An entertainment in Paris in the 
 seventeenth century . .187 
 
 Sevin (Paul), 1650, born at Tournon. 
 
 A sitting of the Academie Francaise 292 
 Ornamental letter in honour of 
 Louis XIV. . . . .335 
 
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PRINCIPAL ENGRAVERS 
 
 457 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Silvestre (Francois), 1667-1738, born 
 at Paris, Member of the Academy, 
 1737. 
 
 The golden age come back to earth 439 
 
 Silvestre (Israel), 1621-1691, born at 
 Nancy, Member of the Academy, 
 1670. 
 
 "Les Noces de Thetis," the first 
 
 opera played in Paris, 1654 . 15 
 A nocturnal fete on the Grand 
 
 Canal at Versailles in 1674 . 101 
 Versailles : principal front looking 
 
 on the gardens . . . xiv 
 The Royal Palace of Versailles in 
 
 1674 : principal front . .134 
 The Chateau de Versailles in 1674 : 
 
 south front . . . .138 
 Paris in the seventeenth century : 
 
 view of the Pont Neuf . .212 
 
 Simon. 
 
 Addison (after Dahl) . . . 339 
 
 Simonneau (Charles), 1656-1728, born 
 at Orleans, Member of the Academy, 
 1710. 
 
 The amphitheatre of Saint-Coure . 319 
 
 Simpol (Claude), born at Clamecy, died 
 1709. 
 
 A duel in the seventeenth century 214 
 
 Smith (J ohn Raphael), English engraver 
 of the eighteenth century 
 
 Philip Sydenham (after Hcese) . 344 
 Louis XIV. favours Catholicism 
 by receiving King James at 
 Versailles .... 359 
 
 Tardieu (Nicolas Henri), 1674-1749, 
 Member of the Academy, 1720. 
 
 God confounds the design of the 
 proud 418 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Thomassin (Simon), 1652-1732, born 
 at Troyes. 
 
 Cardinal de Bouillon. . . 445 
 
 Trouvain, 1656-1708, born at Mont- 
 didier, Member of the Academy, 
 1707. 
 
 Life at the Court : (a) The Royal 
 Family at a concert ; (6) the 
 game of " Trou-Madame " . 145 
 
 Life at the Court : the King's 
 children at collation . .149 
 
 Pere La Chaise. . . . 417 
 
 Van Broen. 
 
 Madame Guyon at the age of 
 forty-four .... 432 
 
 Van Meurs. 
 
 Madame de Montespan (after 
 Netscher) . . . .105 
 
 Van Schuppen (Pierre), 1627-1702, 
 born at Anvers, Member of the 
 Academy, 1663. 
 
 Composition in the form of a 
 medal in honour of Chancellor 
 Le Tellier . . . .33 
 Louvois (after A. Lefebvre) . 64 
 Duchesse de Montpensier (after 
 De Seve) (engraving on cop- 
 per) . . facing page 1 04 
 Isaac Louis de Sacy . . .410 
 
 Vertue (George), 1684-1752, born in 
 London. 
 
 John Locke (after Kneller) . 343 
 
 White (Robert), English engraver of 
 the seventeenth century. 
 
 Portrait of Halley (after Kneller) 341 
 
 Wille (Jean), 1715-1808, born at 
 Giessen, Member of the Academy, 
 1761. 
 
 Cardinal de Tencin (after Heil- 
 mann) ..... 427 
 
 3 N 
 
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ART CHASERS, Etc. 
 
 ARCHITECTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Cotte (Robert), 1657-1735, born at 
 Paris. 
 
 The " Cadenas," or table dressing- 
 case of Louis XIV. (Cotte col- 
 lection) . . . .58 
 
 Knife, spoon, and fork used by 
 Louis XIV. (Cotte collection). 60 
 
 Mansart (Jules Hardouin), 1648- 
 1708, bom at Paris, Superintendent 
 of the King's Buildings. 
 
 I'AGK 
 
 Mansart (Jules Hardouin) — continued. 
 The Royal Palace of Versailles 
 
 in 1674 : principal front . 134 
 The Royal Palace of Versailles 
 
 in 1674 : south front . .128 
 The Hotel des Invalides . .218 
 
 Perrault (Claude), 1613-1688, born 
 at Paris. 
 
 The Colonnade of the Louvre : 
 elevation of the principal front 
 
 100, 194 
 
 MEDAL ENGRAVE US 
 
 Bertinetti, or Berthiner. 
 
 Medallion of Louis XIV., 1671. 38 
 Another medallion of Louis XIV. 364 
 
 Cheron (Charles Francois), 1635- 
 1698, born at Nancy, Member of 
 the Academy. 
 
 The Great Conde . . . 303 
 The Triumphs of the Great Conde 303 
 
 Faltz. 
 
 Medal in honour of the King's 
 Councils . . . .65 
 
 Loir (Louis), 1638-1719, born at 
 Clermont, in Beavaisis. 
 
 The King, a beneficent sun . v 
 Louis XIV. in 1660. . . 23 
 
 Mauger (Jean), 1648-1722, born at 
 Dieppe, died in Paris. 
 
 Mauger (Jean) — continued. 
 
 Louis XIV. when five years old 
 
 (medal, May, 1643) . .13 
 Louis XIV. when thirteen years 
 
 old (medal, September, 1650) . 13 
 The King's charity (medal, 1662) . 57 
 Societe des Marchands (medal, 
 
 1664) 199 
 
 Molart (Michel Mollard), born at 
 Dieppe. 
 
 The King assuming the govern- 
 ment of the State, 1661 (front 
 and reverse) . . . .23 
 
 The Queen's entry into Paris, 1660 23 
 
 Reverse of a medal of 1680 (for 
 "La Levee des Matelots ") . 197 
 
 Coin in honour of the aggrandise- 
 ment of Paris, 1670 . .206 
 
 War in (Jean), see Sculptors. 
 
 ART CHASERS, DRAUGHTSMEN, AND MOSAIC ARTISTS 
 
 Ballin (Claude), 1614 or 1615-1678, 
 born in Paris, Director of the Mint. 
 A children's bacchanalia, bronze 
 vase on the terrace of the Chateau 
 de Versailles . . .314 
 
 Berain (Jean), born in 1638, at Saint 
 Mihiel(?), died at Paris in 1711, 
 Draughtsman to the King. 
 
 Berain (Jean) — continued. 
 
 Opera and ballet costumes, masks, 
 grotesque faces and dancers, 
 after a manuscript in the Ver- 
 sailles Library 19, 20, 21, 22, 76, 77, 81 
 
 Composition for a funeral cere- 
 mony . . . . .133 
 
 Medallion: Establishment of Cadet 
 Companies . . . .219 
 
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ART CHASERS, Etc. 
 
 459 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Boulle (Andre Charles), 1642-1732, 
 born at Paris. 
 
 Cabinet with a medallion of the 
 King in the centre (the King's 
 Chamber, Versailles) . .41 
 
 Top of a chest of drawers (Fon- 
 tainebleau) . . . .62 
 
 Cabinet at Fontainebleau . ,185 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Boulle (Andre Charles) — continued 
 
 Cabinet in the Louvre, by. . 331 
 
 Gilles l'Egare. 
 
 Jewels of the seventeenth century 36 
 
 MORANT DE PONDEVAUX. 
 
 Fragment of the clock in the 
 King's Cabinet at the Chateau 
 de Versailles . . , ,58 
 
 MADAME SCAliRON, BY MIGNARD, 1659. 
 (After a portrait by M. Peujou.) 
 
GROUP IN GILT MKT&L, BY MASSOU. 
 
 I,nves bearing quivers and supporting an escutcheon 
 with the King's monogram. 
 (Staircase leading to the Queen's apartments, 
 Chateau ile Versailles.) 
 
INDEX 
 
 ABBAYE de Morel, nun in the, supposed to be 
 a daughter of Louis XIV., 194 
 Abbeville, cloths made at, 201 
 Abbey of Port-Royal, Paris, 406, 407, 409 
 Acade'mie des Belles-lettres, founded in 1603, 286 
 Acaddmie Francaise, the, 292 ; Conrart, the founder 
 of, 293 
 
 Academy of Architecture, founded in 1671 by 
 
 Colbert, 312 
 Academy of Painting, founded by Colbert, 313 
 Academy of Sciences, established by Louis XIV., 
 
 208, 285, 286 
 Addison, 337-339 
 
 Agriculture neglected in France, 259, 260 
 Alexander VII., Pope, 362 ; and Louis XIV., 56, 65 ; 
 
 and the Jansenists, 406, 409 
 Aligre, Etienne d', the Chancellor, 356, 357 
 Allacci (librarian of the Vatican), 94 
 Amadeus, Victor (Duke of Savoy), 51 
 Amsterdam, the Calvinists of France invited to, 375 
 Anjou, Due d', 177 
 Annat, Pere, 407 
 
 Anne of Austria, 4, 6, 9, 12, 48, 128; and Louis 
 XIII., 11 ; a son of, supposed to be the Man in 
 the Iron Mask, 22?;. ; retirement of, 44 ; funeral 
 oration by Bourdaloue, 294 
 
 Anndcy, Bishop of, 432 
 
 Antin, Due d', 191, 192 
 
 Architects in France, 328-330 
 
 Architecture, Academy of, founded by Colbert, 312 
 Argenson, M. d' (Lieutenant of Police), 205 
 Arminians, the, quarrel with the Gomarists, 405 
 Army of France, reforms in the, by Louis XIV., 
 213-226 
 
 Arnauld (Bishop of Angers) defends Jansenism, 
 
 401-414 
 Arsenals in France, 227, 228 
 
 Art of the seventeenth century, xiii. ; Louis XIV. 
 
 and, 96, 97, 328-334 
 Artillery in the French army, 215, 219 
 Assembly of the Clergy convoked by Louis XIV., 
 
 358-362 
 
 Astrology at the Court of Louis XIV., 51 
 Athalie, composed by Racine, 150, 151 
 Aubignac, Abbd d', 300 
 Aubusson, carpets made at, 202 
 Audran, G. (engraver), xiv., 329, 334 
 Augsburg alliance, France and the, 263 
 Avaux, Comte d', 418 
 
 BACKGAMMON, Louis XIV. and, 191 
 Bacon, Lord, 340 
 Balin, Claude (goldsmith), 329 
 
 Ballets, in the early years of Louis XIV., 15, 100 ; 
 
 La Nuit, 16, 17 ; La Jeunesse, 139 
 Ballin, carvings by, 264, 334 
 Balls at Versailles, 75, 76 
 Balzac, 293 
 
 Barbesieux, Marquis de, 189 
 Barnevelt, Jan de, of Holland, 405 
 Baron, the famous actor, 151 
 
 Bastille, the Man in the Iron Mask in the, 19 ; 
 Comte de Bussi imprisoned at the, 96, 98 ; the 
 Comte de Lauzun in, 115 ; sorcerers confined in 
 the, 129 
 
 Baville, Intendant, 393, 394 
 
 Bay (or Ba'ius), Michel, a doctor, 398 
 
 Bayle, 288, 289, 309 
 
 Bayonet, the, used in the French army, 214, 215 
 Beaufort, Due de, 227 
 
 Beaumont, Abbe de, the King's preceptor, 4, 5, 7. 16 
 
 Beauvais, Baronne de, 3 
 
 Beauvais, tapestry manufactured at, 201 
 
 Beauvilliers, Duchesse de, 433, 434 
 
 Beauvilliers, Due de, 437 
 
 Bellievre, de, 198 
 
 Belloc, valet de chambrc to Louis XIV., 47 
 
 Benedictines, the, 12 
 
 Benoist, Antoine, wax medallion by, 14 
 
 Benserade, allegories by, 50, 55 ; Louis XIV. and, 96 
 
 Bentivoglio, Cardinal, 370 
 
 Bdrain, M., 76, 81 
 
 Bernini, Cavaliere, 207 
 
 Bernoulli, Jacques, 288 
 
 Berri, Due de, 152 
 
 Berryer, 35 
 
 Bertinetti, models by, 14 
 Berwick, Mardchal de, 392, 393 
 Beze, psalms of, 373 
 Bibliotheque Royale, the, 286 
 Bignon, 211 
 
 Billiards at Versailles, 70 
 
 Bissy, Cardinal de, 423 
 
 Blois, Mademoiselle de, 104 
 
 Boerhave (celebrated Dutch surgeon), 318, 343 
 
 Boileau, 95 ; and the Louvre, 207 
 
 Bois-Guillebert, Lieut. -General, 253 
 
 Bolingbroke, Countess of, 145 
 
 Bonard (sorcerer), 129 
 
462 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Bonnart, 15 
 
 Bossuet (Bishop of Meaux), 293-296 ; and Fenelon, 
 Archbishop of Cambray, 434-440 ; in praise of 
 Louis XIV., 42, 43 
 
 Boucherat, M., 36 
 
 Bouchot, M., of the Bibliotheque Nationale, 16 
 
 Boudin, doctor named, 161, 162 
 
 Bouillon, Cardinal de, 437, 440, 442-445 
 
 Bouillon, Due de, 28, 369, 370 
 
 Bouillon, Duchesse de, 127, 128 
 
 Boulainvillers, Cornte de, 128 
 
 Boulle, furniture by, 334 
 
 Boulogne, Bon (painter), 327 
 
 Boulogne, Louis (painter), 327 
 
 Bourbon, Due de, 161 
 
 Bourdaloue, Pere, 78, 293-297 
 
 Bourdon, S. (painter), xiv., 325 
 
 Bourgogne, Due de, 146, 152, 157, 232, 420, 438 ; 
 
 his death, 161 ; and La Fontaine, 304 
 Bourgogne, Duchesse de, Louis XIV. and, 151, 152, 
 
 155-161, 186, 301 
 Bourignon, Antoinette, 417 
 Bourlie, Abbe" de la, 389 
 Brest, marine arsenal built at, 227 
 Bretagne, Due de, 152 
 Brigode, priest named, 416 
 Brillac, M., 36 
 
 Brinvilliers, Marquise de, 126 
 Britarmicus, the tragedy of, 100 
 Brousson, Claude, 386, 389 
 Buckingham, Duke of (poet), 336 
 Burnet, Bishop, 337 
 Bussi, Comte de, 96-98 
 Buzanval, Bishop of Beauvais, 409 
 
 CADETS, companies of, established by Louis 
 XIV., 215, 218 
 Calvinism in the time of Louis XIV., 174, 365-394. 
 
 405 ; Mile. d'Aubigne and, 139 
 Calvinists, and the secret of tin and steel, 202 
 Cambray, see of, 351 ; archbishop of, see Fenelon. 
 Camisards, the (White Shirts), 394-396 
 Campra (musician), 323 
 Canada, France and, 231 
 Canal of Languedoc, 208 
 Canillac, Marquis de, 162, 163 
 Carlos II. of Spain, his wife, 131, 132 
 Carpets, manufacture of, in France, 201, 202 
 Cassini, Domenico, 285, 286 
 Caulet, Bishop of Pamiers, 357, 358, 409 
 Caumartin, M. de, 32 ; and the Chevalier de Rohan, 
 237-239 
 
 Caumont, Comte de Lauzun, 109-116 
 Cavalier, Jean, in the Cevennes, 391-393 
 Cavalry in the French army, 1683, 218 
 Cayenne, French colony at, 231 ; physicists sent to, 
 in 1672, 286 
 
 Caze, Pierre J. (painter), 326 
 Census-taking in Languedoc, 232 
 Cerle, monk named, 358 
 Cette, harbour of, 208 
 
 Cevennes, fanaticism of the, 288, 384-386, 389-396 
 Chaila, Abbe" du, 389 
 Chalons, Bishop of, 435 
 
 Chamillart, Minister, 20, 182 ; loans raised by, 269- 
 271 
 
 Champagne, Philippe de, 332 ; portrait by, 22n 
 Chanvallon, Harlay de, Archbishop of Paris, 138 
 Chapelain, 95 
 
 Charles II., the Court of, 45; Louis XIV., 227; 
 
 founds the Royal Society, 284 ; poets of the reign 
 
 of, 336 
 Charost, Duchesse de, 434 
 Charpentier, 174 
 Chartres, Due de, 136, 137 
 Chateau of Versailles, the, description of, 66 
 Chauveau (painter and engraver), xiv, xv, 329 
 Chesilden (London surgeon, 1715), 317 
 Chevreuse, Duchesse de, 137, 433, 434 
 Chevreuse, Due de, 437 
 Chigi, Cardinal, at Versailles, 65 
 
 Choisy, Abbe de, xiii, 14, 145, 199 ; and Mademoi- 
 selle de la Valliere, 103 
 Chomel, the preacher, 376 
 
 Christian Church has always been rent by dissensions, 
 365-368 
 
 Church of France, affairs of the, during reign of 
 
 Louis XIV, 349-363 
 Civil wars in France, 369-372 
 Clagny, built by Louis XIV., 251 
 Claude, Bishop of Turin, 366, 410 
 Clement VIII., Pope, 400 
 Clement IX., the "Peace of," 410 
 Clement XL, Pope, 415, 416, 418, 422-423 
 Clergy in France, 349-363 
 Clockmakers, 331 
 
 Cloths, made at Abbeville, 201 ; at Sedan, 202 
 
 Cluny, Abbey of, 374 
 
 Coaches, first made in Paris, 206 
 
 Coetquen, Madame de, 122 
 
 Coinage of France altered, 264, 269 
 
 Colasse (musician), 323 
 
 Colbert, Edouard de, 254 
 
 Colbert, J. B. de, Louis XIV. and, 25, 26, 28, 90, 
 137, 193, 231 ; arms of, 27 ; verses against, 31, 33 ; 
 Guene'gaud and, 33 ; excessive severity of, towards 
 Fouquet, 34-36 ; M. de Pomponne and, 62, 63 ; 
 on Louvois, 64 ; pensions and presents distributed 
 by on behalf of Art and Letters, 94-96 ; and the 
 commerce of France, 198-200 ; and public build- 
 ings in Paris, 206-7, 250 ; and the Observatory, 
 250 ; and the finances of France, 253-262, 269, 272 ; 
 gets Louis XIV. to sanction the establishment of an 
 Academy of Sciences, 285 ; founds an Academy of 
 Architecture in 1671, 312; also an Academy of 
 Painting, 313 ; and the employment of Huguenots, 
 372-374 
 
INDEX 
 
 463 
 
 Collineau (gardener), 330 
 
 Colonies of France in time of Louis XIV., 231 
 
 Colonne, a Constable of France, 4 
 
 Colonne, breach between Louis XIV. and, 46 
 
 Comedy in the early years of Louis XIV., 15 ; see 
 
 also Moliere 
 Comet in 1680, 288 
 Commerce of France, 198, 199 
 Compagnie des Grandes Indes, 199 
 Compagnie des Indes Occidentals, the, 199 
 Compagnie du Nord, 199 
 Compiegne, French army at, 217, 225 
 Conde", Prince de, 47-49, 52, 65, 92, 300 ; marriage 
 
 of his granddaughter, 136 ; death of, 137 ; and 
 
 " Cinna," 300, 301 
 Congreve, plays by, 338, 339 
 Conrart, 293 
 
 Conspiracy of La Truaumont in 1674, the, 237-239 
 Conspiracy to seize the Due de Berwick, 393 
 Conti, Prince Armand de, 106 
 Conti, Princess de, 157 
 
 " Convulsionnaires, " episodes of the, 428-430 
 
 Corneille, Pierre, 15, 18, 190 ; the tragedy of 
 " Berenice, " 46; tragedies of, 299-302; "The 
 Cid," by, 300, 301; "Polyeucte," by, 300; 
 " Cinna," by, 300 
 
 Corn-merchants in France, 260, 261 
 
 Costar, 95 
 
 Cotin, 95 
 
 Council of Commerce, the, 198 
 
 Court of the Edict, the, 368 
 
 Courtiers of Louis, 87, 88 
 
 Coustou (sculptor), 329 
 
 Coysevox (sculptor), xiv, 329, 332-334 
 
 Crequi, Due de, 193 
 
 Croissy, M. Colbert de, 254 
 
 D'AGUESSEAU (the Procurator General), 424, 
 444 
 
 D'Alembert, 331 
 
 Dance, the ; Louis XIV. and, 16 
 
 Dangeau, Marquis de, xiii, 45, 69 ; at Versailles, 
 
 72-74, 81 ; memoirs compiled by, 132, 133 
 D'Aquin, the King's physician, 140 
 D'Argencourt, Mademoiselle, 3 
 D'Arpajou, Duchesse, 91 
 D'Aubigne" family, the, 138, 139 
 D'Aubignd, Comte, 144, 149 ; Mademoiselle, 153 
 D'Aubray, Civil Lieutenant, 126, 406 
 Daude", man named, 393 
 Dauger, Eustache, 22 
 
 D'Aumale, Due, made King of Spain, 182-185 
 
 Dauphin, the, 76 ; baptism of, 85 
 
 Dauphine, the (Duchesse de Bourgogne), 150, 155-161 
 
 D'Avaux, priest named, 130 
 
 Ddbonnaire, Louis le, 353 
 
 De Harlay, Public Prosecutor, 362 
 
 De Mesme, 425 
 
 Descartes, 283, 284 
 
 De Serre, Huguenot named, 385 
 
 Desjardins, xiv ; busts by, 334 
 
 Desmarets, Godet (Bishop of Chartres), 146 
 
 Desmarets, Comptroller General, 271 
 
 Desportes (artist), 328 
 
 Despreaux, Boileau, 96, 190, 303, 305 
 
 Destouches (musician), 323 
 
 Desvieux, Mademoiselle, 294 
 
 De Thou, President, 291 
 
 De Troy, Frangois (painter), 327, 328 
 
 Diderot, 331 
 
 Dorbay, 207, 330 
 
 D'Orleans, Due (Regent), see Orleans 
 
 D'Ormesson : on the excessive severity of Colbert 
 
 towards Fouquet, 34-36 ; on Mademoiselle de la 
 
 Valliere, 103 
 Dorset, Earl of (poet), 336 
 Douai, artillery school at, 215 
 Douvrier, antiquarian named, 48 
 Drevet (engraver), 329 
 Dryden, John, 336, 338 
 Dubois, Cardinal, 425, 429 
 Dubos, Abbe, 307 
 Duchange (engraver), 329 
 Duche, tragedies by, 151 
 Duchesse d'Aiguillon, 198 
 
 Duelling, abolition of, by Louis XIV., 212, 213 
 Dufresnoi, Madame, 106 
 Duhauranne, Duvergier, 405 
 Duiller, Fatio, 393 
 
 Dunkirk, port of, 198, 199 ; added to France, 56 ; 
 
 marine arsenal at, 227 
 Duperron, Cardinal, 352-354 
 Dupin (sorceress), 129, 130 
 
 Duplessis, M., of the Bibliotheque Nationale, xvi. 
 Duquesne, Lieut.-General, founds a French colony 
 
 at the Cape of Good Hope, 382 
 Duras, Due de, 66 
 
 Dutch, the commerce of, 198 ; take Pondicherry, 
 199 ; fleet of, at the battle of La Hogue, 228 
 
 EDELINCK (engraver), xiv, 329, 334 
 Edict of Grace, the, 371 
 Edict of Nantes, 136, 368 ; revoked in 1685, 380, 
 390, 394 
 
 Eloquence of French divines, 292-296 
 Enghien, Due d', 47 
 
 England, religion and philosophy in, 339, 340 ; the 
 Fine Arts in, during the reign of Louis XIV., 
 336-242 
 
 English fleet at the battle of La Hogue, 228 
 Engravers in France during the reign of Louis XIV. , 
 
 xiv, xv, 328-330 
 Epernon, Due d', 214 
 Esther, composed by Racine, 150, 151 
 Estrades, Comte d', 227 
 
464 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Estrees, Cardinal d', 437 
 
 Estrees, Jean d', first Naval Marshal of France, 228 
 Europe, the Fine Arts in, during the time of 
 
 Louis XIV., 335-345 
 Exili. Italian named, 125-127 
 
 FANATICISM in the Cevennes, 389-394 
 Felix, Louis XIV. 's physician, 150 
 Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambray, 296, 414, 420; 
 and Madame Guyon, 433-438 ; Louis XIV. and, 
 439-443 ; " Teldmaque " by, 295-299, 439, 440, 
 443 
 
 Fenelon, Marquis de, 296, 441 
 
 Fetes at Versailles, 49-56, 65, 75-78, 82-3 
 
 Feuillade, Marshal de la, 20 
 
 Fiesque, Madame de, 116 
 
 Finances of France during the reign of Louis XIV., 
 
 253-280 
 
 Fine arts, the, in France during the reign of Louis 
 XIV., 311-334 ; in Europe during the same period, 
 335-345 
 
 Fistula, Louis XIV. attacked with, 149, 150 
 
 Flanders, Louis XIV. in, 1670, 119, 120 
 
 Flechier (Bishop of Ninies), 95, 292 
 
 Fleet of the French Navy under Louis XIV., 227,228 
 
 Fleury, Cardinal de,.140, 228, 274, 280, 361, 429, 439 
 
 Fontainebleau, xvi., 26, 81, 83 ; Louis XIV. at, 7, 
 
 25 ; the Duke of Orleans and his wife at, 24 ; 
 
 hunting at, 40 
 Foutanges, Duchesse de, Louis XIV. and, 134-136 
 Fontenelles, Madame de, 116, 289 
 Fontevrault, Mademoiselle de, 118 
 Fortification, the art of, Louis XIV. and, 215, 216 
 Fountains in Paris, 330 
 
 Fouquet, Superintendent, 25, 28 ; supposed to have 
 been the Man in the Iron Mask, 21 ; hospitality of, 
 26, 27 ; and the finances of France, 28, 31, 32, 90 ; 
 death of, 33 ; excessive severity of Colbert towards, 
 34-36 ; meets Comte de Lauzun in prison, 110 ; 
 and Lebruu the painter, 325 
 
 France, opera in, 18 ; Fouquet and the finances of, 
 28, 31, 32 ; the arts in, at the birth of the Great 
 Century, 37 ; the crime of poison in, 125-131 ; 
 measles in, 161 ; the internal government of, 197, 
 198 ; hospitals in, 198 ; roads in, 198 ; commerce 
 and colonies of, 198-201 ; manufactures in, 201, 
 202, 205; laws of, reformed by Louis XIV., 211, 
 212 ; duelling abolished in, 212, 213 ; reforms in 
 the army of, 213-226 ; also the navy of, 226-231 ; 
 colonies of, 231 ; extent and population of, 1698, 
 231-2 ; Colbert and the finances of, 253-262, 269, 
 272 ; famine in 1661, 260 ; coinage of, altered, 264, 
 269 ; the winter of 1709 in, 271 ; vine-growing in, 
 276 ; peasants of, 278-280 ; the sciences in, 283- 
 289 ; sorcery and superstition in, 287, 288 ; the 
 literature of, during the century of Louis XIV., 
 291-309 ; the fine arts in, during the same period, 
 
 311-334 ; medicines and surgery in, 317-8 ; 
 musicians in, during time of Louis XIV., 321-323 ; 
 painters in, 323-328, 332-4 ; sculptors, architects, 
 and engravers in, 328-334 ; public works in, 330 ; 
 art of making gardens in, 330 ; ecclesiastical affairs 
 in, during reign of Louis XIV., 349-363 ; Cal- 
 vinism in, 365-394 ; civil wars in, 369-372 ; revolt 
 in the Cevennes, 394-396 ; Jansenism in, 397-430 ; 
 Quietism in, 431-446 
 
 French fleet defeated at La Hogue, 228 
 
 Fronde, the, 363, 372 
 
 Fusiliers, regiment of, in 1671, 215 
 
 GALILEO, 344 
 Gallican Church, liberties of the, 354-363 
 Games at the Court of Louis XIV., 78 
 Garde-Meuble, the, xvi. 
 Gardens, art of making, in France, 330 
 Gassendi, 289 
 
 Gele'e, Claude (painter), 326 
 Genest, Abbe, 151 
 
 Genoa, the Doge of, entertained by Louis XIV. at 
 
 Versailles, 65-69 
 Geometry, 343 
 Gerberon, Benedictine, 416 
 Germain, Pierre (goldsmith). 329 
 Giannone on the Church of France, 351 
 Gigeri, French naval force at, 226 
 Giori, Italian named, and Cardinal Bouillon, 442, 443 
 Girardon, F. (sculptor), 329 
 Giraudiere, Mademoiselle de la (nurse), 11 
 Glaser, German named, 125 
 
 Gobelins, the, xvi. ; tapestries made at the, 201-203 
 Goldsmiths in France, 329 
 
 Gomarists, the, quarrel with the Arminians, 405 
 Gondrin, Marquis de, 161 
 
 Gourville, 25, 31, 33 ; and the Calvinists, 380, 381 
 Gown, description of a, by Madame de Sevigne - , 73, 74 
 Grammont, Comte de, 52, 114, 191, 214 
 Graziani, Count, 94 
 
 Guenegaud (Secretary of State), 25 ; sells his post to 
 
 Colbert, 33 
 Guerard, famous caricature by, x \ . 
 Guiche, Comte de, 24, 99, 114 ; Madame de, 42 
 Guiscard, Marquis de, 389 
 Guise, Due de, 28, 47 
 Guiton, Mayor of La Rochelle, 370, 371 
 Guyon, Madame, 432-438 
 
 HABERT, a doctor named, 401 
 Halley, the philosopher, 340, 341 
 Hameliu (nurse), 11 
 Harcourt, Princesse d', 433 
 Harlay, Archbishop de, 433 
 
INDEX 
 
 465 
 
 Harley, Robert (Earl of Oxford), 389 
 Hauranne, Duverger cle (Abbe" de St. Cyrati), 400 
 Havre, marine arsenal at, 227 
 Hazon, merchant named, 200 
 Henri IV., Antonio Perez, 354 
 
 Henrietta, Princess, married to the Duke of Orleans, 
 18, 24, 25, 152 ; Louis XIV. and, 44-47 ; her 
 death, 120-123 
 
 Herman, 413 
 
 Hervart, Calvinist named, 372 
 
 Hervart, Madame, 376 
 
 Hervey, Lord, and Voltaire, 345, 346 
 
 Hesnault, verses written by, against Colbert, 31, 33 
 
 Hevelius (astronomer), 342 
 
 Hochstedt, battle of, 392 
 
 Homberg (chemist named), 162 
 
 Hortense, Duchesse, 32 
 
 Hospitals in France, 198 
 
 Hotel des Invalides, Louis XIV. and the, 208, 216, 
 218, 249 
 
 Hotel de Ville, 312 ; in 1687, 235 
 Houdar, La Motte, 304, 305 
 
 Household Order, a, established by Louis XIV. , 88 
 Huguenots, the, in France, 151, 239, 368-373, 376-8, 
 397 
 
 Huygens, the mathematician, 94, 285 
 Hyde, 339 
 
 IDLER in Paris, the, La Bruyere and, 247-249 
 lie de Ste. Marguerite, 19, 20 
 Infantry of the French army in time of Louis XIV. , 
 
 214, 215 
 Innocent X., Pope, 357, 402, 403 
 Innocent XL, (Odelscalchi), 357, 361-363, 378 
 Innocent XII., Pope (Pignatelli), 362, 363, 436 
 Invalides, the Chapel of the, xv. 
 Instrumental music in France, 321 
 Italian operas in Paris, 1646 and 1654, 16, 17 
 Italy, the fine arts in, during the time of Louis XIV. , 
 344 
 
 JAMES I., and Cardinal Duperron, 354 
 Jansen, Cornelius, Bishop of Ypres, 400-406 
 Jansenists, the, and Jansenism in France, 15, 16, 
 357-361, 373, 374, 397-430 ; Louis XIV. and, 172 
 Jardin des Plantes, the, 286 
 
 Jesuits, the, in France, 355, 372 ; and the Jansenists, 
 
 399-403, 407-8, 413, 415-19 
 Jewels of the Crown, Cardinal Mazarin and, 17 
 Joseph, the famous Capuchin monk, 372 
 Jouvenet, Jean (painter), 326, 327 
 Jurien, Pierre (Calvinist minister), 383-385 
 
 J/^EROUAL, Mademoiselle de (La Que'rouaille), 120 
 
 LA BRUYERE, xiii., xv., 42 ; on Versailles 
 society in his "Caracteres," 83, 84 ; satire of> 
 on Paris and the Parisian bourgeoisie, 243-246 ; his 
 description of a series of sights and diversions in 
 Paris, 247-249 ; and the labouring classes of France, 
 278, 280 ; " Les Caracteres " by, 297, 298 
 Lace-making in France, 201, 202 
 La Chaise, Pere de, 138, 416-419, 436-438 
 Lacombe, monk named, 432, 433 
 Lafayette, Madame de, xiii., 22, 25, 42, 121 
 La Feuillade, Marechal de, 192 
 
 La Fontaine, 303, 304, 308 • and Mile, de la Valliere, 
 104, 105 
 
 La Fosse, Charles de (painter), 327 
 La Frette, notorious combat of, 213 
 La Hogue, battle of, 228 
 
 Lamoignon, M. de (Master of Requests), 174, 211, 
 232 
 
 Land forces of France formed by Louis XIV., 213- 
 226 
 
 Land taxes, 234 
 
 L'Angeli (a Court fool), 52 
 
 Langlee, Comtesse, 73 
 
 Languedoc, Canal of, 208 ; census-taking in, 232 ; the 
 Intendant of, 376 ; rebellion and fanaticism in, 384, 
 389-396 
 
 Languet, Bishop of Soissons, 426 
 Lansac, Marquise de, 7 
 
 Laporte, valet of Louis XIV., xiii., 5-8, 12, 14 
 
 La Quintinie (gardener), 330 
 
 La Reynie, of the Star Chamber, 128 
 
 La Rochefoucauld, Due de, 173 ; " Maxims " by, 293 
 
 La Rochelle, the siege of, 370 
 
 La Samaritaine, 212 
 
 La Trappe, reform of, 240 
 
 La Tremouille, 368, 444 
 
 La Truaumont, the conspiracy of, 237-239 
 
 Lauzun, Comte de (Puyguilhem), 109-116 
 
 Lauzun, Due de, 100 
 
 Lavalliere, xiii. 
 
 Law, the profession of the, in time of Louis XIV. , 240 
 Laws of France, reformed by Louis XIV., 211, 212 
 LeBalafre, 47 
 
 Lebran, Charles (painter), xiii., 174, 264, 312, 325, 
 326, 333, 334 
 
 Lecamus, Cardinal, Bishop of Grenoble, 375 
 
 Leclerc, S. (engraver), xiv., xv., 329 
 
 Le Dauphin^, the Huguenots in, 376 
 
 Lefebvre, CI. (painter), xiv., 334 
 
 Le Gros (sculptor), 328, 329 ; medals by, 334 
 
 Leibnitz, famous scholar, 342, 343, 345 
 
 "Le Journal des Savants" (first newspaper), 286 
 
 Le Lorrain, Claude (painter), 326 
 
 " Le Mercure de France," xiii. ; description of 
 Versailles in, 65, 66, 69 ; on the " grands 
 appartements, " 70-72 ; on the balls at Versailles, 75 
 
 Le Moine (painter), 313, 328 
 
 Le Notre (gardener), xiii., 136, 330 ; gardens at Vaux 
 
 planted by, 26 
 Leonardon, M. , of the Versailles Library, xvi. 
 
 3 0 
 
466 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Le Pelletier, 263 
 
 Le Sage, priest named, 127-131 
 
 Lesdiguieres, 370 
 
 Les Noccs de Thetis, opera, 15 
 
 Le Sueur, Eustaehe (painter), 312, 325 
 
 Le Tellier, Michel, the Chancellor, 31, 33, 145, 165, 
 
 263, 374, 375, 381, 419-425 
 Letters, Louis XIV. bestows his bounty upon art and, 
 
 96, 97 
 
 Le Valentin (painter), 325 
 Levau, Louis, 207, 330 
 Levi, Madame de, 157 
 Liancourt, M. de, 403. 
 
 Lingendes, Jean de (Bishop of Macon), 292. 
 Listenay, Madame de, 161. 
 
 Literature of France during the century of Louis XIV. , 
 
 291-309. 
 Locke, John, 341, 342. 
 Loir, medals by, xiv. 
 Longueville, Duchesse de, 122, 413. 
 Lorraine, Chevalier de, 122, 125. 
 Lottery, a, with no blanks, 137, 143. 
 Louis XII., motto of, 49. 
 
 Louis XIII., 5 ; and Anne of Austria, 11 ; and 
 dancing, 16 ; the clergy in the reign of, 363 ; the 
 siege of La Rochelle, 370. 
 
 Louis XIV., birth of, 11, 128; youth and education 
 of, under Cardinal Mazarin, 3-14 ; a foretaste of his 
 quality, 14, 15 ; as a dancer, 16, 17 ; his marriage, 
 17, 18 ; works privately with Colbert, 25 ; in 
 person and manner at the birth of the great 
 century, 37-44 ; fondness for stag-hunting, 40, 60 ; 
 and Princess Henrietta of England, 44-47 ; takes 
 part in a tournament in front of the Tuileries, 1662, 
 47-49 ; motto of, 48, 50 ; fetes at Versailles, 
 49-56 ; Voltaire on the government of, 56, 57 ; 
 advice to the Dauphin, 57, 58 ; daily routine of the 
 king's life, 58-62 ; entertains the Doge of Genoa at 
 Versailles, 65-69 ; Court life at Versailles, 70-91 ; 
 fondness for gaming, 77, 78 ; his liberality, 89-96 ; 
 bestows his bounty upon art and letters, 95-97 ; 
 the manners and habits of the King and the Court, 
 99, 163 ; his attachment to Mademoiselle de la 
 Valliere, 99-101; in Flanders, 1670, 119, 120 ; on 
 the poisoning of Marie Louise D'Orleans, 132 ; and 
 the Duchesse de Fontanges, 134, 135 ; marries 
 Madame de Maintenon, 138 -149 ; attacked with 
 fistula, 149, 150 ; loses all his family by premature 
 deaths, 152 ; and the Duchesse de Bourgogne, 152, 
 155-161, 186 ; his old age and death, 165-194 ; his 
 dying counsel, 171 — 173 ; some sayings of, 174, 
 177 ; character of, 177-181 ; instructions to his 
 grandson, Philip V., 182-185 ; witticisms by, 189 ; 
 letters to the Archbishop of Rheims, 189, 190 ; and 
 Villiers-Vendome, 191 ; the Due d'Antin, 191, 
 192 ; accused of intolerable pride, 192, 193 ; his 
 children who died in infancy, 194 ; the ministers 
 of, 195-198 ; and the internal government of 
 France, 197, 198 ; tax remitted by, 198 ; and the 
 commerce of France, 198, 199, 202 ; appoints a 
 
 magistrate of police, 205 ; builds part of the Louvre 
 and other places, 205-208 ; reforms the laws, 211, 
 212 ; foi'bids duels, 212, 213 ; reforms the army, 
 213-226 ; and the navy, 226-231 ; statue to, at 
 Montpellier, 234 ; his neglect of Paris, 250, 251 ; 
 the finances of France during the reign of, 253-278 ; 
 amount of money spent by, when King, 272 ; 
 founds the Academy of Sciences, 285-286 ; re-opens 
 the School of Law, 286 ; the literature during the 
 reign of, 291-309 ; the fine arts in the reign of, 
 311, 334 ; and ecclesiastical affairs in France, 349- 
 363 ; Calvinism in the time of, 365-396 ; and 
 Jansenism, 397-430 ; and Quietism, 431-446 ; and 
 Fehelon, Archbishop of Cambray, 439-443 ; Lex una 
 sub uno the motto of the reign of, 446 
 
 Louis XV., 152, 161 ; roads in France under, 198 ; 
 revenue of, compared to that of Louis XIV., 273 
 
 Louvois, Marquis de (Secretary of State), 19, 106, 
 114, 151, 190, 231; Spanheim's testimony to, 63, 
 64 ; Colbert on, 64 ; and Marshal Montmorenci- 
 Boutteville, 130, 131 ; and Madame de Maintenon, 
 145, 146 ; and the French Army, 217-221 ; Saint 
 Simon's indictment of, 221 ; and buildings in Paris 
 due to, 249, 250 ; and the Huguenots, 374 ; and 
 the Calvinists, 380, 382 
 
 Louvre, the, 193, 194, 312 ; portraits at the, xiv. ; 
 Italian Opera at the, 17, 18 ; colonnade of, 100 ; 
 F. Mansard and, 206, 207 
 
 Louvre Theatre, the, 330 
 
 Lucon, the Bishop of, 293 
 
 Lulli, Jean Baptiste (musician), 96, 311, 322, 323 
 Lutherans, the, 367, 374 ; of Alsace, 377 
 Luxembourg, Marechal de, 128 
 Luynes, Constable de, 370 
 Lyonne, de (Secretary of State), 17, 18, 94 
 Lyons, stuffs made at, 202 ; statue of Louis XIV. at, 
 238, 317 
 
 MADAGASCAR, French colony at, 231 
 Maffei, Scipio, 344, 346 
 Mailly, Archbishop of Rheims, 426 
 Maine, Due du, 74, 113, 116, 166 ; marriage of, 136, 
 
 137, 140, 143 
 Maine, Duchesse du, 151 
 
 Maintenon, Madame de, Louis XIV. and, 25, 1W, 
 134, 136-138, 140, 143 ; retirement of, 144 ; her 
 possessions, 145 ; and Racine, 145 ; Louvois and, 
 146 ; retires to Saint Cyr, 149-151 ; the Duchesse 
 de Bourgogne and, 155, 156 ; Louis XIV. and, 
 168 ; and a nun in the Convent of Moret, 194 ; 
 and the revolt in the Cevennes, 325 ; and Cardinal 
 de Noailles, 419-421 ; and Madame Guyon, 433- 
 436 ; and Pere de La Chaise, 438 
 
 Maintenon aqueducts and works, the, 233 
 
 Maisonfort, Madame de la, 149, 433, 438 
 
 Male'zieu, M. de, 298, 439 
 
 Malherbe, 299 
 
INDEX 
 
 467 
 
 Man in the Iron Mask, the, 19-22, and n 
 Manoini, Marie, 4, 5 
 Manger, medals by, xiv. 
 
 Mansard, Francois (architect), 329 ; and the Louvre, 
 206, 207. 
 
 Mansard, Jules H. (surveyor), 329, 350 
 Mantua, Duke of, 22 
 
 Manufactures of France during reign of Louis XIV., 
 201, 202 
 
 Marais, Godet des, Bishop of Chartres, 434, 439 
 Marie Therese, wife of Louis XIV., 17, 18, 23 
 Marine arsenals in France, 227 
 Marly, built by Louis XIV, 208, 237, 250, 251 
 Marly, 81, 82 ; fountains at, 26 ; pavilions at, built 
 
 in 1679, 88 ; fetes at, 136- 
 Marot, 306 ; psalms of, 373 
 Marriages in the rural districts of France, 200 
 Marsan, Comte de, 125 
 Marseilles, port of, 198, 199 
 Marsham, 339 
 Martinique, 231 
 
 Massi (ambassador) on Louis XIV. , 43 
 Masillon, Pere, 293 
 
 Mattioli, the Man in the Iron Mask, 21, 22 
 
 Mazarin, Cardinal, 350, 356, 372, 403, 408 ; and the 
 young King, 4-11, 14, 34 ; and Italian opera, 16, 
 17 ; the Crown jewels, 17 ; his death, 18, 23 ; a 
 son of, supposed to be the Man in the Iron Mask, 
 22/i ; wealth of, 32; nieces of, 127 ; lottery of, 
 137 ; the guards of, 214 
 
 Mazarin, Due de, 32, 114 
 
 Measles in France, 161 
 
 Medals, 314 ; manufacture of, 333 
 
 Medicine and surgery in France, 317, 318 
 
 Mellan (engraver), xiv., 329, 334 
 
 Mercator, 342 
 
 Merchant marine, the, in France, 198 
 
 Merchants, dress of the, 240, 241 
 
 Metz, artillery school at, 215 
 
 Meudon, Louis XIV. at, 81 
 
 Mignard, Pierre (painter), 326, 334 
 
 Militia, regiments of, established by Louis XIV., 215 
 
 Milton, John, 336, 337 
 
 Mint, the, xiv. 
 
 Miracle at Port Koyal of Paris, 406, 407 
 Miracles of a deacon named Paris, 429 
 Miremont, Marquis de, 34 
 Mirrors first made in Paris 1666, 201, 207, 250 
 Molart, medals by, xiv. 
 
 Moliere, 302, 303 ; comedies of Fdcheux, 26 ; La 
 Princesse d'ltlide, 51 ; Les Amants Matjnifiques, 51, 
 52 ; Alceste by, 106 ; Le Mariage Force, 52 ; Le 
 Tartufe, 52, 55 
 
 Molinos, the Jesuit, 399, 437 
 
 Montagu, Earl of, 120 
 
 Montansier, Due de, 91 
 
 Montauban, retreat of Louis XIII. before, 370 
 Monmouth, Duke of, 21 
 Montpensier, Mademoiselle de, 109-116 
 Montespan, Marquise de, 116, 119, 135 
 
 Montespan, Madame de, King Louis XIV. and, 
 72, 73, 78, 101, 102, 105, 111, 113, 134-137, 140 ; 
 and Pnyguilhem, 114-116 ; and Madame Scarron, 
 117 ; her wit, 118 ; her beauty, 120 ; marriage of 
 her daughter, 136, 137 
 
 Montmorenci-Boutteville, F. Henri de, 129 
 
 Montmorenci, Mathieu de, 131 
 
 Montpellier, statue to Louis XIV. at, 234 
 
 Montpezat, Archbishop of Toulouse, 358 
 
 Montrevel, Marechal de, 390 
 
 Moreri, anecdote recorded by, 200 
 
 Moret, convent of, nun in, supposed to be a daughter 
 of Louis XIV, 194 
 
 Morillon, Michel Baius and, 399 
 
 Morin (engraver), xiv. 
 
 Moria (astrologer), 128 
 
 Mortemart, the sisters, 116-118 
 
 Motte, Jeanne Bouvier de la, 431-433 
 
 Motte, Marechale de la, 91 
 
 Motteville,. Madame de, xiii ; Memoires of, 16, 38 
 Motto of Louis XIV., 48,. 50, 446 
 Musicians in France, 321-323 
 
 NANTEUIL (engraver), xiv., 329 
 Nantes, Mademoiselle de, 136, 137 
 Navailles, Due de, 100 
 
 Naval cadets, corps of, instituted by Louis XIV. , 228 
 Navy, Louis XIV. reforms the French, 226-231 
 " Nec pluribus impar," motto of Louis XIV., 48, 50 
 Neuillant, Madame de, 139 
 Newspaper, the first, published in 1665, 286 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, 286, 340, 343 
 Nicole (theologian), 410, 413 
 Nimeguen, the peace of, 62, 192 
 Noailles, Cardinal de, 145, 174, 414-425, 430, 435, 
 441 
 
 Noailles, Gaston Louis de, Bishop of Chalons, 363 
 Nolhac, M. P. de, of Versailles, xvi. 
 Nordstrand, Island of, 417 
 
 OBSERVATOKY, the, built by Louis XIV., 208, 
 285, 286 ; due to Colbert, 250 
 Odelscalchi (Pope Innocent XL), 357, 361-363 
 Olbreuse, Duchess of, 309 
 
 Opera, Les Nocesdc Thetis, the first played in Paris, 15 
 Operas executed by singers from Italy in Paris, 1646, 
 
 16 ; Ercole Amante, 17 ; Lysis and Hesperia, 18 
 Orange, Prince of, regiments of French refugees in 
 
 army of the, 382. 
 Order of Saint Louis, instituted by Louis XIV., 216, 
 
 221 
 
 Orleans, Duke of, brother of Louis XIV., 7, 13, 14, 
 23, 24, 74, 128, 133, 149, 157, 167, 254, 425, 427, 
 440 ; studies chemistry, 162, 163 ; his marriage, 18, 
 24 ; takes part in a tournament, 1662, 47 
 
468 
 
 INDEX 
 
 D'Orleans, Duchesse, 74, 75, 78, 81 
 
 D'Orleans, Marie Louise, daughter of Madame, 
 
 poisoning of, 181, 132 
 Ormesson, xiii. 
 Oudry (artist), 328 
 
 PAGAN, Comte de, 216 
 Painters in France, 323-328 
 Painting, Academy of, founded by Colbert, 312 
 Palais du Luxembourg, 311 
 Palais Mazarin, 32 
 
 Palais Royal, the, 312 ; Italian operas at the, 16 
 
 Palatine, the Princess (Duchesse D'Orleans), 74, 75, 
 78, 81, 133 ; and Mademoiselle de la Valliere, 103 
 
 Paris, mirrors first made in, 201 ; the city in the days 
 of Louis XIV., 202, 205, 233 ; police in, 205, 206 ; 
 coaches made in, 206 ; a picture of — and the 
 Parisian bourgeoisie, 240-249 ; neglect of, by 
 Louis XIV., 249-251 ; Saint-Simon and the embel- 
 lishments of, 249, 250 ; fountains in, 330 
 
 Paris, deacon named, miracles of, 429 
 
 Parrocel, Joseph (painter), 326 
 
 Pascal, " Lettres Provinciales," 293, 404, 406, 408, 
 413 
 
 Passart, Sister, 409 
 
 Patents for nobility sold by Pontchartrain, 266 
 Patin, Guy (doctor), 162 ; and the peasants of France, 
 278 
 
 Patru, Oliver, 292, 293 
 
 Pavilion, Bishop of Aleth, 357, 409 
 
 Peasants of France, 278-280 
 
 Pelletier, M. de, steward to Anne of Austria, 22m, 
 36 
 
 Pellisson, 25, 26, 374, 375 
 Pepin, Archbishop of Mayence, 356 
 Perdreau, Sister, 409 
 Perez, Antonio, 354 
 Perigni, verses by, 50 
 Pernitz, Comtesse de, 132 
 Perrault, Claude, 17, 207, 330 
 Perrier, Mademoiselle, 406, 407 
 Petit Bourbon, Italian operas at the, 16 
 Petit-Bourg, Louis XIV. at, 191, 192 
 Philip V. , King of Spain, instructions of Louis XIV. 
 to, 182-185 
 
 Philippe (brother of Louis XIV.), 162, 163. See 
 
 Orleans, Duke of 
 Picard, 285 
 Picart (engraver), 329 
 Pichon, Baron Jerome, xvi 
 Pignatelli (Pope Innocent XII.), 362, 363 
 Pikes used in the French army, 215 
 Pius V., Pope, 398, 399 
 Place des Victoires, buildings on the, 193 
 Place du Carrousel, the, 47 
 
 Place Vendome, 350 ; statue of Louis XIV. in the, 
 193 
 
 Plays in the early years of Louis XIV., 15, 16 
 
 Plessis-Belliere, Madame du, 33 
 
 Poilly (engraver), xiv. , xv. , 329, 334 
 
 Poison, the crime of, in France, 125-131 
 
 Poisoning of Madame, the, 120, 121 
 
 Police, magistrate of, appointed by Louis XIV. in 
 
 1667, 205 
 Poll-tax imposed, 1695, 266 
 Pomponne, M. de, 182 ; the disgrace of, 62, 63 
 Pontchartrain, Comptroller-General, 266 
 Pont Royal, the, 249, 251 
 Pope, the Jansenists go over to the, 358-362 
 Pope's " Essay on Man," 336 
 Port-Royal of Paris, the nuns of, 406, 407, 409 
 Porte Saint- Antoine, rebuilt, 17 
 Portsmouth, Duchess of, 120 
 Poussin, Nicolas (painter), 312, 324, 325 
 Preaux, Chevalier de, 239 
 Protestants, in the Cevennes revolt of, 389-396 
 Puget, Pierre (sculptor), 328, 330-332 
 Pussort, Councillor of State, 21 1 
 Puyguilhem, Comte de Lauzun, 109-116 
 
 QUEROUAILLE, Mademoiselle de la, 120 
 Queue, de la, 194 
 " Quesnel, Pere, 415-418 
 Quietism, in the reign of Louis XIV., 431-446 
 Q uillebeuf, conspiracy to surrender, to the Dutch, 
 239 
 
 Quinault, 95, 96, 303, 304, 322, 323 ; composes Lysis 
 and Hesperia, 18 ; prologues written by, 190 
 
 RACINE, 95, 96, 301, 302 ; idyl of La Paix, 136 ; 
 Madame de Maintenon, 145 ; tragedy of 
 Berenice, 41, 46 ; composes Esther and Athalie, 150, 
 151, 301 
 Rameau (musician), 323 
 Raoux (painter), 327 
 
 Regalia of the Church of France, 355, 360 
 
 Renaudot, Abbe, 416 
 
 " Rentes de l'Hotel de Ville," 272, 273 
 
 Retz, Cardinal de, 293 
 
 Revenue -farmers, The, 34-36 
 
 Revenue-farming in France, 234, 262, 266 
 
 Reviews of the French army, by Louis XIV., 218, 225 
 
 Rheiins, Archbishop of, 189, 190 
 
 Richelieu, Cardinal, 16, 93, 149, 190, 312, 356, 360 ; 
 
 and the Huguenots, 370-372 ; and Corneille, 299, 
 
 300 
 
 Rigaud, Hyacinthe (painter), xiv., 327, 328, 334 
 Roads in France, 198 
 
 Rochefort, town and port of, 227 ; marine arsenal at, 
 227 
 
 Rochester, Earl of (poet), 336 
 
INDEX 
 
 469 
 
 Rohan, Chevalier de, execution of the, 237-239 
 Rohan, Due de, 369-371 
 Roemer, 285 
 
 Rome, the See of ; the Church of France and, 354- 
 
 363 
 Ronsard, 95 
 
 Roquesante, judge named, 33 
 Rosny, 368 
 
 Rospigliosi, Cardinal, 409 
 
 Roujon, M. Henry, Director of the Beaux Arts, xvi 
 Roupli, Persian named, 212 
 Rousseau, 305 
 Ruyter, Admiral, 227 
 
 Ryswick, peace of, 233 ; repeal of the poll-tax, 266 
 
 SACY, DE, 410, 413 
 Saint-Aignan, Due de, 93 
 Saint- Antoine, battle of, 17 
 Saint Cloud, fountains at, 26 
 Sainte Croix, Captain, 126 
 
 Saint-Cyr, convent of, built in 1686, 146, 208; 
 
 Madame de Maintenon retires to, 149 ; Racine's 
 
 plays at, 150, 151 
 Saint Domingo, 231 
 Saint-Evremond, 33, 34, 309 
 
 Saint-Germain, 26 ; abandoned by Louis XIV., 251 
 Saint Germain des Pres, Abbey of, 374 
 Saint-Jean, xv. 
 
 Saint-Mars, governor of the Bastille, 19 
 Saint-Meclard, miracles of, 288 
 Saint-Me'dard, cemetery of, 429 
 Saint-Pere, Duchesse de, 133 
 Saint Real, Abbe" of, 299 
 
 Saint-Simon, xiii. , 8 ; a portrait of Louis XIV. , 38-40, 
 44 ; on the King's daily routine, 58-61 ; on the fall 
 of Pomponne, 62, 63 ; and the receptions ("grande 
 appartements ") at Versailles, 70, 71 ; on the fetes 
 and gaming at Versailles, 77, 78, 82, 83 ; on the 
 avarice of Louis XIV., 92 ; and the Comte de 
 Lauzun, 113-116 ; and the wit of Madame de 
 Montespan, 118 ; and the Duchesse de Bourgogne, 
 156-161 ; defends the Due d'Orleans, 163 ; indict- 
 ment of Louvois and the military administration of 
 Louis XIV., 221-225 ; on the embellishments of 
 Paris, 249-251 ; and the French peasants, 279, 280 ; 
 on the Camisards (White Shirts), 394-396 
 
 Saint-Simon, Madajne de, 157 
 
 Sale, 339 
 
 Santerre, JeanB. (painter), 327 
 Sarrasin, Jacques, 328 
 Sault, Comte de, 48 
 
 Savonnerie, carpets made at the, 201, 250 
 
 Savoy, Duke of, regiments of French refugees in 
 
 army of the, 382 
 Scarron, Madame (Madame de Maintenon), 117, 143, 
 
 146 
 
 Scarron, Paul, 139 
 
 Sceaux, fete at the gardens of, 136 
 School of Law, re-opened by Louis XIV., 286 
 Sciences, Academy of, established by Louis XIV., 
 208 
 
 Sciences, the, in France, 283-289 
 Scudery, Georges de, 300 
 Scudery, Mademoiselle, 31 
 
 Sculptors and architects in France, 328-330, 332-334 
 Sculpture in France during the seventeenth century, 
 xiv, 314 
 
 Se'guier, Chancellor, 31, 32, 211, 307, 404 
 Seignelay, Marquis de, 136, 137 
 
 Sevigne, Madame de, xiii, 31, 42 ; on Court life at 
 Versailles, 72-74 ; and the French peasants, 279 ; 
 on Racine, 302 
 
 Siam, Ambassador of, received by Louis XIV., 74 
 
 Silk manufacture in France, 201 
 
 Silver ornaments at Versailles, 69 
 
 Soissons, Comte de, 4 
 
 Soissons, Comtesse de, 99, 114, 127, 128 
 
 Sonnet written by Hesnault against Colbert, 31 
 
 Sorbonne, the, 349, 402, 423, 425 
 
 Sorcery in France, 127-131, 287 
 
 Soubise, Due de, 370 
 
 Soubise, Mademoiselle de, 73 
 
 Sourdeac, Marquis de, 18 
 
 Souvr£, Madame de, 7 
 
 Spain, King of, and Louis XIV., 56 ; death of his 
 wife, by poison, 131, 132 ; Due dAumale made 
 king of, 182-185 ; Louis XIV. and, 227 ; Molinos 
 the Jesuit in, 399, 404 
 
 Spanheim, xiii. ; on Louis XIV. in his youth, 8, 43 ; 
 on the King's daily routine, 61, 62 ; testimony to 
 Louvois, 63, 64 ; and Court life under Louis X1Y., 
 39-93 ; on Mademoiselle de la Valliere, 102 ; on the 
 French forces in 1690, 217-220 
 
 Spitalfields, French refugees at, 382 
 
 Stag-hunting, 40, 60 
 
 Stair, the Earl of, 167 
 
 Star Chamber, in Paris, 126-129 
 
 Strasburg, artillery school at, 215 ; See of, 351 ; 
 Louis XIV. in possession of, 377 
 
 Sully, Due de, 200, 254, 262 
 
 Sun-king, arms of the, 50, 51 
 
 Superstition in France, 288 
 
 Surgery in France, 318 j 
 
 Swift, Dean, 337, 340 ' 
 
 TAILLE," The, 270 
 Taine, M. , on Court life at Versailles, 87 
 Talon, Attorney-General, 211, 362 
 Tapestry made in France, 201 
 Taphanel, M. , of the Versailles Library, xvi 
 Taxes of the Chamber of Justice, 36 ; remitted in 
 1662, 56 ; remitted by Louis XIV., 198 ; imposed 
 by Colbert, 261, 272 
 Tax-farmers, 266 
 
470 
 
 INDEX 
 
 ' ' Teldrnaque " by Fenelon, 295-299. See also Fenelon 
 Temple, Sir William, 341, 342 
 Tencin, Cardinal de, 427, 429 
 Theodon (sculptor), 328 
 Thianges, Marquise de, 117, 118, 137 
 Thomas, the great (Parisian quack), 269, 271 
 Thoyras, Rapin de, 309 
 Toilet of the ladies at Court, 88, 89 
 Toulon, marine arsenal at, 227 ; ships in harbour of, 
 228 
 
 Toulouse, Comte de, 74, 166 
 
 Tournament in the courtyafd of the Tuileries, 1662, 
 47-49 ; in 1665, 49, 50 ; at Versailles in 1656, 
 
 136. 
 
 Tournefort, 286 
 Tours, stuffs made at, 202 
 Tragedies, Pierre Corneille's, 15 
 Training schools for soldiers, 219-221 
 Tremouille, Due de la, 161 
 Tremouille, Mademoiselle de, 25 
 
 Trianon, 82; fetes at, 136; built by Louis XIV., 
 
 208, 250, 251 
 Tronson, Abbd, 435 
 
 Troops, Louis XIV. and the, 58 ; in France, 1672, 
 
 216, 217 
 Tuby (sculptor), xiv, 334 
 
 Tuileries, tournament in front of the, 1662, 47-49 
 Turenne, Vicomte de, 122, 292 
 
 " TNI G EN IT US, Papal Bull, 423, 427 
 
 ^ Usteriz, Don, a Spanish statesman, on Louis 
 
 XIV., 234 
 
 VALENTINOIS, Madame de, 24 
 Valliere, Mademoiselle de la, 26, 47 ; Louis 
 XIV. and, 50, 99-106 ; her beauty, 103, 104 
 Vanbrugh, plays by, 338 
 Van Cleve (sculptor), xiv, 332 
 Vanloo (painter), 328 
 Vardes, Marquis de, 99, 100 
 Varin, J. See Warin 
 
 Vauban, and fortifications in France, 216 ; on the 
 
 peasants of France, in Oisevetds, 279, 280 
 Vaugelas, 292 
 Vautier (physician), 12 
 
 Vaux, fete given at, by Colbert to Louis XIV., 25, 
 
 36 ; fountains at, 26 
 Vaux, Comtesse de, 33 
 Vendome, Due de, 190 
 Vermandois, Due de, 21, 106 
 
 Verneuil, Due de, 350 
 
 Versailles, xiii, 81, 134, 135, 138, 193, 250, 251 ; 
 portraits and sculpture at, xiv ; fountains at, 26 ; 
 fetes at, 49-56, 65, 75, 76, 82, 83, 136 ; Cardinal 
 Chigi's visit to, 65 ; description of the Chateau of, 
 66-72 ; the Salle de Venus at, 71 ; La Bruyere on 
 society at, 83, 84 ; the tables at, 90, 91 ; tourna- 
 ment at, 136 ; statue of Louis XIV. at, by Bernini, 
 207 ; aqueduct to convey water to, 233 ; ceiling at, 
 by Lemoine, 313 
 
 Vervins, the Peace of, 200 
 
 Vigoureux (sorceress), 127-131 
 
 Villars, Marechal de, 390-393 
 
 Villeroi, Marshal, 5, 7, 125 
 
 Villette, Marquis de, 145 
 
 Villiers, Marquise de, 239 
 
 Villiers- Vendome, 190, 191 
 
 Vincennes, 17 ; the royal hunt at, 6, 15 
 
 Vine-growing in France, 276 
 
 Vivarais, the Huguenots in, 376 
 
 Viviani, the mathematician, 94, 95 
 
 Vivonne, Due de, 117, 144 
 
 Voisin (sorceress), 127-131 
 
 Voisin, the Chancellor, 424 
 
 Voiture, 293 
 
 Voltaire, essay on the century of Louis XIV., xi.- 
 xv., 5, 76. 92, 289, 345, 346 ; and the Man in 
 the Iron Mask, 21 ; testimony of, to the careful 
 government of Louis XIV., 56, 57 ; his pity for 
 Mademoiselle de la Valliere, 102, 105 ; and the wit 
 of Madame de Montespan, 118 ; defends the Due 
 d'Orleans, 163 ; eulogium by, on the military 
 organization created by Louis XIV., 217, 221, 226 ; 
 and the labouring classes of France, 278, 280 ; 
 tribute paid to the English writers by, 337, 338 ; 
 on the Camisards (White Shirts), 394-396 ; on 
 Cardinal de Bouillon, 445 
 
 Vossius (historiographer), 94 
 
 Vrilliere, Madame de la, 161 
 
 WALLER (poet), 336 
 War of Succession, the, 228, 233 
 Warin, Jean, busts and medals by, xiv., 314, 333, 334 
 Watteau, Antoine (painter), 328 
 Winter of 1709 in France, 270, 271 
 Witchcraft in France, 287. See also Sorcery 
 
 ZAMPIERI, Marchese, 96 
 Zell, Duchess of, 309 
 
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