Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1841-06-12

fields, and from st. Georges fsl Is, to tn,
alleys behind st. Martins church: t,
sleep on a bulk in June, aud amids. tn,
ashes of q g~lasshouse in December; t,
die in a hospital, a d to BE- bur ed in a pa
rish vault, was the fate Of more than on.
writer, who, if he had lived thirty year!
earlier, would have been admitted to thu
sittings Of the Kit-Cat or the Scriblerus
Club, would have sat in the Parliament
aad would have been intrasted with en-
i ssles to the High Allies; who if he hat
lived in our time, would have received
from. the booksellers several hundred
poun''s a year.
Lot IS THE FOURTEENTH.
Conce,D ing Louis the Fourteenth him.
self, the wor 4 seems at last to have formed
a correct judy nent. He was not a great
general he WIS not a great statesman /;
tut he was in ons sense Of the words, a
great king. Never was there so conHnm.
mate a master of VIII our James the FIRST
would have called kin 'craft--of all those
arts which most dva,A'ageously display
the merits Of a prince, and most complete
ly hide his defects. Though his internal
administration was bad, though the mill.
'ary triumphs which gave splendor to the
early part Of his reign were not achieved
by himself, though his later years were
crowded with defeats and humiliat ions,
though he was so ignorant that he sca.-ce.
ly understood the Latin of his massbot,k,
though he fell under the control Of a cur,-
ming Jesuit and Of a more cunning old
woman, he succeeded in passing himself
oH on his people as being above humanity.
And this is the more extraordinary, be-
cause he did not seclude himself from the
public gaze like those Oriental despots
whose faces are never seen, and whose
very names it is a crime to pronounce
lightly. 1t has been said that no man is
a hero TO his valet; and all The world saw
as much of Louis the Fourteenth us his
valet could s e. Five hundred people as.
sembled to sec him s:lave and put on his
breeches in the morning. He then kneeled
down BY the side of his bed, and said his
prayer, while the whole assembly awaited
the end in solemn silence, the ecclesiastics
on their knees, and the Iavmen with their
hats before their faces. He walked about
MS gardens with a train Of two hundred
couriiers at his heels. All Versailles came
to see him dine and sup. He was put to
bed at night in the midst of a crowd as
great as that which had met to see him
rise in the m uning. He took his very
enetics in state, and volnited maiesticalIy
in the presence of all the grandes and
pf;hes en.rfcs. But though he constantly
exposed himself to tae public gaze in sit.
uations IN which it is scarcely possible for
any man to preserve much personal digni-
ty, he 20 the las. impressed those VINO sur
rounded hun with the deepest awe and
reverence. the illusion which he pro.
daoed on his worshippers, can be caompar.
ell only to those illusions to which lovers
are proyarbially subject during the season
OF courtship. 1t was an ~iIIusioa which
aztec ed even the senses. The contempt
raries Of Louis thought him tall. yoliaire
who might have seen him, and who lived
with some of the most dis inguished MEM
bets of his court, speaks repeatedly of his
IA estic stature. Yet it is as certain as
any fact can b., that he was rather below
than above the middle size. He had it
seems a way of holding himself, a way of
walking, a WY of swelling his chest and
rearing his head which deceived the eyes
OF the multitude. Eighty years after his
death, the royal cemstery was violated by
the revoIutIonists his coffin was opened;
his body was dragged out and it appeared
mai the prince, waose majestic figure had
bcea SO long and loudly extolled, wa in
tr.ith a little man.* That fiae expression
of Juvenal is ~singulariy applicable, both in
It's literal and in It's ~meiaphorical senss, to
Louis the Fourteenth.
"Mors sofa fatetur
Quantula tint homlnum corglscula."
Hys narsoo ap1 h,r rayo.r,,.r4 L~uz