St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-01-20

f! !I |!=.!= zu'!l g wa;
re, =! ;a' y . D. - e z
A1 i
| CoAtk 81 Oo>A~l,ree,o1I7
milk; large garden. but on
vegetables. In addition to these petty
miseries. the gentry of the neighbor-
hood studiously ignored the famous
prima donna. Between the robbery of
the peas antry and the want of hospi-
| tally upon the part of their betters,
| life became unbearable. Last year she
was sued for having taken the water
| estate in order to make miniature
lake. Several persons in the neighbor-
| hood considered themselves much dam
aged by this proceeding and wanted
heavy damages. Mile. Patti said that
if the suit went against her she would
sell Craig-y-nOs to the first customer
| she could find; so that probably the
| suit went against her. As SignOr Mic
DINA is Frenchman (his name is really
. Nicholas, the removal to Sunny France
will probably be satisfaction to him.
| 1t is not reported what Mile. Patti paid
| for CheconceauX. but if she bought the
whole surrounding park of some 200
acres, the price can not have been far
from 100000. 1t will, therefore, take
! about two years work for the diva to
earn money enough to pay for one of
| the most beautiful and famous chateaus
| in France.
The chateau of Chenonceauy was
| built in the sixteenth century. under
the reign of Francis |. Later it was
! Given by Henry H. to his mistress, the
beautiful Diane de Poitiers, who Ell
/ Iarged it and held there her court: and
hither her royal lover used to repair
after hunting in the neighboring forest
| of LOches. Diane could not see too
often the reflection of her own lovely
face, and so the king, as he said gave
her the chateau of ChenonceauX, where,
when she looked out of the wind ow. she
might see her features reflected in the
River Cher, which flowed beneath it.
| 1t was strange, but, as it turned out,
a charming fancy, to build chateau on
piers in the middle of river. The
original chateau consisted of the large,
square, central part, fianked by angle
turrets and the projecting chapel.
This, with the drawbridge and tow
| er. was built OH the site of an
old mill by the wife of Bother, a
follower of Charles VIII, who had re-
| turned rich from Italy. Diane de Poi
tiers added a long bridge. built on piers,
| connecting the chateau with the other
side of the river. and Catherine de Med
icis added the two-story gallery which
now surmounts the bridge. The chateau
is unlike all the other royal French chat
teaus, in that it has no blood upon its
stones-nO sad histories of treaSonS, per-
fidies, cOnsplracieS. Here for 200 years
Diane de Poitiers, Mary Stuart and other
| fair danes came to animate smiling ma
ture and to mirror in the clear water of
the Cher their beautiful faces. The vast
rooms remain now very much as they
were before the revolution, ChenOn-
ceauX being remarkable as one of
the royal palaces which escaped
pillage, 1t owed its immunity
largely to the fact that for more
than a hundred years it has belonged to
commoneTs. Many of the traces of roy
| atty have, however, been carefully pre-
| served Beneath magnificent sculpt-
| ure in wood of the salamander (emblem
of Francis ~ Henry Ii. has added a
monogram made up Of c. and D.-lnit
tials of mistress and wife intertWined-
For thirty years. while the Hugueno.
wars were fought, Chenonceaux. was
| the scene of perpetual series of fetes,
whose character may be gathered from
the description by one given by Pierre
| de PErtoilic. The Duke of Alencon
having taken the village of Charite-sur-
Loire from the Huguenot, his brother
gave him at Plessis banquet which
cost EGO, 900, and next day his mother
| gave him one at CenonceauX which cost
| G1OO, 900. The Queen-mother, sixty years
! of age, in entertaining her son, aged
| tWenty-six. provided for all the ladies
their dresses, which consisted solely of
green silk trousers. All were naked to
I the waist. The money came from the
| people.
| Duke of Bourbon to Gen Claude Dupin.
| lean Jacques Rousseau was the teacher
i of Dupin'S eldest son, and here he fitted
| up a little theater in which his operas
/ and comedies were performed. From
Nine. Dupin, the widow of the general,
the Chenonceaux passed to her grand
nephew. the Count de Vilieneuve.
George Sand, cousin Of the count, was
! always welcome guest at the chateau,
and wrote some of her books here. In
! 1876 the chateau was again sold to Nine.
| PelOuZe, a sister of Daniel Wilson,
President Grevy's son-in-law. Nine.
! Pelou7e has spent more than half a
million francs in restoring the chateau,
SO far as possible, to its condition under
| Henry. Ii. She called to her
| aid the best authorities and decora-
| tors in France. The long gallery was SUI
perbly finished in mirrors and painted
| panels. 1t is said that Mime: Pelouze
| sold the chateau in order to raise money
| for the payment of her brothers enor-
nous debts. Among the historic
treasures, which, of course, cannot be
| taken from the building, is curious
! collection of all the chief people who
have lived at Chenonceaux, including
Voltaire, Rosseau, the exiled Boiling
! broke and one picture of Diane de
| Poitiers in the character of goddess,
| in a taffeta petticoaf embroidered with
fleurs-de-Iis. There is glass out OF
which Francis l. is supposed to have
drunk, mirror used by Mary Stuart,
aud a vast qantity of tapestries, furnl-
ture, cabinets, china, etc.
PIG HUBERT.