Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1890-09-03
VERSAILLES.

and Disc, stands the magnificent pal
ace of Versailles built by Louis XIV,
but which owes its origin 70 Louis
Kill From q recent number of the
Cosmopolitan Magazine we CLEAN the
following items.
There was nothing particular in the
site of the little village of which old
Hugo Versailles was lord and master,
about the beginning of the eleventh
century. TO recommend II TO a court so
fond of romantic amusements as that of
France Louis XIII. himself loved as
Residences the vast palaces of the
Louvre and the Tuileries, of St Ger
main and Fontaineb bleau, better than
Versailles, oven after he had establish
ed his luxurious shooting-box there.
Saint Simon tells US that 1t was during
one of the stag hunts in which the
king so rarely INDUCED, that his atten-
tiOn was first called TO the idea of an
establishment In the wood of Versailles.
Worn out vtth;huntIng, the sovereign
found himself obliged to take refuge at
the close OF the day in a windmill.
where he WAS most uncomfortable, and
soon aftervard he caused to be erected
what the courtiers of his time some
times called his chateau des csrtes
In the splendid sketch of Louis
Kill which Victor Hugo has given Us
in his drama called lie Roi $ amuse,
We find that that monarch VAS passion
a,ely fond of faleonry, his delicate con
stitution not permitting him often to
indulge in the wilder sport of hunting
the stag and the boar, nor allowing
him that rough riding for which so
many of his royal predecessors had
bsen famous. His special delight was
IN n rhn safnnr, -, -
pricious sNoop of the trained birds
after their prey through the windy sky.
Had Louis XIII. not been a good fall
coner and a devoted one, the world
would probably never had the palace
and the majestic park of Versailles.
IL was in l627 that Louis XIII. built
on this site the first royal cheteau.
The house was finished IN 1926, although
the land was not bought till 1892. On
the day that the house was finished.
Louis Kill gave = great feast to the
queens Maria d. Nedicis and Anne of
Austria he even waited at the table.
according to the custom of the time,
serving the first dish to his royal
guests; after which be sat at the feet Of
the queen. This WAS the hanging of
the crane" and Heroard speaks of II as
remarkable for the decency and good
order which prsvailed-an indication
that royal festivities In the seventeenth
century were not wont to be governed
according to those rules which to-day
govern nearly all courts. In l632
he bought the land from the neighbor-
ing gentry who imposed upon him, by
dspAniing double Its value.
The old chroniclsrs tell US that Louis
XIII. drew the plan Of his house; and
Judging from the Representations which
have come down to us, he did himself
no great honor on that occasion.
We need not weary the modern read
or with an elaborate description Of
Louis Kills castle in the wood. ID
had one quaint court Of marbles, hand
somely ornsmsnted with seven arcades
filed with gilt iron work. 1t possessed
balconies in which were ranges of mar
ble busts representing the Roman EN-
perors. and the roofs and chimneys
were decorated with vases and other
ornaments colored blue, thus with the
white stone and red bricks reproducing
The colors of the house of Bourbon.
The roofs were all gIlded, and on ac-
count of their splendor may possibly
have suggested to Napoleon i. his ia
nous notion of gliding the dome of the
Invalides. All the staircases and balus-
trades were OF DhEDlc- ne kalhcnS
were as elaborate, as artificial, and yet
none of them were so splendid, as
those of some of the aristocratic neigh
bors of the king.
In the wood OF Versailles birds of all
kinds we're plentiful, and the king was
never happier than when there. When
he WAS not engaged in falcoury, he was
fond of fruit-gardening, and offered to
the queen, to the Princess of Conde,
and to numerous other court ladies on
the 25th of April, l643, only few days
before his death, "A collation. composed
of his own preserves
There Was but one really imposing
historical event at Versailles IN Louis
KILLS time, and that has been made
familiar to us all in Bulwer's play of
Richelieu-
Versailles during his time was far
more healthy, morally and IN every
other sense, than in the dissolute reign
of his successor. Louis Kill loved
not merely hunting; he was a good mu-
sician, liked to play upon the violon
cello, and even composed songs and
motets which were brought out with
care by his chapel choir The De
Profundis, which he had written, and
which Was performed at the court on
Wednesday, vas chSuted beside
his bed after his death He sometimes
wrote IN the journals of the time, and
especially liked to write for the Gazette
de France. Now and then he touched
the pencil, and drew some very decent
portraits OF his friends Saint Simon,
Cina-Mars, Nine de Hautefort, and
Mile. de Lafayette were his principal
favOrItes.
His last visit to Versailles was made
early in the spring of l643, when he
gave a grand dinner IN honor of Car
dinsl Mazarin and other notables of the
time. In February of this year he re-
turned to 1t Germsin, discouraged
and broken down with the anemia
which he had hoped to got rid of in the
pure air of Versailles, and in the fol-
lowing year he died, worn out, at forty
two
When lie Notre began his work un-
der Louis XIV.'s direction, IN 1852,
many of the plans of Louis Kill were
changed, and some of them were spoiled
Ii is said that when the palace was
completed and all the improvements
finished, the accounts were gwen to
Louis XIV. to inspect. When he saw
the enormous sum that had been eN-
peuded he instantly tore up the ac-
counts, actuated, let us hope, by a
sense of shame that so many millions
of francs were spent for pleasure,
while thousands of his poor subjects
died for want of food
The old Sieur de In Baroderie, who
occupied the proud post OF intsndant-
general of the gardens and royal resi-
dences of the king, spent his declining
wears in embellishing the gardens of
Versailles; and to his skilful hand is
also due much of the beauty of the
Luxembourg Gardens In Paris II was