The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-05-04
 TALLEYRAND'S CHATEAU.

It is to be Sold Under the Hammer
 "Reminiscences of the F1ace.
 The announcement that the Chateau of Valencay, in Berry, once the home of | Talleyrand, and the scene of some nota- ble transactions in the history of his
 time, is shortly to be sold by auction at
 the Palais de Justice, in Paris, arouses
 many interesting memories. This mag
 nificent example of Renaissance archi-
 lecture is the joint property of the heirs
 of the late Due de Talleyrand, Valencay
 and Sagan, and is, we may suppose be-
 ing brought to "the hammer" in conse-
 quence of those decrees of the Code Ma
 poleon which make it Sd difficult to
 keep French landed properties intact
 It is difficult to picture the most fa- nous member of the House of Perigord,
 the cynical, interruptions turn-coat
 who served so many masters, whose finger had been in every pie baked in the fierce ovens of the Revolution, the Directory, the Empire and the Restora- tion calmly planting trees in his park, like the Laird of Dumbledykes, and musing upon the grateful shade they might afford to unborn generations. Talleyrand's trees have lasted better than his diplomacy, and have helped to make Valencay and its forest of Ga tines famous.
 The place lies some distance to the south of Orleans, but it's chateau de- serves to rank with the storied stones of the other great houses standing upon the banks of the Loire and the Cher. Its Renaissance portals and it's richly sculptured round towers look over ter races fringed with orange trees to beautifully wooded and watered valley. In it's present form 1t dates, like so many rivals in the district, from the days of Francois l. It impressed even the international Prince of Benevento, and struck Medemoiselle de Montpen- sier as an enchanted dwelling-"the most beautiful and magnificent house in the world" she called it.
 Valencay is still full of memorials of Talleyrand. He is buried in the hos pce in the little town hard by Ponia- towskis sister; his bedroom remains as he left it and even his court costumes are preserved as relics of price. The house is crowded with art treasures David's portrait of Napoleon and Cano- vas Paris" among them. Theese and long series of other pictures were, in great measure, presented to the dread ed minister by royal and other admir- CTS, who believed, as devoutly as hk did himself that gratitude is lively sense of favors to come" He was, too, col lector on his own account and brought together acres of engravings and fami ly portraits, as well as library fine in detail and in proportions, for it extends to twenty-five thousand volumes.
 The most curious incident in the his- tory of Valencay was the gilded captiv- ity there of Ferdinand VII and the In- fanta of Spain. Napoleon placed them in Talleyrand's custody while he was the remarkable diplomacy which resulted in the treaty of Valen- cay, under which the integrity of Spain and it's evacuation by the French troops were promised. It must in justice be admitted that he did not take very kindly to acting the jailer. Ferdinand VII and his suite spent two months in from Madrid to Berry, and the carriage in which they performed the journey still stands in the l Due de Sagan's coachhouse
 Napoleon wrote to his tool that his | business was to amuse his distinguished | guests. The house, he told him, was to l be filled with pretty women, and he ex- pressed a plain hope that the Prince of |