Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-05
Restoration of Versailles

I too lightly and continued it through
vanity. Do not initiate me, for war i
the ruin Of nations"
| Named Guests for All Meals.
Louis used to say: versailles is fol
the court. Trianon is for me" Ell.
auette was easier there than at Yer.
sailleS. The King named the guests
| for all meals. They were generally
ladies. In fetes. masked balls, water
parties, cards, billiards, music, dancing
| and hunting he forgot the cares OF
state. He could revel in his new pal
ace all night and then step from the
terrace onto a gilded barge on the
! Grand Canal and lift faded eyes to
! the glory of Summer dawn.
Practical jokes enlivened the life OF
the court. A, .sportive bevy of ladies
smoked the Kings brother out OF his
bed room at Trianon one night. On
another occasion the Duchesse de Bour-
! gogne, the darling of the court, exploded
a series of bombs in an avenue along
which the Princess d'Harcourt was be-
ing carried in sedan chair, so that the
bearers dropped the chair and fed
leaving the lady shrieking inside. Her
husband, the due, went one better. At
supper one evening he gave Santeuil,
the foremost Latin poet of the day, a
glass Of wine into which he had privily
emptied the contents of his snuff box.
Santeuu died two days later in agony.
The court was highly diverted.
But even Trianon became too elabo-
rate at last for this Unsuitable monarch
and on the other side of the forest he
strapped the village of Marty and built
on its site yet another palace, buried in
foliage, with pavtlionS, avenues, carp
ponds, cascades, bowers and terraced
gardens and lakes on which gondolas
f1oated.
The revolutionists destroyed this
| place, which had cost more than
100000 francs. Today only garden
wall and few clumps of lime trees are
left to mark the site.
BY the time Louis XIV's Queen died
the life of Versailles had begun to ex-
hauSt his vital energy, although he was
only As the lived to the age of 77.
He turned from voluptuous beauties to
Nine. de Maintenon, the austere enemy
OF pleasure and patroness of devots,
who had been governesS to his mistress
children. Soon fetes galantes and lies
enchantees passed like scented dream
Sermons and devotional exercises re-
placed the former license and gayety.
Finds Court Life Exacting.
But the new mistress of Versailles
found court life exacting. In a letter
written in l706 she complains Of the
fatigues of her existence People are
always in her room and her ante
chamber-dukeS, archbishops, generals,
duchesses. princesses, all sorts of people
My room is like a church." she ex-
claims. There Is regular procession
through it and an eternal coming and
going. At dinner I am sur
rounded by circle of ladies, so that
cannot even ask for something to
drink. Then there is the Kings
brother. He is the most dificult man
in the world to entertain, because he
doesn't say a word" The King, with
all the princesSes and the royal family,
come into her room and they make it
"intolerably warm" She is left alone
with the King She has to listen to
forebodings and his vapeurs. He has
no conversation"
Then she goes to bed, undressing be-
hind screen. The King stays with her
until ne goes to supper. The dauphia
ana the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy
come to say goodnight. Everybody
leaves her. But often she cannot sleep.
When the King lay dying in the Sum-
mer of IT'S she fed from him and the
vast palace and was at st. Cyr when his
death rattle sounded. One can under.
stand that-and her.
THE King is deadl Long live the
King!" they cried from the marble court
under the Kings bedroom. The small
Louis XIV inherited Versailles, and pres
emily was enjoying 1t as only a man
could who had inherited all the sun
Kings shadows and none Of his depths,
Half q century later they cried again:
The King is dead! Long live the
King" And now down the corridors of
Antoinette, gay, laughing, blind to the
wrath to come. Painted lips, powdered
heads, amorouS secrets, intrigues. g.
Behind hedges and thickets in the
grounds Of the Petit Trianon and little
known to tourists, there is a small
building which Is like a frozen memory
OF that phase Of luxury and folly-the
private theater of Marie Antoinette.
In this charming miniature theater
the queen OF France played before the
footlights by the light of wax candles
glimmering in crystal chandeliers. and
the ladies and gentlemen of the court
lounged in the miniature auditorium.
Roles Many and Varied.
There are her initials, IN. A." above
the proscenium; the boards she trod,
the dressing room in which she ex-
changed her brocaded gown for the cot
ton garments of a shepherdess and of a
waiting girl. Her roles were many and
varied, for she never tired of the game
Of exchanging promiscuous kisses and
embraces with handsome courtiers I'M
der the mask of an innocent enthu-
siaSm for amateur theatricals
But her fantastic vanity led her to
make the mistake of having the palace
! servants along to see her play the part,
| once of a shepherdesS and once of a
waiting girl. And so the Paris populace
heard of these goings on, and growled:
"Trollop!"
Behind the Little Trianon she had a
| private village. It was great fun. There
were glades, pools, a messy cave. She
could play at being a nymph. One day
as she reclined at ease in her sylvan
| cave she saw a page coming down the
path from the Little Trianon. She
called him, opened the letter he bore. It
was from the King. He summoned her
to the main palace. The mob was on
the march from Paris, trundling its
cannon, filling the road, the women
shrieking menace and anticipatory
abuse.
They arrived, the mob, and poured
down the stately avenues, splashed
through the ponds and over the gardens
and camped In the marble court. They
helped themselves to the ratings
sharpened the spikes, made pixies OF
them. They lit fire and roasted q
horse. AS night fell some of them
burst into the palace, killed two OF
Marie Antoinette's guards, but failed
in that enormous labyrinth, to find the
hated Queen.
Twenty-four hours later Marie An
toinette left her sylvan haunts; and
soon she was dead and her headless
corpse was being shoveled away under
the dark earth. Versailles died with