paradise period for profiteers.

Versailles became a favorite retreat of the extravagant young sovereign.
He frequently drove out from Paris, and on sundry occasions gave splendid
balls and dinners.

For periods of increasing frequency the King was in residence at
Versailles. He urged on the builders who had in hand the construction of
the living-rooms, kitchens, stables; he supervised the placing of
pictures and other decorative works in various parts of the expanded
chateau; impatiently he chided the superintendents for delay and
feverishly they strove to meet his demands for greater haste. And though
every hour of haste cost the King of France a substantial sum, he cared
for nothing but the fulfillment of his luxurious plans. Hundreds of
laborers were engaged in laying out the orangery, the grand terrace, the
fruit and vegetable gardens. The original entrance court was greatly
enlarged. Long wings terminated by pavilions bordered it. On the right
were the kitchens, with quarters for the domestics; on the left, the
stables, where there were stalls for fifty-four horses. At the main
entrance to the court were pavilions used by the musketeers as
guard-houses. Those were bustling times at Versailles, and every day
disclosed a new development and opened the way to new miracles of
construction.

And the miracles were wrought, one after another--all by order of the
King. On the site of the park a great terrace was bordered by a parterre
in the shape of a half-moon, where a waterfall was later installed. A
long promenade, now called the Allée Royale, extended to a vast basin
named the Lake of Apollo. Streamlets were diverted to feed fountains.
Twelve hundred and fifty orange trees were transported from the fallen