moats and built around the lodge of Louis XIII with imposing effect. The
new buildings containing the state apartments of the King and Queen and
public salons were separated by great courts from the insignificant
beginning of all this mounting splendor. Le Vau did not live to see the
completion of the palace. He died in 1670. The work of reconstruction,
in which the King maintained a lively interest whether at home or abroad,
was continued by the architect's pupils at a cost of thousands of pounds.
Eagerly Louis read plans and listened to reports. With still greater
interest he attended the proposals of the great Mansard--nephew of the
designer and builder who in 1650 revived the use of the "Mansard roof."
When he succeeded as "first architect," Jules Mansard (or Mansart) first
undertook the erection of quarters for the Bourbon princes. In the same
year (1679) that he began the immense south wing for their use, he gave
instructions for the building of the now historic Hall of Mirrors between
two pavilions named--most appropriately in the light of after events--the
Salon of Peace and the Salon of War. From the high arched windows of
this glittering Grand Gallery great personages of past and present epochs
have surveyed the gardens, fountains and broad walks that are the
crowning glory of Versailles.

In the time of the Grand Monarque more than a thousand jets of water cast
their silver spray against the greenery of hedge and grove. "Nothing is
more surprising," said a chronicler of Louis the Fourteenth's reign,
"than the immense quantity of water thrown up by the fountains when they
all play together at the promenades of the King. These jets are capable
of using up a river." A writer of our day bids us pause for a moment at
the viewpoint in the gardens most admired by the King--at the end of the
Allée of Latona. "To the east, beyond the brilliant parterre of Latona,
with its fountains, its flowers, and its orange-trees, rise the
vine-covered walls of the terraces, with their spacious flights of steps