in the winter of 1848, before departing for
Dreux. But, despite changes and mutilations,
the facade and the interior of the
rose-colored palace retain the stamp of the
Great King who sponsored the Gallery of
Mirrors, the Antechamber of the Bull's Eye,
and the Chapel at Versailles.




CHAPTER V

A DAY WITH THE SUN KING

Louis the Magnificent, we must agree with that profuse and sharp-witted
chronicler, the Duke of Saint-Simon, was made for a brilliant Court. "In
the midst of other men, his figure, his courage, his grace, his beauty,
his grand mien, even the tone of his voice and the majestic and natural
charm of all his person, distinguished him till his death as the King
Bee, and showed that if he had been born only a simple private gentleman,
he would have excelled in fetes, pleasures and gallantry. . . . He
liked splendor, magnificence and profusion in everything. Nobody ever
approached his magnificence."

With sumptuous detail the King's day progressed at Versailles, from the
formal "rising" to the hour when, with equal pomp, the monarch went to
bed. Before eight o'clock in the morning the waiting-room next the
King's bedchamber was the gathering-place of princes, nobles and officers
of the Court, each fresh from his own laving and be-wigging. While they