The Builder of Versailles . . . Frontispiece

Versailles

The Hall of Mirrors

The Fountain at Versailles




INTRODUCTION


A TRAVELER'S REFLECTIONS ON VERSAILLES

From the low heights of Satory we get a complete view of the plains of
Versailles--the woods, the town and the sumptuous chateau. The palace
on its dais rules the scene. The village and ornamental environment
have been constructed to augment its majesty. Even the soil has been
"molded into new forms" at a monarch's caprice. Versailles is the
expression of monarchy, as conceived by Louis XIV. It is the only epic
produced in his reign--a reign so fertile in the other forms of poetry,
and in talent of all kinds. What epic ever chronicled the destiny of
an epoch in a manner more brilliant and complete? In this poem of
stone the manners of heroic and familiar life mingle at every step.
Besides the halls and galleries, the theaters of royal estate, there
are mysterious passages and sequestered nooks that whisper a thousand
secret histories. The palace has two voices, one grave and one gay and
trifling. It is full of truths and fictions, tears and smiles. The