This, doubtless, was he fain to believe; and if, on very fine days, from
his terrace before his gloomy palace of St. Germains, he could catch a
glimpse, in the distance, of a certain white spire of St. Denis, where his
race lay buried, he would say to his courtiers, with a sublime
condescension, "Gentlemen, you must remember that I, too, am mortal."

Surely the lords in waiting could hardly think him serious, and vowed that
his Majesty always loved a joke. However, mortal or not, the sight of that
sharp spire wounded his Majesty's eyes; and is said, by the legend, to
have caused the building of the palace of Babel-Versailles.

In the year 1681, then, the great king, with bag and baggage--with guards,
cooks, chamberlains, mistresses, Jesuits, gentlemen, lackeys, Fenelons,
Molieres, Lauzuns, Bossuets, Villars, Villeroys, Louvois, Colberts--
transported himself to his new palace: the old one being left for James of
England and Jaquette his wife, when their time should come. And when the
time did come, and James sought his brother's kingdom, it is on record
that Louis hastened to receive and console him, and promised to restore,
incontinently, those islands from which the canaille had turned him.

Between brothers such a gift was a trifle; and the courtiers said to one
another reverently, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right
hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." There was no blasphemy in
the speech; on the contrary, it was gravely said, by a faithful believing
man, who thought it no shame to the latter to compare his Majesty with God
Almighty.

Indeed, the books of the time will give one a strong idea how general was
this Louis-worship. I have just been looking at one which was written by