Pius VII. who came to France to crown him, and was here (January 25, 1813)
induced to sign the famous Concordat de Fontainebleau, by which he abjured
his temporal sovereignty. The chateau which witnessed the abdication of
the Pope, also saw that of Napoleon I., who made his touching farewell to
the soldiers of the Vielle-Garde in the Cour du Cheval-Blanc, before
setting off for Elba.... The Cour du Cheval-Blanc, the largest of the five
courts of the palace, took its name from a plaster copy of the horse of
Marcus Aurelius at Rome, destroyed 1626. Recently it has been called the
Cour des Adieux, on account of the farewell of Napoleon I. in 1814. It was
once surrounded by buildings on all sides; one was removed in 1810, and
replaced by a grille.

The principal facade is composed of five pavilions with high roofs, united
by buildings two stories high. The beautiful twisted staircase in front of
the central pavilion was executed by Lemercier for Louis XIII., and
replaces a staircase by Philbert Delorme. Facing this pavilion, the mass
of buildings on the right is the Aile Neuve of Louis XV., built on the
site of the Galerie d'Ulysse, to the destruction of the precious works of
Primaticcio and Niccolo dell' Abbate, with which it was adorned. Below the
last pavilion, near the grille, was the Grotte du Jardin-des-pins, where
James V. of Scotland, coming over to marry Magdalen of France, daughter of
Francois I., watched her bathing with her ladies, by the aid of a
mirror....

To the west of the Cour du Cheval-Blanc, and communicating with it, is the
Cour de la Fontaine, the main front of which is formed by the Galerie de
Francois I. This faces the great tank, into which Gaston d' Orleans, at
eight years old, caused one of the courtiers to be thrown, whom he
considered to have spoken to him disrespectfully. One side of the Cour de
la Fontaine, that toward the Jardin Anglais, is terminated by a pavilion