Mansard constructed his palaces; Poussin decorated his chambers; Le Brun painted his ceilings; Le Notre laid out his grounds; Girardon sculptured his fountains; Montespan arranged his fetes; while La Valliere, La Fayette, and Sevigne—­all queens of beauty—­displayed their graces in the Salon de Venus.”  What an array of great men and brilliant women to reflect the splendors of an absolute throne!  Never was there such an eclat about a court; it was one of the wonders of the age.

And Louis never lost his taste for this outward grandeur.  He was ceremonious and exacting to the end.  He never lost the sense of his own omnipotence.  In his latter days he was sad and dejected, but never exhibited his weakness among his worshippers.  He was always dignified and self-possessed.  He loved pomp as much as Michael Angelo loved art.  Even in his bitterest reverses he still maintained the air of the “Grand Monarque.”  Says Henri Martin:—­

“Etiquette, without accepting the extravagant restraints which the court of France endured, and which French genius would not support, assumed an unknown extension, proportioned to the increase of royal splendor.  It was adapted to serve the monarchy at the expense of the aristocracy, and tended to make functions prevail over birth.  The great dukes and peers were multiplied in order to reduce their importance, and the King gave the marshals precedence over them.  The court was a scientific and complicated machine which Louis guided with sovereign skill.  At all hours, in all places, in the most trifling circumstances of life, he was always king.  His affability never contradicted itself; he expressed interest and kindliness to all; he showed himself indulgent to errors that could not be repaired; his majesty was tempered by a grave familiarity; and he wholly refrained from those pointed and ironical speeches which so cruelly wound when falling from the lips of a man that none can answer.  He taught all, by his example, the most exquisite courtesy to women.  Manners acquired unequalled elegance.  The fetes exceeded everything which romance had dreamed, in which the fairy splendors that wearied the eye were blended with the noblest pleasures of the intellect.  But whether appearing in mythological ballets, or riding in tournaments in the armor of the heroes of antiquity, or presiding at plays and banquets in his ordinary apparel with his thick flowing hair, his loose surtout blazing with gold and silver, and his profusion of ribbons and plumes, always his air and port had something unique,—­always he was the first among all.  His whole life was like a work of art; and the role was admirably played, because he played it conscientiously.”