Invitations to a dramatic performance were given by the King himself, and, for many years, to men guests only.  Sometimes the Pompadour played the comedies of Voltaire, whom she favored against the will of all the royal family.  Occasionally, performances were of necessity postponed out of respect to a member of the Court that had been slain in a duel; but not for long did the King and his train pause in their restless pursuit of pleasure.

A new theater was installed, with more room for auditors, troupe and musicians.  Finally, in 1753, the Opera House was begun according to designs submitted by Gabriel, first architect to the King.  After long delays the edifice was completed in time for the marriage fetes of the Dauphin (Louis XVI) and Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria.  The hall of the Opera was so surpassingly fine in its dress of fine woodwork, green marble and gilding that a writer of the period, addressing a friend in Paris, where all were discontented with the Opera House just built in the capital, bade him “come with the crowd of curious folk to Versailles and admire the magnificent building of the Court Opera.  Besides the beautiful outer view it presents,” said he, “and the splendor of its ensemble, the mechanism of the interior is amazing.”  In this imposing auditorium the Court of Louis XVI heard the operas of Lully and Rameau, the tragedies of Racine and Voltaire.  Here at a banquet in October, 1789, Louis XVI called on his supporters at Versailles to oppose the Revolution.  And a short time later, the hall of the Opera served as a meeting-place for the insurrectionists.

In 1837, Louis Phillipe, last of the Bourbon kings, restored the building and redecorated it in red marble.  In memory of Louis XIV, the reigning King commanded his troupe to perform a comedy by Moliere.  Extracts from Meyerbeer’s opera, Robert le Diable, and a piece written by Auber concluded the fete organized by this monarch to recall the golden days of Louis the Superb.

When, in the summer of 1855, Napoleon III entertained Queen Victoria at Versailles, the supper that terminated a day of brilliant celebrations was laid in the banquet hall of the Opera.  The last theatrical performance given in this worthy memorial to the building enterprise of Louis XV was witnessed by Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie, and the King of Spain.

CHAPTER IX

THE TWILIGHT OF THE BOURBON KINGS

It was on a May morning in the year 1770 that the child-bride of the Dauphin of France arrived at Versailles—­the graceful, winsome, golden-haired Marie Antoinette, daughter of Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria.  The future Queen of France was then not fifteen years of age, and her affianced husband was but a few months older.

A letter in her own hand, dated at Versailles on the 24th of May, 1770, describes the incidents of her ceremonious journey from Austria, and her reception by Louis XV and his heir.  Other letters to her family give us glimpses of the wedding in the chapel of Versailles, of the fetes, the balls at the palace, the function of distributing bread and wine to the people, the hunts in nearby forests, the dances, musicales and informal assemblages of the royal family in the intimate apartments of the chateau.