its fountains, its flowers, and its orange-trees, rise the vine-covered walls of the terraces, with their spacious flights of steps and their vividly green clipped yews.  Turn to the west and survey the Royal Allee, the Basin of Apollo, and the Grand Canal, or look to the north to the Allee of Ceres, or to the south to that of Bacchus, and you realize the harmony that existed between Mansard and Le Notre in the decoration of the chateau and in the plan of the gardens.”  Beyond the palace and the surrounding gardens lay the park in which the Grand Trianon was built, of marble, near the bank of the Grand Canal.  Madame de Maintenon, who became the King’s second wife, was housed within these sumptuous walls, which were completed in 1688.

And so the construction of this miracle work of the Great Monarch went on.  In Versailles, Louis was bent on realizing himself, and nothing but himself.  The Pharaoh of Egypt built his pyramids with as little consideration of what it meant in tribute from his subjects.  Each year took its toll in money and men to make this home of Louis the Magnificent.  “The King,” wrote Madame de Sevigne on the twelfth of October, 1678, “wishes to go on Saturday to Versailles, but it seems that God does not wish it, by the impossibility of putting the buildings in a state to receive him, and by the great mortality among the workmen.”  But the work had continued, as the King commanded, and when he finally entered into possession of his new palace in 1682 with all his Court, thirty-six thousand men and six thousand horses were still engaged in making matters comfortable and satisfactory for His Glorious Majesty.  “The State,” exclaimed the Sun King, “it is I!” and in the same mood he might have added, “Versailles—­it is the State!”

CHAPTER III

THE LUXURY OF VERSAILLES

The Splendors of the Chateau—­its Apartments and Gardens, the Hall of Mirrors

In planning the interior decorations at Versailles, the numerous company of artists employed by the sovereign devised a scheme of ornamentation inspired by the arts of ancient Rome.  Mythological and historical subjects were utilized for the glorification of the Grand Monarch.  A Description of the chateau, officially printed in 1674, gives us the key to the interpretation of the allegories.  “As the Sun is the device of the King, and poets represent the Sun and Apollo as one, nothing exists in this superb dwelling that does not bear relation to the Sun divinity.”

The emblem of Apollo was in evidence everywhere; signs of the month ornamented facades and walls; and inside the palace and out were symbols of the seasons and the hours of the day.  The King’s apartment bore on its ceiling and walls paintings depicting deeds of seven heroes of Antiquity, supported by Louis’ planet emblem.  All the interior decoration was Italian in style—­marble wainscoting in window embrasures, floors of marble, panels of marble, doors of repousse bronze.  The apartments of Anne of Austria and the Gallery of Apollo at the Louvre offered the first examples in France of this decorative style, and guided the artists at Versailles in making their plans.