When the King asked me if I recollected the occurrence, I assured him that everything was perfectly true.  Hereupon the King sent for the girl, who was immediately brought to his chamber.  Such was her modesty, and confusion that she dared not raise her eyes from the ground.  The King spoke kindly to her, and gave her two thousand crowns to take her back to her own home.  The Provost was instructed to restore all these different articles to her, and as regarded myself, I willingly let her have the portrait, though it was worth a good deal more than the ten louis mentioned.

When she got back to her own country and the news of her safe arrival was confirmed, the King sent her twenty thousand livres as a dowry, which enabled her to make a marriage suitable to her good-natured disposition and blameless conduct.

She made a marked impression upon his Majesty, and he was often wont to speak about the chandelier on account of her, always alluding to her in kindly, terms.  If ever he returns to Holland, I am sure he will want to see her, either from motives of attachment or curiosity.  Her name, if I remember rightly, was Flora.

CHAPTER LVIII.

The Observatory.—­The King Visits the Carthusians.—­How a Painter with His Brush May Save a Convent.—­The Guilty Monk.—­Strange Revelations.—­The King’s Kindness.—­The Curate of Saint Domingo.

When it was proposed to construct in Paris that handsome building called the Observatory, the King himself chose the site for this.  Having a map of his capital before him, he wished this fine edifice to be in a direct line of perspective with the Luxembourg, to which it should eventually be joined by the demolition of the Carthusian Monastery, which filled a large gap.

The King was anxious that his idea should be carried out, but whenever he mentioned it to M. Mansard and the other architects, they declared that it was a great pity to lose Lesueur’s admirable frescos in the cloisters, which would have to be destroyed if the King’s vast scheme were executed.

One day his Majesty resolved to see for himself, and without the least announcement of his arrival, he went to the Carthusian Monastery in the Rue d’Enfer.  The King has great knowledge of art; he admired the whole series of wall-paintings, in which the life of Saint Bruno is divinely set forth.

[By a new process these frescos were subsequently transferred to canvas in 1800 or 1802, at which date the vast property of the Carthusian monks became part of the Luxembourg estates.—­Editor’s note.]

“Father,” said he to the prior who showed him round, “these simple, touching pictures are far beyond all that was ever told me.  My intention, I admit, was to move your institution elsewhere, so as to connect your spacious property with my palace of the Luxembourg, but the horrible outrage which would have to be committed deters me; to the marvellous art of Lesueur you owe it that your convent remains intact.”