The interior of his private apartments was thus arranged:  a salon, ornamented with gilded mouldings, displayed the engravings which had been dedicated to him, drawings of the canals he had dug, with the model of that of Burgundy, and the plan of the cones and works of Cherbourg.  The upper hall contained his collection of geographical charts, spheres, globes, and also his geographical cabinet.  There were to be seen drawings of maps which he had begun, and some that he had finished.  He had a clever method of washing them in.  His geographical memory was prodigious.  Over the hall was the turning and joining room, furnished with ingenious instruments for working in wood.  He inherited some from Louis XV., and he often busied himself, with Duret’s assistance, in keeping them clean and bright.  Above was the library of books published during his reign.  The prayer books and manuscript books of Anne of Brittany, Francois I, the later Valois, Louis XIV., Louis XV., and the Dauphin formed the great hereditary library of the Chateau.  Louis XVI. placed separately, in two apartments communicating with each other, the works of his own time, including a complete collection of Didot’s editions, in vellum, every volume enclosed in a morocco case.  There were several English works, among the rest the debates of the British Parliament, in a great number of volumes in folio (this is the Moniteur of England, a complete collection of which is so valuable and so scarce).  By the side of this collection was to be seen a manuscript history of all the schemes for a descent upon that island, particularly that of Comte de Broglie.  One of the presses of this cabinet was full of cardboard boxes, containing papers relative to the House of Austria, inscribed in the King’s own hand:  “Secret papers of my family respecting the House of Austria; papers of my family respecting the Houses of Stuart and Hanover.”  In an adjoining press were kept papers relative to Russia.  Satirical works against Catherine ii. and against Paul I. were sold in France under the name of histories; Louis XVIII. collected and sealed up with his small seal the scandalous anecdotes against Catherine ii., as well as the works of Rhulieres, of which he had a copy, to be certain that the secret life of that Princess, which attracted the curiosity of her contemporaries, should not be made public by his means.

Above the King’s private library were a forge, two anvils, and a vast number of iron tools; various common locks, well made and perfect; some secret locks, and locks ornamented with gilt copper.  It was there that the infamous Gamin, who afterwards accused the King of having tried to poison him, and was rewarded for his calumny with a pension of twelve thousand livres, taught him the art of lock-making.  This Gamin, who became our guide, by order of the department and municipality of Versailles, did not, however, denounce the King on the 20th December, 1792.