The Queen was tired of the excursions to Marly, and had no great difficulty in setting the King against them.  He did not like the expense of them, for everybody was entertained there gratis.  Louis xiv. had established a kind of parade upon these excursions, differing from that of Versailles, but still more annoying.  Card and supper parties occurred every day, and required much dress.  On Sundays and holidays the fountains played, the people were admitted into the gardens, and there was as great a crowd as at the fetes of St. Cloud.

Every age has its peculiar colouring; Marly showed that of Louis xiv. even more than Versailles.  Everything in the former place appeared to have been produced by the magic power of a fairy’s wand.  Not the slightest trace of all this splendour remains; the revolutionary spoilers even tore up the pipes which served to supply the fountains.  Perhaps a brief description of this palace and the usages established there by Louis xiv. may be acceptable.

The very extensive gardens of Marly ascended almost imperceptibly to the Pavilion of the Sun., which was occupied only by the King and his family.  The pavilions of the twelve zodiacal signs bounded the two sides of the lawn.  They were connected by bowers impervious to the rays of the sun.  The pavilions nearest to that of the sun were reserved for the Princes of the blood and the ministers; the rest were occupied by persons holding superior offices at Court, or invited to stay at Marly.  Each pavilion was named after fresco paintings, which covered its walls, and which had been executed by the most celebrated artists of the age of Louis xiv.  On a line with the upper pavilion there was on the left a chapel; on the right a pavilion called La Perspective, which concealed along suite of offices, containing a hundred lodging-rooms intended for the persons belonging to the service of the Court, kitchens, and spacious dining-rooms, in which more than thirty tables were splendidly laid out.

During half of Louis xv.’s reign the ladies still wore the habit de cour de Marly, so named by Louis xiv., and which differed little from, that devised for Versailles.  The French gown, gathered in the back, and with great hoops, replaced this dress, and continued to be worn till the end of the reign of Louis XVI.  The diamonds, feathers, rouge, and embroidered stuffs spangled with gold, effaced all trace of a rural residence; but the people loved to see the splendour of their sovereign and a brilliant Court glittering in the shades of the woods.

After dinner, and before the hour for cards, the Queen, the Princesses, and their ladies, paraded among the clumps of trees, in little carriages, beneath canopies richly embroidered with gold, drawn by men in the King’s livery.  The trees planted by Louis xiv. were of prodigious height, which, however, was surpassed in several of the groups by fountains of the clearest water; while, among others, cascades over white marble, the waters of which, met by the sunbeams, looked like draperies of silver gauze, formed a contrast to the solemn darkness of the groves.