queen-mother, is divided in two parts throughout its
whole length by the famous partition-wall, which is more than four feet
thick, against which rests the enormous walls which separate the
rooms from each other. Thus, on both floors, the apartments are in
two distinct halves. One half, to the south, looking to the courtyard,
served for public receptions and for the transaction of business;
whereas the private apartments were placed, partly to escape the heat,
to the north, overlooking the gardens, on which side is the splendid
facade with its balconies and galleries looking out upon the open
country of the Vendomois, and down upon the "Perchoir des Bretons" and
the moat, the only side of which La Fontaine speaks.

The chateau of Francois I. was, in those days, terminated by an enormous
unfinished tower which was intended to mark the colossal angle of the
building when the succeeding wing was built. Later, Gaston took down one
side of it, in order to build his palace on to it; but he never finished
the work, and the tower remained in ruins. This royal stronghold served
as a prison or dungeon, according to popular tradition.

As we wander to-day through the halls of this matchless chateau, so
precious to art and to history, what poet would not be haunted by
regrets, and grieved for France, at seeing the arabesques of Catherine's
boudoir _whitewashed_ and almost obliterated, by order of the
quartermaster of the barracks (this royal residence is now a barrack) at
the time of an outbreak of cholera. The panels of Catherine's boudoir, a
room of which we are about to speak, is the last remaining relic of
the rich decorations accumulated by five artistic kings. Making our way
through the labyrinth of chambers, halls, stairways, towers, we may
say to ourselves with solemn certitude: "Here Mary Stuart cajoled
her husband on behalf of the Guises." "There, the Guises insulted
Catherine." "Later, at that very spot the second Balafre fell beneath
the daggers of the avengers of the Crown." "A century earlier, from this
very window, Louis XII. made signs to his friend Cardinal d'Amboise
to come to him." "Here, on this balcony, d'Epernon, the accomplice of
Ravaillac, met Marie de' Medici, who knew, it was said, of the proposed
regicide, and allowed it to be committed."

In the chapel, where the marriage of Henri IV. and Marguerite de Valois
took place, the sole remaining fragment of the chateau of the counts of
Blois, a regiment now