d
equerries of the kitchen, the chiefs, assistants and head-cooks, the
ordinary scullions, turnspits and cellarers, the common gardeners
and salad gardeners, laundry servants, pastry-cooks, plate-changers,
table-setters, crockery-keepers, and broach-bearers, the butler of the
table of the head-butler,--an entire procession of broad-braided backs
and imposing round bellies, with grave countenances, which, with order
and conviction, exercise their functions before the saucepans and around
the buffets.

One step more and we enter the sanctuary, the king's apartment. Two
principal dignitaries preside over this, and each has under him about
a hundred subordinates. On one side is the grand chamberlain with his
first gentlemen of the bedchamber, the pages of the bedchamber, their
governors and instructors, the ushers of the antechamber, with the four
first valets-de-chambre in ordinary, sixteen special valets serving in
turn, his regular and special cloak-bearers, his barbers, upholsterers,
watch-menders, waiters and porters; on the other hand is the
grand-master of the wardrobe, with the masters of the wardrobe and the
valets of the wardrobe regular and special, the ordinary trunk-carriers,
mail-bearers, tailors, laundry servants, starchers, and common waiters,
with the gentlemen, officers and secretaries in ordinary of the cabinet,
in all 198 persons for domestic service, like 50 many domestic utensils
for every personal want, or as sumptuous pieces of furniture for the
decoration of the apartment. Some of them fetch the mall and the balls,
others hold the mantle and cane, others comb the king's hair and dry him
off after a bath, others drive the mules which transport his bed, others
watch his pet greyhounds in his room, others fold, put on and tie his
cravat, and others fetch and carry off his easy chair.[2120] Some there
are whose sole business it is to fill a corner which must not be left
empty. Certainly, with respect to ease of deportment and appearance
these are the most conspicuous of all; being so close to the master they
are under obligation to appear well; in such proximity their bearing
must not create a discord.--Such is the king's household, and I have
only described one of his residences; he has a dozen of them besides
Versailles, great and small, Marly, the two Trianons, la Muette,
Meudon, Choisy, Saint-Hubert, Saint-Germain, Fontainebleau, Compiegne,
Saint-Cloud, Rambouillet,[2121] without counting the Louvre