tantially those of the older Paris of
to-day. Colbert had taken up the costly legacy of the unfinished
Louvre before the petrified banalities of Versailles and Marly had
engulfed their millions, and, in 1660, the Hotel de Bourbon was given
over to the housebreakers to make room for the new east wing of the
palace. So vigorously did they set to work that when Moliere, whose
company performed there three days a week in alternation with the
Italian opera, came for the usual rehearsal, he found the theatre half
demolished. He applied to the king, who granted him the temporary use
of Richelieu's theatre in the Palais Royal, and his first performance
there was given on 20th January 1661.

Levau was employed to carry on Lemercier's work on the Louvre, and had
succeeded in completing the north wing and the river front in harmony
with Lescot's design, when in 1664 Colbert stayed further progress and
ordered him to prepare a model in wood of his proposed east wing.
Levau was stupefied, for he had elaborated with infinite study a
design for this portion of the palace, which he regarded as of supreme
importance, and which he hoped would crown his work. He had already
laid the foundations and erected the scaffolding when the order came.
Levau made his model, and a number of architects were invited to
criticise it: they did, and unanimously condemned it. Competitive
designs were then exhibited with the model and submitted to Colbert,
who took advantage of Poussin's residence at Rome to send them to the
great Italian architects for their judgment. The Italians delivered a
sweeping and general condemnation, and Poussin advised that Bernini
should be employed to design a really noble edifice. Louis was
delighted by the suggestion, and the loan of the architect of the
great Colonnade of St. Peter's was entreated of the pope by the king's
own hand in a letter dated 11th April 1665.

Bernini, in spite of his sixty-eight years, came to Paris, accompanied
by his son, where he was treated like a prince, and drew up a scheme
of classic grandeur. Levau's work on the east front was destroyed, and
in October 1665, Bernini's foundations were begun. The majestic new
design, however, ignored the exigencies of existing work and of
internal convenience, and gave opportunities for criticisms and
intrigue, which Colbert and the French architects,[146] forgetting
for the moment all domestic rivalry, were not slow to make the most
of. The offended Itali