enough for Louis, and
Versailles was built at a cost of twenty millions, and at a sacrifice
of many humble lives, for the labourers died at their work and were
borne from the beautiful park with some attempt at secrecy. It was a
stately place, and thither every courtier must hasten if he wished for
the favour of the King. It became {131} the centre of the gayest world
of Europe, for there were ambassadors there from every foreign court.

Etiquette, so wearisome to many monarchs, was the delight of the
punctilious Louis XIV; every detail of his life was carried out with
due regard to the dignity that he held to be the fitting appendage of a
king. When he rose and dressed, when he dined or gave audience, there
were fixed rules to be observed. He was never alone though he built
Marly, expressing some wish that he might retire occasionally from the
weariness of the court routine. His brothers stood in the royal
presence, and there was no real family life. He was the grand monarch,
and represented the majesty of France most worthily on the occasions of
ceremony, when velvet and diamonds increased his stately grace. "The
State--it is Myself," he was fond of declaring, and by this remark
satisfied his conscience when he levied exorbitant taxes to support the
lavish magnificence of his court.

Ignorant as the king was through the device of Mazarin, he was proud of
the genius that shed lustre on the French nation. Corneille and Racine
wrote tragedies of classic fame, and Moliere, the greatest of all
comedians, could amuse the wit of every visitor to the court. Louis
gave banquets at Versailles in honour of the dramatists he patronized,
and had their plays performed in a setting so brilliant that ambition
might well be satisfied. Tales of royal bounty spread afar and
attracted the needy genius of other lands. Louis' heart swelled with
pride when he received the homage of the learned and beheld the
deference of messengers from less splendid courts. He sat on a silver
throne amid a throng of nobles he had stripped of power. It was part
of his policy to bring every landowner to Versailles, where fortunes
vanished {132} rapidly. It was useless to hope for office it the
suitor did not come to make a personal appeal.

Parisians grumbled that the capital should be deserted by the King, but
they were appeased on holidays by free admission to the sights of
sumptuous Versailles. The King himself would occasionally appear