tial perished in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in
1572. Henry IV, as a prince, when hunting the stag with Martial often
swept across the low plains of Versailles. The rights to the lands of
the barony were acquired by Marechal de Retz from the children of
Martial de Leomenie, and inherited from the noble duke by his son,
Jean-Francois de Gondi, first archbishop of France. It was this
prelate that sold to Louis XIII in 1632, for 66,000 pounds (about
$27,400), the land and barony of Versailles, consisting, in the phrase
of the original deed, "of an old house in ruins and a farm with several
buildings."

In 1624, Louis XIII, who had hunted in the vicinity of Versailles since
childhood and in later life had sought relief there from ennui and
melancholy, often slept in a low inn or in the hill-top windmill after
long hunts in the forest of St. Leger. It occurred to him that it
would be convenient for him to have a pavilion or hunting-lodge in this
unattractive place, and accordingly he ordered one erected at
Versailles, on the road that led to the forest of St. Leger. In 1627,
concluding that in no other domain of its limited acreage could he find
so great variety of land over which to hunt on foot and horse-back, he
bought a small piece of property at Versailles. Immediately
afterwards he caused to be erected what Saint-Simon called "a little
house of cards" on the isolated hill that rolled up in the heart of the
valley, where the windmill had stood.

Louis' architect was Philbert Le Roy, and the new villa was about two
hundred feet from the lodge first constructed. Its form was a complete
square, each corner being terminated by a tower. The building was of
brick, ornamented with columns and gilded balustrades; it was
surrounded by a park adorned with statues sculptured after designs by
the artist Poussin. Ambitious addition! A villa on the old mill site,
decorated by the favorite court artist of the day, Nicolas Poussin!
The court resented the enterprise, the nobility despised it. It was
the King's fancy; nothing else excused it. A noble of the court,
Bassompierre, exclaimed that "it was a wretched chateau in the
construction of which no private gentleman could be vain."

Scarcely was his new chateau finished (1630) when the King took up his
residence there for the hunt. In this place were terminated in
November, 1630, the autocratic services of Cardinal Richelieu to the
King--the first of many significa