assadors, by which ceremonious visitors
were admitted to the presence of the Sun King, was leveled by the whim
of Louis XV. Little mattered it to him that this superb entrance
filled an essential role in the life of the royal residence. Forgetful
of the scenes that had been enacted on the triumphal stair, the
great-grandson of the builder of Versailles commanded the destruction
of one of the noblest architectural works of the time. Its
bas-reliefs, its incomparable marbles, its paintings on which Lebrun
had exercised all the resources of his decorative genius--all
disappeared at the nod of the ambitious Madame de Pompadour, who
desired a theater to be erected on this site. In later years the
theater disappeared to make room for the apartments of the King's fair
daughter, Madame Adelaide.

The project to build another flight of steps ending in the Salon of
Hercules was never carried out. Future guests were therefore admitted
to the reception rooms by a dark, narrow entrance, or they made a long
roundabout tour by way of the Queen's staircase across the Marble
Court. The demolition of the stairway of honor was an irreparable
loss. No other piece of wantonness equaled it in the tumultuous
history of Versailles.

However, there remain in the chateau a number of memorials to the
judgment and good taste of the third master of the chateau, among them,
the exquisitely decorated rooms of the King, re-made on the site of
those dedicated to Louis XIV; the seven rooms of Madame Adelaide, and
the suites set apart for the mistresses that succeeded one another in
the favor of Louis the Fifteenth. These apartments, evolved out of the
confusion of orders and counter-orders, remain to-day as examples of
the pure and elegant decorative styles of the eighteenth century.
Especially admired is the Council Room. Richly adorned, but always in
charming taste, it represents the transition period between the more
severe ornamental art peculiar to the reign of Louis XIV and the warmer
effects beloved by Louis XV. Behind the Council Room were installed,
on the west side of the Court of the Stags, a _cabinet de bains_
(bath-room) and a little room called the Salon of the Wigs. By these
rooms access was gained to the Salon of Apollo.

The billiard-room, where King Louis XIV was wont to play with his
hounds before retiring, became the bed-room of his heir. After the
year 1738, Louis XV occupied this chamber, and here he died thirty-six