rchitect to the King. After long
delays the edifice was completed in time for the marriage fetes of the
Dauphin (Louis XVI) and Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria. The
hall of the Opera was so surpassingly fine in its dress of fine
woodwork, green marble and gilding that a writer of the period,
addressing a friend in Paris, where all were discontented with the
Opera House just built in the capital, bade him "come with the crowd of
curious folk to Versailles and admire the magnificent building of the
Court Opera. Besides the beautiful outer view it presents," said he,
"and the splendor of its ensemble, the mechanism of the interior is
amazing." In this imposing auditorium the Court of Louis XVI heard the
operas of Lully and Rameau, the tragedies of Racine and Voltaire. Here
at a banquet in October, 1789, Louis XVI called on his supporters at
Versailles to oppose the Revolution. And a short time later, the hall
of the Opera served as a meeting-place for the insurrectionists.

In 1837, Louis Phillipe, last of the Bourbon kings, restored the
building and redecorated it in red marble. In memory of Louis XIV, the
reigning King commanded his troupe to perform a comedy by Moliere.
Extracts from Meyerbeer's opera, _Robert le Diable_, and a piece
written by Auber concluded the fete organized by this monarch to recall
the golden days of Louis the Superb.

When, in the summer of 1855, Napoleon III entertained Queen Victoria at
Versailles, the supper that terminated a day of brilliant celebrations
was laid in the banquet hall of the Opera. The last theatrical
performance given in this worthy memorial to the building enterprise of
Louis XV was witnessed by Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie, and the King
of Spain.

CHAPTER IX

THE TWILIGHT OF THE BOURBON KINGS

It was on a May morning in the year 1770 that the child-bride of the
Dauphin of France arrived at Versailles--the graceful, winsome,
golden-haired Marie Antoinette, daughter of Maria Theresa, Empress of
Austria. The future Queen of France was then not fifteen years of age,
and her affianced husband was but a few months older.

A letter in her own hand, dated at Versailles on the 24th of May, 1770,
describes the incidents of her ceremonious journey from Austria, and her
reception by Louis XV and his heir. Other letters to her family give us
glimpses of the wedding in the chapel of Versailles, of the fetes, the
balls at the palace, the function of distrib