Louis the Fourteenth's reign is the Hall of the Queen's Guards, which
had a door on the landing of the marble stair, also called the Queen's
Staircase. This was the flight of steps most used in the time of
Louis, since it led to the apartments of the sovereign, the Queen
Madame de Maintenon.

The Ambassadors' Staircase, across the court, was of the richest
possible decoration, but like the glory of the Kings of France, it has
passed into oblivion. Louis commanded that it be paved and walled in
marble from the choicest quarries, vaulted with bronze, graced by
fountains. Amazing frescoes representing a brilliant assemblage of
people of all nations adorned the walls. Of this staircase a reporter
of the epoch wrote, "When full of light it vies in magnificence with
the richest apartments of the most beautiful palace in the world."
Which palace was, of course, Versailles.

The Grand Hall of the Guards, the apartments of the Children of France
and their governess, the ten rooms that composed the suite of the
Dauphin, the Grand Hall of Battles--each had its special decoration.
"At the house of Monseigneur," wrote an old chronicler of the Court,
"one sees in the cabinets an exquisite collection of all that is most
rare and precious, not only in respect to the necessary furniture,
tables, porcelains, mirrors, chandeliers, but also paintings by the
most famous masters, bronzes, vases of agate, jewels and cameos." For
one dazzling table of carved silver in the apartment of the King's son,
the silversmith that fashioned it was paid thirty thousand dollars.

Beneath the state apartments of the King was the Hall of the Baths
lined with marble and adorned with beautiful paintings. Upon the
marble tubs, the tessellated floors, the gilded columns and mirrors of
this apartment a great sum was expended.

* * * * *

Versailles at last was finished--and what a spectacle and monument to
selfish exaltation it was! "There is an intimate relation between the
King and his chateau," wrote Imbert de Saint-Amand. "The idol is
worthy of the temple, the temple of the idol. There is always
something immaterial, something moral so to speak, in monuments, and
they derive their poesy from the thought connected with them. For a
cathedral, it is the idea of God. For Versailles, it is the idea of
the King. Its mythology is but a magnificent allegory of which Louis
XIV is the reality. It is he always and everywhere