wakened here an echo. Richelieu
was here, the first statesman of the monarchy, and Necker, the last.
French literary history is inscribed on its walls, which received
within them the great writers of France from Moliere to Beaumarchais.
Art erected especially for Versailles the schools and systems whose
influence has been felt through the succeeding centuries. For
Versailles, Lebrun became a painter, Coysevox a sculptor, and Mansard
an architect. But it was not France alone that depended on Versailles.
Foreign nations sent their representatives to this famous center; the
choice spirits of Europe came to visit it.

The history of Versailles was for two centuries the history of
civilization. From Versailles may be seen the movement of manners,
wars, diplomacy, literature, arts and energies that agitated Europe.

On entering Versailles by the Paris avenue, we see the palace on the
summit of the horizon. The houses, scattered here and there and
concealed among the trees, appear less to form a town than to accompany
the monument raised beyond and above them. Approaching the Place
d'Armes, we distinguish the different parts of which the imposing mass
of buildings is composed. In the center is a singular bit of
architecture. In vain the neighboring masses extend their circle
around it: their great arms are unable to stifle it; but it possesses a
seriousness of character that attracts the eye more strongly than their
high white walls. This is the remains of the chateau built by Louis
XIII at Versailles. Louis XIV did not wish to bury his father's
dwelling.

THE STORY OF VERSAILLES

CHAPTER I

THE BEGINNINGS OF VERSAILLES

A dreary expanse of low-lying marsh-land, dismal, gloomy and full of
quicksands, where the only objects that relieved the eye were the
crumbling walls of old farm buildings, and a lonely windmill, standing
on a roll of higher ground and stretching its gaunt arms toward the sky
as if in mute appeal against its desolate surroundings--such was
Versailles in 1624. This uninviting spot was situated eleven miles
southwest of Paris, the capital city of France, the royal city, the
seat, during a century before, of the splendid court of the brilliant
Francis I and of the stout-hearted Henry II, the scene of the masterful
rule of Catherine de Medici, of the career of the engaging and
beautiful Marguerite de Valois and of the exploits of the gallant Henry
of Navarre.

The desolate stretch of