emporaries did not hesitate to admire wonderingly all this luxury of
life and its accessories, and Corneille, in the "_Menteur_" (1642),
makes one of the principal characters say:

"Non, l'univers ne peut rien voir d'egal
Aux superbes dehors du Palais Cardinal;
Toute une ville entiere avec pompe batie,
Semble d'un vieux fosse par miracle sortie,
Et nous fais presumer a ses superbes toits
Que tous ses habitants sont des dieux ou des rois."

The ground plan of the Palais Cardinal was something unique among city
palaces. In the beginning ground values were not what they are to-day in
Paris. There were acres upon acres of greensward set about and cut up
with gravelled walks, great alleyed rows of trees, groves without number
and galleries and colonnades innumerable. Without roared the traffic of
a great city, a less noisy traffic than that of to-day, perhaps, but
still a contrasting maelstrom of bustle and furor as compared with the
tranquillity within.

After the edifice was finished it actually fell into disuse, except for
the periodical intervals when the Cardinal visited the capital. At other
times it was as quiet as a cemetery. Moss grew on the flags, grass on
the gravelled walks and tangled shrubbery killed off the budding flowers
of the gardens.

Richelieu's last home-coming, after the execution of Cinq-Mars at Lyons,
was a tragic one. The despot of France, once again under his own
rooftree, threw himself upon his bed surrounded by his choicest pictures
and tapestries, and paid the price of his merciless arrogance towards
all men--and women--by folding his wan hands upon his breast and
exclaiming, somewhat unconvincingly: "Thus do I give myself to God." As
if recalling himself to the stern reality of things he added: "I have no
enemies but those of State."

In a robe of purple silk, supported by pillows of the finest down and
covered with the rarest of laces, he rigidly straightened himself out
and expired without a shudder, with the feeling that he was well beyond
the reach of invisible foes. But before he died Richelieu received a
visit from his king in person. This was another token of his invincible
power.

Thus the Palais Royal was evolved from the Palais Cardinal of Richelieu.
Richelieu gave the orders for its construction to Jacques Lemercier
immediately after he had dispossessed the Rambouillets and the
Mercoeurs, intending at first to erect only a comparatively modest
town dwelling