Louis XV. Apparently the young man had no
means of his own for the construction of his luxurious city dwelling,
for he refilled his coffers by marriage with the rich daughter of the
financier Crozat.

The new-made countess's mother-in-law apparently never had much respect
for her son's choice as she forever referred to her as "the little gold
ingot."

"The ingot" served to construct the palace, however, though at the death
of its builder, soon after, it came into the proprietorship of La
Pompadour, who spent the sum of six hundred and fifty thousand _livres_
in aggrandizing it. It became her town house, whither she removed when
she grew tired of Versailles or Bagatelle.

History tells of an incident in connection with a fete given at the
Palais de l'Elysee by La Pompadour. It was at the epoch of the
"_bergeries a la Watteau_." The blond Pompadour had the idea of
introducing into the salons a troop of living, sad-eyed sheep, combed
and curled like the poodles in the carriages of the fashionables in the
Bois to-day. The quadrupeds, greatly frightened by the flood of light,
fell into a panic, and the largest ram among them, seeing his duplicate
in a mirror, made for it in the traditional ram-like manner. He raged
for an hour or more from one apartment to another, followed by the whole
flock, which committed incalculable damage before it could be turned
into the gardens. Such was one of the costly caprices of La Pompadour.
She had many.

La Pompadour's brother, the Marquis de Menars et de Marigny, continued
the work of embellishment of the property up to the day when Louis XV
bought it as a dwelling for the ambassadors to his court. Its somewhat
restricted park, ornamented with a grotto and a cascade, was at this
time one of the curiosities of the capital.

In 1773, the financier Beaujon bought the property from the king and
added considerably to it under the direction of the architect Boullee,
who also re-designed the gardens. Thanks to Beaujon, the wonderful
Gobelins of to-day were hung upon the walls, and many paintings by
Rubens, Poissin, Van Loo, Von Ostade, Murillo, Paul Potter and Joseph
Vernet were added.

The death of the financier brought the property into the hands of the
Duchesse de Bourbon, the sister of Louis Philippe, and the mother of the
Duc d' Enghien, who died so tragically at Vincennes a short time after.
The duchess renamed her new possession Elysee-Bourbon and there led a
very retired and sad