Later, the Cardinal de Beaumont, the persecutor of the Jansenists,
resided here.

"Notre archeveque est a Conflans
C'est un grand solitaire
C'est un grand so
C'est un grand so
C'est un grand solitaire."

The above verse is certainly banal enough, but the cardinal himself was
a _drole_, so perhaps it is appropriate. At any rate it is contemporary
with the churchman's sojourn at Conflans.

CHAPTER XI

FONTAINEBLEAU AND ITS FOREST

[Illustration: ORIGINAL PLAN OF FONTAINEBLEAU]

Of all the French royal palaces Fontainebleau is certainly the most
interesting, despite the popularity and accessibility of Versailles. It
is moreover the cradle of the French Renaissance. Napoleon called it the
Maison des Siecles, and the simile was just.

After Versailles, Fontainebleau has ever held the first place among the
suburban royal palaces. The celebrated "Route de Fontainebleau" of
history was as much a _Chemin du Roi_ as that which led from the capital
to Versailles. Versailles was gorgeous, even splendid, if you will;
but it had not the unique characteristics, nor winsomeness of
Fontainebleau, nor ever will have, in the minds of those who know and
love the France of monarchial days.

[Illustration: From Paris to Fontainebleau]

Not the least of the charm of Fontainebleau is the neighbouring forest
so close at hand, a few garden railings, not more, separating the palace
from one of the wildest forest tracts of modern France.

The Forest of Fontainebleau is full of memories of royal rendezvous, the
carnage of wild beasts, the "_vraie image de la guerre_," of which the
Renaissance kings were so inordinately fond.

It was from the Palace of Fontainebleau, too, that bloomed forth the
best and most wholesome of the French Renaissance architecture. It was
the model of all other later residences of its kind. It took the best
that Italy had to offer and developed something so very French that even
the Italian workmen, under the orders of Francois I, all but lost their
nationality. Vasari said of it that it "rivalled the best work to be
found in the Rome of its time."

A charter of Louis-le-Jeune (Louis VII), dated at Fontainebleau in 1169,
attests that the spot was already occupied by a _maison royale_ which,
according to the Latin name given in the document was called Fontene
Bleaudi, an etymology not difficult to trace when what we know of its
earlier and later history is consid