corps, but
all Fontainebleau rose up in protest. As the popular _chanson_ has it:
"_Laissez les dragons a leur Maire_." This has become the battle cry and
so they remain at Fontainebleau to-day, the envy of their fellows in the
service, and the glory of the young misses of the boarding schools, who
each Saturday are brought out in droves to see the sights.

Many descriptions of Fontainebleau have been written, but the works of
Poirson, Pfnor and Champollion-Figeac are generally followed by most
makers of guidebooks, and, though useful, they have perpetuated many
errors which were known to have been doubtful even before their day.

The best account of Fontainebleau under Francois I is given in the
manuscript memoir of Abbe Guilbert. Apparently an error crept into this
admirable work, too, for it gives the date of the commencement of the
constructions of Francois as 1514, whereas that monarch only ascended
the throne in 1515. The date of the first works under this monarch was
1528, according to a letter of the king himself, which began: "We, the
court, intend to live in this palace and hunt the _'betes rousses et
noirs qui sont dans la foret.'_"

An account of Francois I and his "young Italian friends" makes mention
of the visit of the king, in company with the Duchesse d'Etampes, to the
studio of Serlio who was working desperately on the portico of the Cour
Ovale. He found the artist producing a "melody of plastic beauty, garbed
as a simple workman, his hair matted with pasty clay." He was standing
on a scaffolding high above the ground when the monarch mounted the
ladder. Up aloft Francois held a conference with his beloved workman
and, descending, shouted back the words: "You understand, Maitre Serlio;
let it be as you suggest." After the porticos, Serlio decorated the
Galerie d'Ulysse which has since disappeared owing to the indifference
of Louis XV and the imbecility of his friends; and always it was with
Francois: "You understand, Maitre Serlio; it is as you wish." The
_motif_ may have been Italian, but the impetus for the work was given by
the _esprit_ of the French.

The defeated monarch was not able to bring away from Padua any trophies
of war; but he brought plans of chateaux, and gardens as well. He did
more: he took the very artists and craftsmen who had produced many of
the Italian masterpieces of the time.

The tracing of the gardens at Fontainebleau, practically as they exist
to-day, was one of Francoi