n is certainly one of the most beautiful so-called royal
chateaux of France, if not by its actual importance at least by many of
the attributes of its architecture, the extent of the domain and the
history connected therewith. It bridges the span between the private
chateau and those which may properly be called royal.

In the moyen-age Maintenon was a veritable chateau-fort, forming a
quadrilateral edifice flanked by round towers at three of its angles,
and at the fourth by a great square mass of a donjon, all of which was
united by a vast expanse of solidly built wall which possessed all the
classic attributes of the best military architecture of its time.
Entrance was only over a deep moat spanned by a drawbridge.

[Illustration: _Chateau de Maintenon_]

Jean Cottereau made his acquisition of the domain towards 1490 and
immediately planned a new scheme of being for the old fortress which,
according to a more esthetic conception, would thus be brought into the
class of a luxurious residential chateau. He destroyed the _courtines_
which attached the great donjon to the rest of the building, and opened
up the courtyard so that it faced directly upon the park. He ornamented
sumptuously the window framings, the dormer windows, and the turrets,
and framed in the entrance portal with a series of sculptured motives
which he also added to the entrance to the great inner stairway. In
short it was an enlargement and embellishment that was undertaken, but
so thoroughly was it done that the edifice quite lost its original
character in the process. Like all the chateaux built at this epoch
Maintenon was no longer a mere fortress, but a palatial retreat,
luxurious in all its appointments, and shorn of all the manifest
militant attributes which it had formerly possessed.

The shell was there, following closely the original outlines, but the
added ornamentation had effectually disguised its primordial existence.
Living rooms needed light and air, while a fortress or quarters for
troops might well be ordained on other lines. The Renaissance livened up
considerably the severe lines of the Gothic chateaux of France, and
though invariably the marks of the transition are visible to the expert
eye it is also true, as in the case of Maintenon, that there is
frequently a homogeneousness which is sufficiently pleasing to
effectually cover up any discrepancies which might otherwise be
apparent. The warrior aspect is invariably lost in the t