Louis XIV in their youth. A portrait gallery
of restrained proportions contains effigies of Madame de Maintenon and
her niece Mademoiselle d'Aubigne, the Duc de Penthievre, the Comtesse de
Toulouse, the Duc de Noailles, the Duchesse de Villars and the Duchesse
de Chaumont.

The show-piece of the chateau, albeit of recent construction, is known
variously as the "Grand Galerie" and the "Longue Galerie." Its
decorations are due to the Duc de Noailles, the father of the present
proprietor. Virtually it is a portrait gallery of the Noailles family,
going back to the times of the Crusaders and coming down to the
twentieth century.

The apartments of Madame de Maintenon form that portion of the chateau
which has the chief sentimental interest. In an ante-chamber is a
_chaise a porteurs_ once having belonged to the Marquise, and her
portrait by Mignard. Cordovan leather is hung upon the walls, and the
restored sleeping-room is hung with a canopy and separated from the rest
of the apartment by a balustrade in _bois dore_. Above the
chimney-piece is a portrait of Louis XIV, after Rigaud, and, finally,
the oratory is ornamented by a series of elegant sculptures in wood and
a magnificent Boule coffer.

[Illustration: _Aqueduct of Louis XIV at Maintenon_]

In the left wing is found a beautiful chapel of the fifteenth century,
which is very pure in style. It is decorated with a series of
Renaissance wood panels of the finest workmanship. The coloured glass of
the windows is of the sixteenth century.

The rebuilt monumental stairway connects directly with a passage leading
to the entrance portico which opens on the garden terrace before the
_parterre_.

The park of Maintenon is in every way admirable, with its _pelouse_, its
great border of trees, its waterways and more than thirty bridges. Jean
Cottereau himself planned the first vegetable and fruit garden, or
_potager_, the same whose successor is the delight of the dwellers at
Maintenon to-day.

The _parterre_, the Grand Canal and the two avenues of majestic trees
were due to the conception of Le Notre, and their effect, as set off by
the alleyed forest background and the pillars of the aqueduct of Louis
XIV, is something unique.

The gardens at Maintenon were perhaps not Le Notre's most famous work
but they followed the best traditions of their time, and because of
their vast expanse of ornamental water were, in a way, quite unequalled.

Ambling off towards the forest