Rhode Island American And Gazette

Palace at Versailles.—The palace, as it now stands, with all its appurtenances, was erected by Louis XIV. in the midst of an expensive war, and cost the nation, from first to last, an outlay of many millions sterling. In one week alone, 22,000 men and 6000 horses were employed daily, at an expense of 250,000 francs; and for a considerable length of time the laborers actually composed an army of not less than 36,000. Lead is usually considered rather a heavy article, and the French exchequer found it so, for its consumption amounted to a modest item of 32 millions of livres. Indeed, the expenditure could not be otherwise than enormous for the attractions of Versailles are all of them exclusively created by dint of labour and indefatigable art. Nature, it is apparent, has been strictly neutral, and the Duc de Crequi had certainly no less than reason to call his master's darling residence 'a favourite without merit.'

The reckless indifference with which monarchs in those days could dispose of the national resources, appears to be well exemplified by the simple act of Louis when the tremendous account of the cost incurred by the chateau and gardens was laid before him. His Majesty was 'graciously pleased,' after having glanced at the sum total, to throw the paper behind the fire. There is, moreover, abundant cause to believe that the progress of Marlborough gave him no such uneasiness as a casual blunder of his architect or gardeners. To those who are conversant with the intrigues of courts, the alleged origin of the war of 1688 will hardly appear improbable. The king, it is said, one morning discovered that a window in Grand Trianon was not uniform with the rest, and immediately became so incensed against the superintendents of the works, that Francois, Marquess de Louvois, keeper of the seal, exclaimed to one of his intimates, 'I am lost if I do not find occupation for one who thus easily loses his temper. Nothing but a war can wean him from his buildings, and a war he shall have!'

'What dire effects from trifling causes spring!'

The palace has been uninhabited since 1789, and stands in its dreary grandeur a solitary memorial of fearful associations. Who can ascend without emotion the splendid marble staircase, where the garde de corps was murdered while the wretched queen made her escape from another part of the building. Who can regard without some tenderness of sentiment the scene consecrated to classical recollection by the touching apostrophe of Burke: It is now seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the dauphiness, on the terrace of Versailles, and surely never lighted on this orb, which she scarcely seemed to touch, a more delightful vision! Who can call to mind without a shudder the memorable fifth of October, 1789, when the mob of the revolution, for the first time, profaned the sanctity of the royal threshold, and armed Treason desecrated these household shrines of an august and ancient dynasty! Then, indeed, did the unhallowed intrusion of a rebellious rabble but too literally illustrate the description of the poet—

'Apparent domus intus et atria longa patescunt,

Apparent Priami et veterum penetralia regum.'