~ 
 
 ELIZABETH
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 COMMODORE BYRON MCCANDLESS
 
 MAKIK ANTOINETTE.
 
 WITCH WINNIE 
 
 AT VERSAILLES 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIZABETH W. CHAMPNEY 
 
 AUTHOR OF "WITCH WINNIE," " WITCH WINNIE'S MYSTERY, 
 " WITCH WINNIE IN PARIS." 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS ,
 
 COPYRIGHT, 18^5, BY 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
 
 ps 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 C 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 I. BROKEN LINKS JOINED LIGHT ON 
 
 THE STORY, 1 
 
 II. ALOE, THE FLOWER OF A HUNDRED 
 
 YEARS, 17 
 
 III. HOW VERSAILLES WAS BORN, . . 27 
 INTERLUDE, 55 
 
 IV. THE PRINCE'S COOK AND THE KING'S 
 
 GARDENER, 65 
 
 V. AN EXCURSION TO RAMBOUILLET, . 82 
 VI. THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE, . . 105 
 
 VII. ROSE POMPADOUR, 140 
 
 VIII. MESDAMES DE FRANCE, THE DAUGH- 
 TERS OF LOUIS XV., . . . .175 
 
 IX. THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE 199 
 
 X. THE DIAMOND NECKLACE, . . .230 
 XL NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART, . . .263 
 XII. THE LAST DAYS OF THE PALACE -TWO 
 WOMEN OF THE EMPIRE SOME PICT- 
 URES OF NAPOLEON, . ... 319 
 XIII. THE LEAGUE OF THE JUNIOR PA- 
 TRONS, . 340 

 
 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BROKEN LINKS JOINED LIGHT ON THE STORY. 
 
 I HOSE of our friends who 
 have read a former vol- 
 ume of this series, en- 
 titled " Witch Winnie in 
 Paris," will possibly re- 
 member that it closed with a 
 promise of a sequel, to be en- 
 titled "Witch Winnie at Ver- 
 sailles." This sequel was post- 
 poned to give an account of 
 Milly's summer at Shinnecock ; 
 but some of my readers have 
 been kind enough to show an 
 interest in the delayed story, and to ask me to 
 keep my promise and relate what happened to 
 Winnie, Adelaide, and Tib after Milly's return
 
 2 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 to America, and before Winnie and Adelaide 
 also came back to visit at Milly's cottage at 
 Shinnecock. 
 
 Every one who goes to Paris visits Versailles. 
 Generally the tourist goes out on an excursion 
 train on a day of the Grandes Eaux, when the 
 great fountains play in the palace gardens for 
 the amusement of the public. At the Ver- 
 sailles station he is crammed into an omni- 
 bus, whisked through the most uninteresting 
 streets, from which he sees nothing of one 
 of the prettiest suburbs of Paris, and at the 
 palace gate handed over to the mercies of a pro- 
 fessional guide. The guide marshals him, with 
 a horde of other tourists, through the intermi- 
 nable apartments of the palace, now converted 
 into an art gallery, whose paintings, if placed 
 side by side, would make seven miles of painted 
 canvas. If the tourist is conscientiously bent 
 on acquiring information, he tramps and 
 tramps ; one great panorama of battle succeeds 
 another and blots it out ; one portrait follows 
 another in quick succession ; and at the end of 
 the walk he has a confused consciousness that 
 he has looked on the faces of all the notables 
 of France, and seen every event in the history
 
 BROKEN LINES JOINED. 3 
 
 of the nation, and that he remembers not one 
 of them, and is very tired. Then, worn out 
 with all this mental and physical exertion, he 
 marches over the magnificent distances of the 
 park, is hurried from point to point in order 
 not to miss the playing of any fountain, is 
 jostled by the vast crowd of Parisians carrying 
 their luncheons, eating as they walk, and drag- 
 ging their tired children after them. The last 
 view of the superb fountain of Neptune is 
 missed entirely in a scramble to reach the sta- 
 tion in time for the train, and the tourist re- 
 turns to Paris vowing that of all tiresome places 
 Versailles is the most unendurable. 
 
 This is not the way to visit this region of en- 
 chantment, for such it is to the lover of French 
 history, who lives here for an entire season, to 
 whom the palace becomes a Jiome filled with 
 charming guests, the old portraits whose stories 
 he knows, whose faces have become as familiar 
 as those of old friends. The gardens, too, were 
 not meant to be swallowed at one gulp, bat to 
 be sipped and tasted from day to day, dis- 
 covering new beauties, fixing the scene of one 
 famous historical event after another, treating 
 one's self to surprises, keeping back certain
 
 4 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 localities to be explored alone with a delight- 
 ful sensation of discovery and ownership, and 
 others to be shared with merry parties of 
 friends. 
 
 It was in this way that AVinnie and her 
 friends learned to know and love Versailles. 
 Adelaide's father rented a little villa with a 
 garden in the old Montreuil Quarter, not far 
 from the palace. Mrs. Smith, Tib's mother, 
 who had come to matronize the party, took 
 charge of the housekeeping with the help of 
 two white-capped French maids, Celestine and 
 Mimi, and the three girls devoted themselves 
 to their studies in art and history. 
 
 Their usual programme was the following : 
 After the light French breakfast they would 
 take a stroll or make a water-color sketch in 
 the gardens of the palace until the opening of 
 the musee, when they would each work in their 
 different way. Tib was fascinated by the por- 
 traits of Nattier in the Attique Chimay (Salle 
 174), portraits representing the family and court 
 beauties of Louis XV. Winnie was in love 
 with the portraits Madame Lebrun painted of 
 Marie Antoinette and her children, and copied 
 several canvases ; while Adelaide, who had a
 
 CHILDREN OF MARIE ANTOINETTE.
 
 BROKEN LINKS JOINED. 5 
 
 natural bent for architecture, studied the differ- 
 ent styles in vogue for interior decoration and 
 furnishings during the reigns of the three Louis 
 XIV . , X Y. , and XVI. She also made studies 
 of the landscape architecture of Le Notre, as 
 displayed in his greatest masterpiece, the gar- 
 dens of Versailles, and drew some very beauti- 
 ful plans of the different bosquets and parterres. 
 For a time Winnie gave up her pet hobby, the 
 painting of animals, but it came on again with 
 what Adelaide called "renewed virulence." 
 Versailles is a military post, and cavalry offi- 
 cers were continually passing and repassing. 
 Winnie armed herself with her detective camera 
 and took snap shots at the horses, in which it 
 must be confessed she was more interested than 
 in their riders. Then she made rapid sketches, 
 and finally she came into possession of a horse 
 which she had brought to their garden and 
 studied seriously as she would have done a 
 human model. 
 
 After dinner they walked in the park until 
 sunset, or sat and listened to the out-of-door 
 concerts of the military band, while the even- 
 ing was occupied by readings aloud from French 
 history. Adelaide was always the reader.
 
 6 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 During the readings Tib drew industriously, 
 Mrs. Smith mended or busied herself with sew- 
 ing, while Winnie pasted photographs in the 
 books they were interleaving, arranged her 
 "memory book," scribbled a letter with one 
 ear open to the reading, or dozed on the divan. 
 When she was reproached with having fallen 
 asleep, she would give a report of what she 
 had heard sufficiently accurate to disarm criti- 
 cism, but " embroidered," as Tib declared, " by 
 her dreams." 
 
 This faculty of mixing things, of creating a 
 romance and living in it, was a characteristic 
 of Winnie's. She kept the historical periods 
 distinct, but she imagined meetings and con- 
 versations between noted characters who lived 
 at the same time and might have met and so 
 talked, but probably never did. 
 
 Adelaide declared that they ought to make a 
 written record of their historical and artistic 
 studies, and urged Winnie to write a historical 
 romance, but this Winnie would never do. 
 
 Finally Adelaide hit upon a scheme for crys- 
 tallizing their readings, conversations, and fan- 
 cies about the portraits they copied and the 
 palace and gardens in which they loved to ram-
 
 BROKEN LINKS JOINED. 7 
 
 ble, into the magical story or set of stories 
 which follows. 
 
 Just before she began to write them an event 
 occurred which interrupted for a short time the 
 even flow of their lives. It was the reappear- 
 ance upon the scene of Mrs. Van Silver. It 
 will be remembered that a year before Winnie 
 had been separated from Mrs. Van Silver's son 
 on the eve of their engagement by Winnie's 
 journey to Europe, and that a series of mis- 
 understandings had sprung up which it seemed 
 impossible to set right. This unhappy state of 
 affairs was complicated rather than unravelled 
 by Mrs. Van Silver, who resided in Paris, and 
 who conceived a prejudice to Winnie from the 
 outset. 
 
 In the last chapter of the volume " Witch 
 Winnie in Paris" our readers were told how 
 Mr. Van Silver came to Paris to try to clear 
 away all misunderstandings, only to become 
 more deeply involved, and to leave for travel 
 in the Orient, believing that Winnie was about 
 to become the Countess de la Tour du Pelerin. 
 
 Mrs. Van Silver was a loving mother, and a 
 just woman in spite of her prejudices. When, 
 after the marriage of the count to his cousin,
 
 8 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Angele, she understood how mistaken they had 
 been in regard to Winnie, and when at the 
 same time she comprehended from her son's 
 letters the depth of his affection, which could 
 not be stifled even by the belief that she had 
 given him up to marry for a title, Mrs. Van 
 Silver determined to make the amende honor- 
 able, beg Winnie's pardon, and effect a recon- 
 ciliation. 
 
 She removed to Versailles, took rooms at the 
 pleasant Hotel Vatel, near the little villa where 
 the girls were residing, and made friendly ad- 
 vances. 
 
 Winnie was too spirited a girl to respond. 
 She felt that in the past Mrs. Van Silver had 
 not been her friend, and she distrusted her 
 now. Moreover, just because she knew that 
 her love for this woman's son was not dead, 
 she felt all the more that she could not with 
 dignity accept her invitations to dine or to 
 drive, or any of her kindly overtures. " She 
 would believe," Winnie thought, with proper 
 self-respect, " that I was trying to become inti- 
 mate with her in order to win back her son. 
 Neither she nor Van shall ever have any ground 
 for that conclusion." So Winnie was always
 
 BROKEN LINKS JOINED. 9 
 
 not at home when Mrs. Van Silver called, and 
 always had " a previous engagement subse- 
 quently invented" for all of her courteous in- 
 vitations. 
 
 Mrs. Van Silver, with the perspicacity of a 
 complete woman of the world, saw through 
 Winnie's motives, and liked her the better for 
 them. 
 
 " If she were indifferent to Van," Mrs. Van 
 Silver argued, "she would accept all these 
 privileges which I offer, for their own sake, 
 but she is too proud to manoeuvre for him, and 
 I respect her for snubbing me. I see Van must 
 come and fight his own battles. " 
 
 Mrs. Van Silver had already written her son 
 explaining the mistake under which they had 
 both labored, and she followed this letter with 
 others urging his return, and praising Winnie's 
 behavior. The young man needed none of 
 these admonitions. But mail facilities in the 
 Orient are uncertain : the letters followed him 
 up the Nile and back again, across the desert 
 of Arabia to Sinai, reaching the convent just 
 after he had left it. They were remailed by 
 the monks to Jerusalem, but Mr. Van Silver 
 changed his mind and went to Damascus in-
 
 10 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 stead, and they finally reached him at Con- 
 stantinople when the winter was nearly over. 
 
 Meanwhile Winnie had plodded away at her 
 painting, copying the Lebrun portraits, and 
 Mrs. Van Silver had continued her unavailing 
 attentions. Mrs. Smith was not a society wom- 
 an, and Tib was too busy to make calls. It 
 was left to Adelaide to make any response 
 whatever to the good lady's courtesies. Find- 
 ing that the only place where she was sure of 
 finding Winnie, where she could not run away 
 from her, was in the galleries, Mrs. Van Silver 
 affected a great admiration for the portraits of 
 Marie Antoinette, and, guide-book in one hand 
 and lorgnette in the other, would suddenly ap- 
 pear when Winnie was in the midst of her 
 work, and begin a most animated conversation, 
 something like the following, which Winnie 
 managed to make the last. 
 
 Mrs. Van S. Is this portrait of the Queen 
 [see frontispiece] the one to which Saint Amand 
 refers in " Marie Antoinette and the End of the 
 Old Regime"? 
 
 Winnie. I really don't know. 
 
 Mrs. Van S. Oh, yes, you do. You remem- 
 ber he says she wears a velvet cap surmounted
 
 BROKEN LINKS JOINED. 11 
 
 by a plumed pompon, that her expression is 
 dreamy and melancholy, as though she had a 
 presentiment of her future fate. But where 
 are the children about whom he makes such 
 pathetic remarks 1 
 
 Winnie. That is a later portrait painted 
 when the Queen was older and troubles had 
 begun to gather. You see she is not at all sad 
 in this picture. In the painting to which you 
 refer she is dressed in red velvet. Here, as 
 you see, her robe is blue velvet bordered with 
 sable over a petticoat of creamy satin. The 
 cap and fichu are not unlike in each portrait. 
 
 The wily Mrs. Van Silver knew this as well 
 as Winnie. She had only asked the question 
 to make conversation, but she was unable to 
 pursue her advantage. When she asserted 
 that the painting on which Winnie was engaged 
 was a particular favorite of hers, and that she 
 would like to purchase Winnie's copy, the girl 
 replied rather shortly that it was also a favorite 
 of her own, and the copy was not for sale. 
 
 Mrs. Van 8. But you might make me an- 
 other. 
 
 Winnie. I might, but you must excuse me, 
 my time in Europe is limited. I have wasted
 
 12 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 as much as I have any right in the pure pleas- 
 ure of copying. I must study now seriously. 
 I shall not come to the gallery any more after 
 to-day. 
 
 Mrs. Van S. Not paint in the gallery ! You 
 are surely not going to leave Versailles 3 
 
 Winnie. I don't know. I have not formed 
 my plans. 
 
 Mrs. Van S. What do you call serious study 
 if this is not ? 
 
 Winnie. I want to be an animal painter, and 
 I ought to be studying animals instead of 
 amusing myself in this way. 
 
 Mrs. Van Silver had too much tact to inquire 
 just where and how Winnie intended to pursue 
 her study of animals. She divined the truth, 
 that she had driven Winnie away from the gal- 
 leries by her visits, and she wisely decided to 
 let her completely alone for fear of driving her 
 from Versailles. 
 
 And so Winnie began photographing the 
 horses of the cuirassiers and making sketches 
 of their action. She had no notion, however, 
 of emulating Detaille and becoming a painter 
 of military subjects, and the fleeting glimpses 
 which she caught of the horses as they passed
 
 BROKEN LINKS JOINED. 13 
 
 on the street or on parade were unsatisfactory. 
 There seemed to be grounds for Mrs. Van Sil- 
 ver's fear that Winnie would leave Versailles 
 to study under some animal painter. She 
 communicated her fears to Adelaide, confided 
 to her that she had every hope that her son 
 would soon come to Versailles, and begged her 
 to keep Winnie until after his arrival. 
 
 Adelaide entered into the plot, and began 
 delicately to attempt to sound Winnie's feel- 
 ings in regard to the young man, and found, to 
 her own delight, that though Winnie never 
 mentioned Mr. Van Silver she was not averse 
 to hearing him spoken of. Mrs. Van Silver 
 had avoided speaking of him to Winnie through 
 delicacy, and Winnie had not heard what had 
 become of him after the last misunderstanding, 
 which she now understood, and in her secret 
 heart longed to explain. She was, therefore, 
 glad when Adelaide remarked casually that 
 Mrs. Van Silver had told her that her son was 
 travelling in Egypt, but was planning to join 
 her in the spring. Winnie did not reply after 
 this piece of information, but Adelaide, ventur- 
 ing a furtive glance, saw that her color had 
 heightened, and that the corners of her lips
 
 14 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 were twitching. After this she did not scruple 
 to refer to Yan frequently, and even to ask 
 Winnie bluntly if she did not desire a reconcili- 
 ation. 
 
 " If he wants it enough to come and ask for 
 it, not otherwise." 
 
 "He will come," Adelaide replied confi- 
 dently. From this time Adelaide persisted in 
 regarding the reconciliation as really accom- 
 plished, though Winnie had made her promise 
 solemnly that she would not interfere in the 
 matter in the slightest degree, and she knew 
 Winnie well enough to be certain that if she 
 broke faith and gave Mrs. Van Silver the very 
 vaguest hint possible, it would only make dire 
 mischief. So the reconciliation which both de- 
 sired was left to propitious circumstances ; and 
 circumstances frequently seem to be controlled 
 by some tricky, malevolent sprite, and are most 
 averse to helping true lovers. 
 
 As spring approached Winnie grew restless 
 and talked of going to Holland for the summer, 
 to study sheep painting with Mauve at Laren. 
 
 Adelaide fought this idea for a time by inter- 
 esting Winnie, in their evening readings, in the 
 story of Fouquet and the Fete at Vaux.
 
 BROKEN LINKS JOINED. 15 
 
 " I should like to paint the arrival of the 
 court at the chateau on the eve of that event," 
 Winnie remarked. " Think of all those lum- 
 bering, gilded chariots, regular Barnum band- 
 wagons, and the costumes of that gorgeous 
 Louis XIV. period, with the background of the 
 gray old chateau ! I have a mind to go down 
 to Vaux and make some studies." 
 
 " You could not have better facilities for 
 your purpose than you have right here," Ade- 
 laide urged. " There are plenty of the very 
 coaches you speak of in the Musee des Voitures. 
 Why not make careful studies of them now 
 that you have the opportunity ? You can paint 
 in the horses later. Horses are to be found 
 everywhere and anywhere, but not the old 
 coaches. " 
 
 Winnie acted on this advice, but with girlish 
 perversity determined to finish her studies and 
 leave Versailles before Mr. Van Silver's arrival. 
 Adelaide had told her that he was expected in 
 May, and she was making her plans to go in 
 April, not knowing that Mrs. Van Silver had 
 received a telegram from Constantinople, an- 
 nouncing that he hoped to arrive a month 
 earlier than he had intended.
 
 16 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Adelaide was in a fever of anxiety to keep 
 Winnie, and to gain time she invented stories 
 like Schehorezade. She discontinued her draw- 
 ing and wrote busily during the day, and in 
 the evening read aloud her wonder stories. 
 
 The first of these she entitled "Aloe, 1 ' and 
 gave the clue to the scheme on which the fol- 
 lowing ones were constructed.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ALOE, THE FLOWER OF A HUNDRED YEARS. 
 
 " Tear of the aloe, balm for all woman's tears ; 
 Flower of the aloe, flower of a hundred years." 
 
 CALLED on Mrs. Van 
 Silver this afternoon," 
 Adelaide remarked as 
 she spread her manu- 
 script on the table un- 
 der the student lamp, 
 and laid a tiny silver 
 bonbonniere beside it, 
 " and she gave me this very 
 curious object which her son 
 has sent her from Egypt." 
 
 "Still in Egypt?" asked 
 Tib. " Then he will hardly be here as soon as 
 he anticipated." 
 
 Adelaide did not see fit to explain that the 
 curio had been received early in the season, but
 
 18 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 continued her preface to her story with no ap- 
 parent notice of the question. 
 
 "Observe, please, that this little casket is 
 decorated with a six-pointed star in gold inlay, 
 formed by the interlacing lines of two triangles, 
 and that there is a border of strange Oriental 
 characters. Van found it in the mummy-case 
 of an Egyptian princess, in a tomb which he 
 helped discover between Abou Simbel and 
 Philse. With it was a little roll of papyrus 
 which explained its wonderful story." 
 
 Winnie had been looking listlessly at the 
 bonbonniere. " These characters are not Egyp- 
 tian hieroglyphics," she said incredulously. 
 
 "No," replied Adelaide, "they are Hebrew 
 letters ; the roll, too, was written in Hebrew. 
 Van carried it to one of his friends, a learned 
 rabbi, who translated it for him." 
 
 " Hebrew in Egypt !" said Mrs. Smith. 
 " Has your story anything to do with Moses or 
 Joseph?" 
 
 "With neither. The manuscript showed 
 that the princess was Solomon's Egyptian wife, 
 of whom we read in the Bible. You know the 
 forty- fifth Psalm was their epithalamium, and 
 it takes on a pathetic significance when read
 
 ALOE, FLOWER OF A HUNDRED TEARS. 19 
 
 with the commentary afforded by my little roll. 
 Solomon loved the princess. He did every- 
 thing that a fabulously wealthy and powerful 
 sultan could to make her happy. He lavished 
 upon her all the arts and gifts known to mortal 
 man. He did more, for the Arabs say he was 
 in league with the genii. This mystical design 
 of the triangle-star was engraved also upon his 
 signet-ring, and by its talismanic power this 
 royal Aladdin commanded his slave of the won- 
 derful lamp. He understood the language of 
 birds and animals. He had a flying carpet, 
 which could transport him a thousand miles in 
 a moment of time, and he brought to bear all 
 the occult sciences in his endeavor to keep the 
 love of his Egyptian queen. He had but one 
 rival, and that was homesickness. The little 
 foreigner pined for the southland. We see a 
 hint of this, and of his consuming desire to 
 make her in the psalm. While the king 
 brooded over his happiness and his fears, a 
 bird in the royal aviary sang of a wonderful 
 tree away in the heart of the Himalayas, an 
 aloe-tree, which bloomed once in a century, 
 and whose juice exuded in tear-shaped, amber- 
 like drops, a panacea for all grief.
 
 20 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 " It is the bird's song which Solomon caused 
 to be engraved around the rim of the box : 
 
 " ' Tear of the aloe, balm for all woman's tears ; 
 Flower of the aloe, flower of a hundred years. ' 
 
 From that moment the navy of Solomon 
 brought all kinds of aloes- wood by the way 
 of the Red Sea from Asia. The resinous gums 
 burned night and day in the queen's palace, 
 filling the air with their heavy perfume, and 
 Solomon wrote : 
 
 " ' All thy garments smell of aloes out of the 
 ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee 
 glad.' 
 
 " It was a loving fiction, the queen was not 
 glad. She wept in secret, and the king knew it, 
 and would have given his kingdom to have 
 dried her tears. He had to pay a higher price. 
 The genius who served him had agreed to run 
 ninety-nine errands for nothing, but if he de- 
 manded the hundredth he must forfeit his soul. 
 Ninety-nine times had the spirit done his bid- 
 ding, and Solomon had said farewell to him, as 
 he hoped forever ; but when did a lover resist 
 a woman's tears? He rubbed the talisman 
 once more, and the genius came.
 
 ALOE, FLOWER OF A HUNDRED TEARS. 21 
 
 " ' Bring me,' he said, ' the tear of the aloe, 
 which dries all woman's tears.' 
 
 " The slave brought it. Open the box, Win- 
 nie, and you will find it lying there. " 
 
 Winnie raised the lid and saw what seemed 
 to be a tear-shaped gem. She looked through 
 it toward the light, and it took on the most 
 beautiful amethystine tints. It was delicately, 
 subtly odorous, and shot with lambent lights. 
 
 " * When the lady weeps,' said the spirit, ' if 
 she touches her eyelids gently with this tear, 
 her weeping will be changed to laughter. ' 
 
 " Solomon carried the precious tear in tri- 
 umph to his bride. She was weeping at that 
 moment in the ivory palace which he had built 
 for her, and he touched the tear-drops which 
 glistened on her long lashes with the magic 
 tear, and the princess ceased to weep. 
 
 " But evil spirits are tricky. They serve 
 mortals as little as they can help. The genius 
 did not tell Solomon all the conditions of the 
 metamorphosis until after it was over. With 
 that touch the spirit of the century-plant 
 blended magically with that of the princess, 
 and it drifted away and bloomed again in an- 
 other century. To all appearance she died
 
 22 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 there in the arms of her royal lover, but she 
 lived and laughed again in Egypt, the bride of 
 the great Kameses. Not one century but many 
 separated her from Solomon, for the last wish 
 of the one who essays the charm is fulfilled, 
 and the princess had been dreaming when she 
 wept of Luxor and Thebes and the epoch of 
 Egypt's greatest glory." 
 
 "It is a pretty fairy tale," said Tib, "but 
 I don't see what it has to do either with us or 
 with the periods of French history which we 
 have been studying." 
 
 "Just this," Adelaide replied. "Do you 
 remember that the other day Winnie was com- 
 plaining that youth is so brief, the belle saison 
 that we are enjoying now, before, one must 
 change into the old maid or the matron ?" 
 
 " How long is this delectable season of young 
 ladyhood supposed to last?" asked Tib, the 
 practical. 
 
 " Fifteen, or possibly seventeen years," Win- 
 nie replied quickly. " You know Alphonse 
 Karr says, 'The great and terrible influence 
 of women is exercised between their eight- 
 eenth and thirty-fifth years' that is to say, 
 it comes to an end at precisely the moment
 
 ALOE, FLOWER OF A HUNDRED TEARS. 23 
 
 when women become somewhat sensible, and 
 when their influence might tend to good. Ade- 
 laide is quite right. I do rebel that my belle 
 saison is so limited. I would like to distribute 
 my fifteen years through the centuries that 
 cover the history of Versailles." 
 
 " That is precisely my idea," Adelaide re- 
 plied. " I have imagined in my stories, in 
 which I have embodied our researches, that 
 Winnie has experimented with this tear of the 
 aloe. I fancy that it had exerted a sort of fas- 
 cination over her mind, that she carried it about 
 with her at all times, until an hour came when 
 she was really unhappy. It was the hour when 
 she must leave Versailles. Her paintings were 
 safely bestowed in packing-cases, her trunks 
 strapped, she had said good-by to us all, and 
 had run away to the park to spend her last 
 afternoon in its shades. She wished to impress 
 vividly upon her memory all its characteristics, 
 and she paused on the terrace of the Parterre 
 <TEau, striving to take a mental photograph 
 for future reference of the general view : the 
 grand avenue which unrolls itself before one 
 broken by parterres of brilliant flowers, shin- 
 ing sheets of water, and green expanses of turf ;
 
 24 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 the great basins in the foreground bordered by 
 the statues of the river nymphs ; the fountains 
 flashing in the sunlight far down the avenue, 
 the charming alUes on the left and right lead- 
 ing away into the quiet of the forest, the clipped 
 hedges and other grotesque specimens of topiary 
 gardening, the infinite variety of the white 
 forms of the statues, and the song of the gur- 
 gling, splashing water mingling with that of 
 the birds. 
 
 " I fancy her thinking, ' It is beautiful just as 
 it is, but what would it be to see these gardens 
 in the time of Louis XIV., to know how the 
 idea of this paradise sprang into being, to watch 
 the growth, to have known the greatest of all 
 landscape architects, Le Notre, and his munifi- 
 cent royal patron, le Grand Monarque, and 
 all the nobles of his court ? Life must have 
 been statelier, more dignified in those days, to 
 be in harmony with its courtly setting.' Balzac 
 has a theory that human development depends 
 upon environment. Just as the jungle pro- 
 duces the tiger, the desert the lion, and the 
 farm-yard domestic animals, while the poultry- 
 yard brings out the slyness of the thieving fox, 
 and the lonely forest road the brigandage of
 
 ALOE, FLOWER OF A HUNDRED TEARS. 25 
 
 the wolf, so circumstances mould man more 
 than heredity, and the son of a noble kidnapped 
 in infancy grows up a low and brutal outlaw, 
 while the foundling educated becomes more 
 gentle than his foster parents. Winnie asked 
 herself what manner of people gave fetes in 
 such palace gardens as this, and listened to the 
 plays of Moliere in which he personally acted ? 
 The men, she thought, must have all been noble, 
 the ladies as lovely in character as in face, if 
 beauty of surroundings produce beauty of char- 
 acter. ' How I would love,' I think of her as say- 
 ing to herself, ' to see the beginnings of Versailles, 
 to feel the spirit of the latter half of the seven- 
 teenth century ! Instead of this I am going 
 back to commonplace America, where men are 
 absorbed in stocks and bonds, and women in 
 church fairs and soup kitchens.' A spirit of 
 revolt surged through her. ' I don't want to 
 go back ! ' she cried passionately,, ' I have 
 lived here so long that my heart has grown 
 into the place, and I cannot tear myself away.' 
 The bonbonniere was in her hand, she raised the 
 lid, and took out the beautiful gem-like tear. 
 For an instant she hesitated. Perhaps her 
 present tears were better, after all, than laugh-
 
 26 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 ter in that unknown time. No, it could not 
 be ; laughter must always be better than weep- 
 ing, and she touched her eyelids with the magi- 
 cal tear.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HOW VERSAILLES WAS BOKN. 
 
 LL at once something very 
 strange happened. She 
 was no longer weep- 
 ing, but laughing at 
 some jest of the gen- 
 tleman by her side, a hand- 
 some man in a very charm- 
 ing suit for a fancy ball, 
 but one totally out of place 
 here, out-of-doors in day- 
 light in the park. But it 
 was not to be denied that it 
 was very becoming to its wearer, the Louis 
 Quatorze coat and tunic, the knee-breeches and 
 silk stockings, the great curling wig which 
 framed his familiar face, for in spite of the 
 strangeness of the costume it was Van who stood 
 before her, and it was a pleasant surprise to 
 find that he, too, had glided back into the reign
 
 28 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 of Louis XIY. As she looked at Mm the cos- 
 tume appeared quite appropriate, and she for- 
 got that he had ever dressed in any other way. 
 " 'Are we at Versailles ? ' she asked, looking 
 'about her at the closely shaven lawns, the 
 basins, fountains, and statues which had a 
 familiar aspect. It was all in the formal, gran- 
 diose style of the magnificent royal garden, but 
 she did not recognize just that particular ter- 
 race with its carved balustrade. 
 
 " ' Versailles ! Oh, no ; the king has nothing 
 so ornate as this in that wild hunting-park. 
 This is Vaux le Vicomte. Have you forgotten 
 that you are to play here in my new comedy, 
 which I have written for the grand fete which 
 the Superintendent Fouquet is to give the king ? 
 You slept during the latter part of our drive 
 from Paris, and do not appear to be quite 
 awake yet. The diligence was stuffy. Let us 
 walk about in the gardens ; the air will revive 
 you.' 
 
 " The dazed feeling passed away, the circum- 
 stances all came back to her ; she remembered 
 reading the day before of Fouquet' s famous 
 fete, which took place on August 17th, 1661. 
 That magnificent festival, with which he had
 
 VERSAILLES WAS BORN. 29 
 
 hoped to propitiate Louis XIV., had always 
 exercised a fascination over her, and she was 
 delighted to think that she was to be really 
 in it. 
 
 "'I wonder who I am,' she thought, 'and 
 who Van is. Perhaps he is Fouquet himself. ' 
 But no ; he had not the foxy face of the crafty 
 financier. He had spoken of writing a play 
 for the occasion ; odd that she could not re- 
 member just who had done that was it Kacine 
 or La Fontaine ? Should she ask him ? No ; 
 he had thought her a little unbalanced in mind 
 because she could not tell just where she was. 
 He might suspect her quite insane if she showed 
 herself ignorant as to his personality. She 
 would wait for something to give her the clue 
 to his identity. 
 
 " ' These grounds are a perfect paradise,' her 
 companion remarked. ' Fouquet has a talent 
 for discovering unknown geniuses. I don't 
 know where he picked up that clever fellow 
 Le Notre, but he has turned this barren waste 
 into a marvel of beauty. Nothing like it has 
 ever been seen in France.' 
 
 " ' Why, yes,' Winnie was on the point of re- 
 marking, ' it is all very regal, but it is exactly
 
 30 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 like Versailles, only not so vast ; ' but she held 
 her peace, reflecting in time that in 1661 Le 
 Notre had not yet been engaged by Louis XIV. 
 to create his masterpiece of landscape garden- 
 ing. 
 
 " ' Just look at those fountains,' her friend 
 continued, ' they are a chef $ ceume of hydrau- 
 lic engineering ; the piping alone was a vast ex- 
 pense and very ingeniously contrived ; and see 
 how they break in the air like great columns of 
 crystal, shattering in a shower of diamonds ! 
 The spouting tritons, the nymphs and naiads, 
 the satyrs, dryads, and monsters are the work of 
 the sculptors Coustou and Pierre Puget. How 
 beautifully they are set off by the broad ex- 
 panses of close-clipped lawns, over which we 
 may wander at will ! Le Notre does not like 
 parterres of blossoming flowers, except for 
 those who must remain prisoners in the upper 
 stories of their houses ; for flowers, he says, can 
 only be walked on by the eyes, and he loves 
 better the velvet pelouses, where the foot sinks 
 luxuriously, where children may tumble and 
 boys play games, and maidens and youths trip 
 it in the dance. And see how harmoniously 
 these level green spaces rest the eye and bal-
 
 HOW VERSAILLES WAS BORN. 31 
 
 ance the ornament of the statues and fountains ! 
 This garden is a triumph of art and mechanical 
 contrivance. The world will never see it sur- 
 passed.' 
 
 " ' Do not say that,' Winnie replied. ' If 
 this young man Le Notre should attract the 
 attention of the king, he might, backed with 
 the royal finances, achieve still vaster enter- 
 prises. ' 
 
 " Her companion smiled in a significant man- 
 ner. ' They say that he has already had the 
 use of the State funds,' he replied. ' You 
 know Fouquet is Superintendent of Finances. 
 His private fortune is enormous, and he is such 
 a kind patron, that we men of ideas are willing 
 to work for him for little more than love, so 
 far as we are personally concerned ; but the 
 necessary outlay for the creation of such a para- 
 dise as this must have been stupendous I fear 
 more than any private fortune could sustain. 
 Le Notre will never be less limited as to ex- 
 pense if twenty kings should become his 
 patrons.' 
 
 " Winnie restrained her wild desire to proph- 
 esy Le Notre 1 s career. It was so easy to do so 
 with the history of France behind her.
 
 32 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 " ' Do you know Le Notre ? ' she asked. ' I 
 would like to meet him.' 
 
 " * He will come behind the scenes after the 
 play. This fete is a triumph for him, as it will 
 be for us. This is different, Armande, is it not, 
 from the travelling cart of a strolling theatrical 
 troupe? But are they any happier in this 
 grand chateau than we were tramping through 
 the provinces and giving open-air entertain- 
 ments under the maronniers in the village place, 
 or on the boards of little country theatres ? ' 
 
 "At the question a picture flitted through 
 Winnie's mind. Was it a memory of a real 
 scene, or of something she had read 1 
 
 " ' It was toward eA r ening, and a cart, drawn by 
 four lean oxen led by a brood mare, whose colt 
 was cantering round and round the cart like a 
 little fool that it was, slowly entered the town. 
 The cart was full of coffers, trunks, and great 
 packets of painted canvas, on the top of which 
 sat a lady dressed in a costume partly of the 
 country, partly of the town. Beside the cart 
 walked a young man who had on breeches like 
 those worn by comedians when they represent 
 a hero of antiquity, and in place of shoes 
 antique buskins, mudded up to the ankles.
 
 HOW VERSAILLES WAS HORN. 33 
 
 A third player followed, bearing a violon- 
 cello.' 
 
 " (Note. This quotation is from a description 
 of a company of strolling players by an author 
 of the time Scarron, in his Roman Comique.) 
 
 " She saw the van halted in front of the village 
 inn. A few other players straggled along in 
 time for dinner. An open-air theatre was 
 usually constructed of canvas in a natural am- 
 phitheatre, sometimes backed by a castle wall, 
 or down the Breton coast, when the boom of 
 the surf formed a deep bass undertone to the 
 shrill piping of their little orchestra. Her 
 present companion, who seemed to be play- 
 wright, stage manager, travelling agent and 
 proprietor, as well as principal actor of the little 
 troupe, stood at the entrance of the inclosure, 
 and shouted forth the merits of his ' Theatre 
 Illustre.' 
 
 "She herself took the gate-money, and regard- 
 ed with interest the crowd of peasants and fisher 
 folk in their picturesque costumes as they 
 swarmed in and took their seats on the rough 
 benches formed of planks. Sometimes the 
 play was given in a fish market, and the audi- 
 ence sat on overturned tubs and baskets ; some-
 
 34 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 times in a great barn, and the liay-lof t took the 
 place of the boxes ; sometimes they contested 
 with lion-tamers and meriy-go-ronnds for the 
 patronage of the public at fairs, or refreshed 
 the minds of penitents, after the religious ex- 
 ercises, when some saint' s day was celebrated by 
 a great pilgrimage. 
 
 " There was much misery in the country, for 
 the period was that directly following the war 
 of the Fronde, and there was to be still greater 
 destitution, occasioned by the ruinous taxes 
 imposed to support one hundred thousand 
 nobles and the lavish expenditures of le Grand 
 Monarque. 
 
 "The Huguenots, an industrious and gen- 
 erally well-to-do class, had left or were leaving 
 the country. As yet Colbert had not established 
 the industries which for a time stayed the ava- 
 lanche of ruin, but in spite of hard times in the 
 present, and a darker outlook for the future, the 
 people of the provinces were patient and even gay. 
 
 " ' Laugh and forget is the fashion of France,' 
 and wherever the players came they were wel- 
 comed. 
 
 " The van halted one night before a large and 
 thriving mill. It was a roomy, picturesque
 
 HOW VERSAILLES WAS BORN. 35 
 
 stone building, partly overhanging a brawling 
 stream. The mountains were behind it, and in 
 the valley several little hamlets, whose fertile 
 surrounding fields were watered by the same 
 little river which had settled down from its 
 mad exuberance, and flowed peacefully between 
 grain fields toward the sea. Near the largest 
 of the villages the castle of the seigneur rose 
 protecting! y. It was a smiling, lovely land- 
 scape, suggestive of peace and prosperity. 
 There were many laden donkeys going and 
 coming from the mill, carrying the golden grain 
 and bringing away the good flour. The miller' s 
 powdered boys were busy lifting the great 
 sacks. There were cheerful songs and merry 
 jokes to the accompaniment of the humming 
 machinery ; everything spoke of thrift and 
 contentment. 
 
 " The miller himself came out to meet them, 
 and offered his large warehouse for a theatre. 
 The boys were soon merrily at work rolling out 
 the barrels and hoisting the bags to the upper 
 lofts. The air was white and thick as with 
 winter snowflakes as they plied their brooms to 
 make the audience -chamber fit for the holiday 
 gowns of the peasants.
 
 36 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 " Winnie, or Armande, as she was now called, 
 sat in the door of the van and gave adver- 
 tising circulars to the farmers' boys as they 
 came and went, and a poster was nailed to the 
 door of the maieries in each of the little vil- 
 lages, and the town-crier engaged to shout the 
 attractions in the public place. 
 
 " They remained several days at the mill, for 
 Winnie was weary of journeying, and it was 
 good to sleep in a bed, though only upon fresh 
 straw. 
 
 " The jolly miller enjoyed the representations, 
 and had them play until they had exhausted 
 all their repertoire, and then repeat it over again. 
 It was something of an expense and inconven- 
 ience to him, but he did not mind it. He liked 
 to see the villagers flocking from all the coun- 
 try round to his mill. Many of them were his 
 patrons, and he gossiped with them before and 
 after the play about local interests, the state of 
 the country, and the crops. 
 
 " ' Thank Heaven, we can never be quite beg- 
 gared here," they agreed. 'As long as the 
 river runs it will nourish the crops and turn 
 the mill, and pour golden coin into your pockets 
 and mine.'
 
 IWW VERSAILLES WAS BORN. 37 
 
 "The miller's daughter was the belle of the 
 country-side, partly on account of her own at- 
 tractions arid partly because of her father's 
 well-known gains. She was sweet and hospita- 
 ble to the travelling actresses, and served them 
 at table with the best cheeses and preserves of 
 cherries and black-currant cordial, while the 
 men tossed off tankards of Breton cider at the 
 expense of their host. Among all Winnie's 
 journeyings, it was the spot that was greenest in 
 her memory ; and of all her friends, Jacqueline, 
 the miller' s daughter, had the warmest place in 
 her heart, and she would always remember her. 
 
 " It was the last night of their stay at the mill. 
 The man who had been playing the violoncello 
 in their little orchestra, and who seemed in 
 this strange retrospect to be her brother and a 
 young student, took her place at the door, and 
 she skipped around to the rear of the stage and 
 hurriedly donned an exaggerated caricature of 
 the fashionable costume of the time. 
 
 "The play was the 'Precieuses Ridicules .' 
 The manager of the troupe acted as prompter, 
 without notes, proving himself the author of 
 the comedy, which would have better suited a 
 Parisian audience. The satire was lost on these
 
 38 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 simple people, who were not familiar with the 
 personages who had called it forth. They liked 
 a play that had been given the night before, 
 when the wit of a stock kind had been directed 
 against doctors. They listened in stupid, un- 
 responsive amazement, until the principal actor 
 dropped the prompter's part and bounded upon 
 the stage. He was irresistible, a comedian to 
 his finger-tips. Versatile, quick, artistic, he 
 had the knack of distorting his visage in a way 
 to make his audience die of laughter. He spoke 
 in a variety of voices, cut a hundred capers, 
 interpolated impromptu jokes, and won to him- 
 self enthusiastic encores by his original quips 
 and pranks. As for Armande, she went through 
 the stilted caricature of the affectations of 
 learned ladies of the time with a dumb wonder 
 at herself, for she did not remember ever to 
 have studied her lines. 
 
 " Presently a gentleman more richly dressed 
 than any in the audience entered. For an in- 
 stant even the popular comedian failed to hold 
 the attention of his hearers, and a murmur of 
 ' Monsieur le Vicomte ' ran along the benches. 
 Armande heard it, and threw greater spirit 
 into her acting.
 
 NOW VERSAILLES WAS BORN. 39 
 
 "'Bravo!' whispered her companion, and 
 * Bravo ! ' exclaimed the newcomer with a 
 hearty laugh, and the curtain went down in the 
 midst of a round of applause. 
 
 ' ' The grand seigneur presented himself at the 
 green-room, which was the van itself, drawn 
 close to the rear door of the wareroom. He sat 
 on one of the packing-boxes, and overwhelmed 
 the principal actors with compliments. 
 
 "'My name,' he said, 'is Fouquet. You 
 may, perhaps, have heard of me. I am deso- 
 lated that I cannot call you, sir, by name. It 
 is the fault of the retired corner of the world in 
 which I have lately buried myself, for surely 
 so great an actor is famous in Paris.' 
 
 " ' I am entirely unknown,' the guest replied, 
 ' either by my family name, Poquelin, or by 
 the stage alias of Moliere, which I have lately 
 assumed.' 
 
 " Winnie drew a deep breath. So her friend 
 was Moliere. Why had she not guessed it, 
 and how could he call himself unknown ? 
 
 " ' You will not remain so long,' said Fouquet. 
 ' Trust me, I know a genius when I see him. 
 It is my delight to surround myself by them. 
 You have made a witty satire on Mademoiselle
 
 40 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 de Scudery,' lie continued. ' How many 
 times I have been bored to death by the bom- 
 bastic persiflage of her precious band of high- 
 flown ladies at the Hotel Kambouillet " Ap- 
 proach the Counsellor of the Graces, " meaning, 
 in plain language, a mirror. Ah ! I am amply 
 revenged now. I have not so heartily enjoyed a 
 half hour in my whole life.' 
 
 " He invited them to visit his chateau, and on 
 the following day showed them over the castle 
 and his grounds. 
 
 "'I am contemplating great changes,' he 
 said. ' I shall extend and beautify my park. 
 I have in my employ a talented young land- 
 scape gardener, Le Notre, to whom I have given 
 carte blanclie to lay it out. La Quintinie is 
 my florist, the best in the world. You must see 
 my conservatories ; but they are nothing to 
 what we shall have here in a few years. 
 
 " ' You praised that new portion of the cha- 
 teau ; it does not please me. I have seen some 
 plans by Levau which I like better. I shall 
 have it all cleared away, and begin again from 
 the foundations. The building will cost a mil- 
 lion and a half sterling, but it will be the finest 
 castle in Brittany when finished. Lebrun and
 
 110 W VERSAILLES WAS BORN. 41 
 
 his pupil, Jouvenet, will decorate it with fres- 
 coes. Come and see my paintings. I have 
 some fine ones by Lesueur and Claude Lorraine, 
 and the best portrait painters of Paris are busy 
 making me a collection of portraits of the most 
 beautiful ladies of France. I know them all, 
 and it will be pleasant for me to see their lovely 
 faces as I pace my portrait gallery in my home 
 of loneliness, far from the gay scenes of Paris.' 
 
 "As they walked through the castle, Winnie 
 caught a glimpse of a proud and stately woman, 
 who returned her curious glance by a stare of 
 haughty disapproval, and suddenly turned her 
 back and disappeared. 
 
 " 'That is the chatelaine, my mother,' their 
 host explained. ' She is a good and pious 
 woman. Pardon her brusquerie.' 1 Winnie un- 
 derstood that it was the piety of the Vicomtesse 
 of Yaux which was responsible for her disap- 
 proval of her son's patronage of actors and ac- 
 tresses, and she was not offended. 
 
 " Fouquet served them a delicious repast in 
 the great hall of the castle. ' I hope you ap- 
 prove of my chef," 1 he said. * His name is Va- 
 tel ; he is a true artist. The king himself is 
 not so well served.' Fouquet little imagined
 
 42 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 that the time would come when he must con- 
 tent himself with prison fare, and his cook, as 
 maitre d? hotel at Chantilly, would cater for the 
 king. 
 
 " This glimpse of the life of a grand seigneur 
 was something new in Winnie's experience in 
 her new-old life. The man, too, interested her, 
 and she could not help comparing him with her 
 friend, Moliere. It seemed to her that the lat- 
 ter expressed the verb' to be, and Fouquet the 
 verb to liane. They were both useful verbs. 
 Which did she prefer 
 
 " As they parted the young noble said, with 
 that smile which was irresistible with women, 
 ' I shall never forget the leading lady of the 
 Mill of Yaux. We shall surely meet again.' 
 
 "After this the strolling life of the student 
 troupe continued. Moliere wrote play after 
 play, and the little company acted them, one 
 actor frequently taking three parts. He wrote 
 parts especially for those who were to take 
 them suited for their voices, their talents, their 
 personale. Winnie, as Armande, had always 
 the heroine's part, in spite of the jealousy of 
 her older sister, and of the pretty danseuse 
 who formed their corps de ballet of one. Ar-
 
 HOW VERSAILLES WAS BORN. 43 
 
 mande was the heroine and Moliere the lover. 
 He never tired of writing and repeating publicly 
 those impassioned words, and what a lover he 
 was ! He has left us this description of Ar- 
 mande : 
 
 " ' Her eyes are small. 
 
 " ' True, they are small, but they are full of 
 light, the brightest and most winning possible. 
 
 " ' Her mouth is large. 
 
 " ' It is the most attractive, the most lovable 
 mouth in the world. 
 
 ' ' * She is not tall enough. 
 
 ' ' ' No ; but her carriage is easy and graceful. 
 
 " ' As for her wit 
 
 ' ' ' The finest and most delicate. 
 
 ' ' ' Her conversation 
 
 " 'Is charming. 
 
 " ' She is capricious. 
 
 " ' I like a beautiful woman to be capricious. 
 Her caprices become her. Everything in the 
 world connects itself in my heart with her. 
 The idea of her has so seized me that 1 can 
 think of nothing in her absence which gives me 
 the least pleasure.' 
 
 " It seemed strange to Winnie afterward that 
 she did not realize Moliere' s genius ; that she
 
 44 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 heard him read his dramas without compre- 
 hending their greatness. It was not the wor- 
 shipful privilege to know him which she thought 
 it would be ; but she realized his love, and 
 Armande in these early days was good and true 
 and helpful. She mended the tights as she sat 
 perched on the top of the jolting van, and stud- 
 ied and rehearsed her part as they walked be- 
 hind it together, repeating the love" passages 
 oftener than was needed to impress them upon 
 her memory for the sake of the pleasure that 
 it gave the author to hear them from her lips. 
 She enjoyed the applause of the simple people 
 who flocked to hear them, she pitied their mis- 
 fortunes and shared their pleasures, wearing 
 the flowers and dancing with the peasants after 
 the play on the public square. Life was a con- 
 tinual picnic, a holiday excursion. But Mo- 
 liere, as he wrote, felt ambition unfolding its 
 wings within him. ' I shall play before more 
 cultivated audiences,' he said. ' I feel that 
 I may one day even be famous enough to play 
 before the king, and when 1 can afford a maison- 
 ette we shall be married.' 
 
 " After this the student troupe was called to 
 Paris by the kindness of the Prince de Conti,
 
 HOW VERSAILLES WAS BORN. 45 
 
 himself a fellow-student of Molicre's, who had 
 never forgotten the boyish friendship formed in 
 the old Jesuit college. 
 
 " He had interceded with the king, and the 
 company of actors were presently installed in 
 the Hotel de Petit Bourbon as the Troupe de 
 Monsieur. 
 
 " Fouquet, too, did not forget his promise, but 
 sent to Moliere to write two plays to be acted 
 at the great festival which he intended to give 
 the king. He was never in Paris without at- 
 tending the play at the Hotel de Petit Bourbon, 
 or at the theatre without presenting himself in 
 the green-room. Often when he was not there, 
 gorgeous floral tributes, sent up from the coun- 
 try by the florist, Le Quintinie, were handed to 
 the stage for Mademoiselle Armande Bejart, 
 and on the card there was always added ' The 
 Leading Lady of the Mill of Vaux.' 
 
 " And now Winnie's retrospect had brought 
 her back again to the great festival of 1661, 
 when Fouquet, Vicomte de Vaux and Super- 
 intendent of Finance, threw open his trans- 
 formed chateau and his magnificent gardens 
 for the reception of his sovereign. 
 
 " The vast park was dotted with the six thou-
 
 46 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 sand guests admitted on this occasion. The 
 coaches of the royal party, stupendous, gilded 
 chariots, such as Winnie had seen preserved in 
 the show stables of Versailles, but had forgotten, 
 so completely was she now identified with the 
 period, rolled ponderously up the broad avenue, 
 attended by a vast cavalcade of nobles and fol- 
 lowed by other monumental, gilded vehicles. 
 Louis XIV., sumptuous in velvets and jewels 
 and ermine, but with a malicious scowl, giving 
 a sinister expression to his features, alighted, 
 and entered the chateau followed by the Queen- 
 mother, Anne of Austria, who made up for her 
 son's evident ill-humor by a genuine cordiality 
 as she gave her hand to her host. 
 
 " The nobles were seated at tables bearing four 
 hundred services of solid gold. Each of the 
 ladies found in the apartment provided for her 
 a superb toilette d la duchesse. Winnie felt, 
 when she saw her own reflection in the cheval 
 glass, that there was no lady in all that brill- 
 iant company more richly robed or more beau- 
 tiful than herself. No, nor in that long por- 
 trait gallery, through which she was now pac- 
 ing demurely, looking up with the royal party 
 at the portraits of the beauties of the day La
 
 HOW VERSAILLES WAS BORN. 47 
 
 Valliere, Madame de Sevigne, and many a prin- 
 cess of the blood and noble duchess ; for Fouquet 
 had achieved his boast. They were all there, 
 smiling sweetly upon him from their frames ; 
 and secretly locked in a casket, which he call- 
 ed his ' chicken-coop,' were love-letters from 
 many of these proud dames. In all the king- 
 dom there was not another Sir Lancelot so 
 favored by the ladies as Fouquet. Not, he was 
 well aware, solely on account of his personal 
 fascination, but very possibly also because of 
 his lavish generosity and princely gifts. The 
 king frowned more ominously as he took it all 
 in. What mattered it that the fete was in his 
 honor, and that, as his mother whispered, the 
 master of Vaux was ruining himself in a vain 
 attempt to please his royal master ? It did not 
 please him to see himself surpassed at every 
 point. He had no such cook, no such gardens, 
 no such galaxy of genius painters, poets, mu- 
 sicians, actors, artists, every mode of expres- 
 sion among his friends, while among the beau- 
 ties who looked upon Fouquet with kindness 
 were several for whose favor royalty longed. 
 Fouquet was more brilliant, as well as hand- 
 somer than the king, and in his presence Louis
 
 48 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 felt his own inferiority. He remembered an 
 innuendo of the great Cardinal Mazarin, spoken 
 as though in commendation of Fouquet, but 
 containing a gliding serpent of detraction. * If 
 our Minister of Finances could get women and 
 building out of his head, he would be capable 
 of great things.' 
 
 " It was notorious that the public funds had 
 suffered great depredation, whether really at 
 the hands of the late cardinal or of Fouquet 
 Louis did not care. Here was a pretext, and 
 Louis resolved upon his ruin. Winnie heard 
 him conversing with a blunt, plain man, Col- 
 bert by name. 
 
 " ' Without doubt, sire,' replied the latter, 
 ' the superintendent's affairs would not bear 
 examination.' 
 
 "Winnie thought of this while acting her 
 part in Les Facheux ; thought of it when the 
 king sent for her to congratulate her, saying 
 that he hoped some day to see her play at Ver- 
 sailles, for this fete had suggested to his mind 
 a scheme by which that simple hunting chateau 
 might be embellished ; she thought of it when, 
 after viewing the illuminated fountains, she 
 heard the king request Fouquet to present Le
 
 HOW VERSAILLES WAS BORN. 49 
 
 Notre to him, and heard him ask the great 
 landscape gardener if these fountains could not 
 be surpassed if carte blanche were given him as 
 to funds. She had witnessed the birth of the 
 idea of Versailles. 
 
 " The poet La Fontaine had read a poem laud- 
 ing Fouquet, and referring thus to Moliere' s 
 play : 
 
 " ' It is a work by Moliere ; 
 This writer of a style so rare 
 Is nowadays the court's delight ; 
 His name, so rapid is its flight, 
 Beyond the bounds of Rome must be ; 
 Amen ! for he's the man for me.' 
 
 " And now the king was talking with Moliere 
 and La Fontaine of the patronage he intended 
 to extend to arts and letters. It was all plain 
 to Winnie. Louis intended to seize for himself 
 all the advantages which Fouquet had collected, 
 and dash from his pedestal of greatness the man 
 who had dared to rival him. 
 
 "Impelled by an impulse of friendship, she 
 sped across the velvet lawn, among the shadowy 
 bosquets no longer lighted by the colored foun- 
 tains, and found Fouquet resting upon a mar- 
 ble bench.
 
 50 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 " ' Ah ! you have come away, as I have, to 
 rest for a moment from the crowd, from the 
 heat, the glare, the noise. What do you think 
 of it all ? It is a glorious triumph, is it not ? 
 Enough to intoxicate any man.' 
 
 " * Yes, I fear you are intoxicated,' she said, 
 looking at his glowing eyes. ' You do not 
 see your deadly peril. The king is envious, 
 and is plotting your ruin.' 
 
 " * What makes you think so ? ' he asked 
 quickly. 
 
 " ' I heard him insinuate that all this magnifi- 
 cence could not have been paid for by your 
 private fortune that it came from the treasury 
 of the State.' 
 
 " ' Pah ! that is nothing. A superintendent 
 of finance would be considered a great fool if 
 he did not profit by his position. The king 
 voices only his opinion of what he would do 
 were he in my place what every one who had 
 the brains to manage it would do. It is the 
 spirit of the times to be successful ; you must 
 be unscrupulous, only you must be adroit 
 enough to cover your tracks. My enemies can 
 prove nothing. No man stands better with the 
 king than I. I have just given the king a mil-
 
 HOW VERSAILLES WAS BORN. 51 
 
 lion in ready money for his private neces- 
 sities. His Majesty could not find another 
 superintendent who would manage such a lit- 
 tle loan without having it come to public knowl- 
 edge. I have bought *ip every one, even the 
 king.' 
 
 " ' Alas ! ' Winnie cried, ' you are deceiving 
 yourself ; you are not safe.' 
 
 " ' I thank you for your concern,' Fouquet 
 replied, * for it bespeaks your regard. To con- 
 tent you, I will fortify Belle Isle, so that I can 
 have a refuge to which to retreat, and to em- 
 bark from in case of danger ; but it is all a fig' 
 ment of your imagination. Vaux is enchanted ; 
 it is as safe as it is beautiful ; and this castle of 
 enchantment I now offer to you. They are all 
 fools who think this festival is in honor of the 
 king ; it is in your honor. The Vicomtesse 
 shall pack for Paris, and you you alone shall 
 be the leading lady of Vaux.' What the real 
 Armande would have said under the circum- 
 stances we do not know ; but Winnie was still 
 enough of a child of the nineteenth century to 
 remain true to Moliere. 
 
 " ' It can be no great disappointment to you, 
 whom all other ladies love,' she said gently,
 
 52 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 1 when I tell you that I love Moliere, and no 
 other.' 
 
 " ' But he is only a genius, who exists to 
 please his patron.' 
 
 " 'I beg pardon,' Winnie replied; 'you are 
 only a patron, whose only reason for being is 
 that you may foster genius.' 
 
 " ' That is not the seventeenth-century way of 
 looking at it,' Fouquet replied, quite puzzled. 
 ' No one is faithful to lover or friend when he 
 can be made footstool to a high position. But 
 let us leave this question, which is really aside 
 from the matter. Here is the most delightful 
 paradise in France, and a noble who hopes 
 soon to be minister ; they are yours, if you will 
 give up this strolling actor and playwright. ' 
 
 ' ' Winnie turned indignantly from him. There 
 on the steps of the terrace stood her lover, look- 
 ing for her. She ran to him, seized him by the 
 arm, and begged him passionately to leave the 
 chateau. ' Nothing can induce me to spend 
 the night under its roof, ' she insisted. ' Let 
 us go to the miller of Vaux his mill cannot be 
 far distant ; Jacqueline will take us in.' 
 
 "'The miller and Jacqueline are homeless 
 vagrants,' Moliere replied. ' The villages of
 
 HOW VERSAILLES WAS BORN. 53 
 
 that smiling valley were razed to create these 
 gardens ; the river which brought the miller 
 and the villagers prosperity has been appropri- 
 ated to give water-power to the fountains.' 
 
 " ' How can that man expect mercy, when he 
 gave none ? ' Winnie cried. 
 
 " ' Mercy, faith, constancy ! ' repeated Mo- 
 liere, ' they are not in the spirit of the times. 
 To succeed now one must be cruel, hypocritical, 
 selfish, base. It is the century of wolves and 
 foxes, hyenas and tigers. One must truckle, 
 steal, tyrannize, be false to every pledge of 
 honor and affection.' 
 
 " Winnie burst into tears. ' Then, if there is 
 no refuge for us anywhere in the world in this 
 century, let us quit the time itself \vith which 
 we have so little in sympathy.' 
 
 " Moliere looked at her wonderingly, tenderly, 
 as she took from the gold bonbonniere the tear 
 of the aloe, and moistening it with her own 
 tears, gently touched first his eyelids and then 
 her own. 
 
 " Slowly, softly, as on a murmurous river, she 
 drifted away. She had wept, indeed, but she 
 had left the scene before the worst before Louis 
 XIV. despoiled the man who had wrecked his
 
 54 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 fortune to give him pleasure, and throwing 
 him into the Bastile, to linger for the rest of 
 his life in wretchedness, unscrupulously appro- 
 priated his wealth, his ideas, his friends, to 
 build Versailles. 
 
 " She had left the scene before Moliere, having 
 learned the vanity, the hypocrisy, the greed 
 and cruelty of greatness, grew bitter, and wrote 
 the stinging satires which held up the period 
 to the scorn of the world, and before Armande, 
 his beloved wife, broke his trusting heart. 
 
 " But she had seen enough of the spirit of the 
 seventeenth century, and as she felt her life 
 budding with the flower of the aloe, and about 
 to bloom in another period, she was glad that 
 she was to escape to any century, even if it 
 were to prove the nineteenth, with Adelaide 
 reading a prosy story under the light of the 
 old student lamp."
 
 INTERLUDE 
 
 (BETWEEN CHAPTERS in. AND iv.) 
 
 day, when Winnie was 
 at the museum of royal 
 carriages, sketching a 
 gorgeous Louis XIV. 
 State coach, which she 
 thought she might use in a 
 picture that she had dreamed 
 while Adelaide was reading 
 the story of the Fete at Vaux, 
 some one called at the little 
 villa. 
 
 When she heard his voice, 
 Adelaide, dignified Adelaide, 
 sprang up, overturning a bottle of drawing- 
 ink on a careful elevation of the fa9ade of 
 the Little Trianon, and allowing the inky 
 pools to widen and to blot out her neat 
 work, while she caught the newcomer by both 
 hands and danced him gayly around the room ;
 
 56 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 for it was her old friend and Winnie' s lover, 
 Van, and Adelaide knew by the look in his 
 face that all his doubts had been cleared away, 
 and he had come back to win his pardon from 
 Winnie. 
 
 "Where is she?" he asked, when Adelaide 
 allowed him to catch his breath, and Adelaide 
 showed him the way to the museum. 
 
 Winnie had been painting one of the pompous 
 chariots covered with bronze ornamentation, 
 the panels rich paintings, the trappings and 
 linings of crimson velvet richly embroidered in 
 gold. The guardian had left her for an in- 
 stant, for he heard a strange step approaching, 
 and Winnie recognized a familiar voice, which 
 inquired if a demoiselle Americaine were not 
 painting somewhere in the museum. 
 
 A strange tremor of delight and fear thrilled 
 her, at the same time a wilful impulse to flee 
 and to hide from him. She laid her palette 
 and brushes silently down. There was no es- 
 cape, for he was coming toward her from, the 
 only door ; but he had not yet perceived her, 
 and Winnie seized the door of the magnificent 
 State coach. It was firmly fastened. Behind 
 her was an exquisite chaise a porteurs of the
 
 INTERLUDE. 57 
 
 time of Louis XV. The panels were decorated 
 with cupids by Boucher, and mounted in ornate 
 carving and gilding. The interior was lined 
 with velvet. It was a veritable jewel-box, not 
 to be touched by unhallowed hands ; but she 
 forgot all the respect in which this almost 
 sacred object was held in her wild desire to 
 hide. She tried the door, it yielded, and in an 
 instant she was inside. 
 
 " C^est Men etrange" said the guardian, 
 " and cependant, she was here a moment ago. 
 Tiens, here are her little affairs," and Winnie 
 knew that he was showing her sketch to Van. 
 " ' Not of much consequence ? ' No, monsieur, 
 the lady is not a great artist ladies never 
 are ; but painting amuses them, it keeps them 
 out of mischief, and, en Jin, it is no crime." 
 
 " I have seen some paintings that were 
 crimes," Van replied, "of the very deepest 
 dye." 
 
 " But, yes ; but they were made by men, 
 monsieur. A lady is not capable of anything 
 great, not even of a great crime." 
 
 Winnie could scarcely contain her indigna- 
 tion. The man had been so complimentary to 
 her that very morning, and had called her
 
 58 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 sketch " un vrai chef d'ceume /" but men were 
 all alike, she never would believe one of them 
 again. In her indignation she rustled just the 
 least bit, and Van gave a start which she did 
 not see. 
 
 " I think, as the young lady has left her 
 painting materials, she will probably be back 
 soon," he said. "May I wait for her here ?" 
 and Van pressed a coin into the hand of the 
 guardian. 
 
 " Certainly, sir ; wait as long as you like." 
 
 ' ' And you need not bother to stay, you 
 know. It must be near your luncheon hour. 
 I'll look after things for you." 
 
 But the guardian was faithful to his duty, 
 though sorely tempted. 
 
 "Pardon, monsieur, mats c'est impossible. 
 It would be against my orders to leave you 
 here alone. Monsieur has the air of a gentle- 
 man ; monsieur is an honorable gentleman. I 
 recognize that ; but Pierre, the former guardian, 
 did not have the same penetration of character 
 which I possess, and he allowed a man to re- 
 main alone for five minutes here, and in that 
 five minutes he had cut out a panel of Wat- 
 teau's, and ripped all the gold lace from the
 
 INTERLUDE. 59 
 
 lining of the coach of Louis XVI. He tied the 
 panel over his stomach under his vest with the 
 lace, but fortunately the vest was a tight fit, 
 and a bit of the lace stuck out. Ah ! it lay 
 heavy on his stomach, that panel. But though 
 the stranger was arrested and the stolen articles 
 replaced, his politeness cost Pierre his position, 
 and that is why I am here instead of him. 
 Since that unfortunate occurrence, monsieur, 
 the guardians of Versailles are forbidden to be 
 polite, even when, as in the present instance, 
 there is no danger. There was another case, 
 that of a woman, monsieur. I will not call her 
 a lady. She had an insane desire to sit in the 
 grand coach of the sacre. She offered me a 
 bribe of I will not say how much. It was not 
 sufficient I am thankful, it was not suffi- 
 cient, and my virtue remained unassailable. 
 Sit in that coach, monsieur ! Think of 
 the consequences ! They would have been 
 fatal." 
 
 ' How so ? It looks pretty strong. Was the 
 lady so heavy that you feared the consequences 
 to the rusted springs and decayed flooring of 
 the old coach ?" 
 
 ' ' Heavy, monsieur ! She was a s thin as a soup
 
 60 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 a Voseille in Lent. She would not have been 
 fatal to the coach. It is upon me that the 
 fatality would have precipitated itself, and 
 upon her likewise." 
 
 "Upon her? Oh, I see; it is pretty dusty 
 inside, and the microbes are doubtless rather 
 hungry after their fast of a century. Let me 
 remember, it was in a chaise a porteurs, was it 
 not, that Mesdames de France left the palace 
 after nursing Louis XV. when he died of small- 
 pox ?" 
 
 " I do not know, monsieur. I never heard." 
 
 " Oh, yes, you have," and again a franc stole 
 into the man's hand as he whispered, " Let 
 this refresh your memory. You certainly can 
 tell me which of these sedan chairs dates from 
 the time of Louis XV." 
 
 "That one, monsieur, with the panels by 
 Boucher has always been called the chaise d 
 porteurs de Madame Pompadour" 
 
 " Exactly ; and when Madame Pompadour 
 died Louis took back his presents, of course ; 
 and being of an economical turn of mind, gave 
 that chair to his daughters. Or, perhaps, the 
 marquise left it to them in her will. Has it 
 ever been relined ?' '
 
 INTERLUDE. 61 
 
 " No, monsieur, it is all authentic ; quite of 
 the period. I assure you." 
 
 " Even to the microbes, I presume." 
 
 " Undoubtedly, monsieur." 
 
 " And you have never fumigated it ?" 
 
 ' ' Never, monsieur. A gentleman did attempt 
 to light a cigar here, but though he had tried 
 to bribe me, the sum fortunately was not enough 
 to tempt my virtue and 
 
 "And consequently that chaise a porteurs is 
 a death-breeding piece of furniture, sir. What 
 do the statistics say \ How many visitors an- 
 nually die of small-pox after visiting this 
 museum ?" 
 
 But Winnie could stand it no longer. She 
 threw open the door, laughing heartily. " Oh, 
 Van, Van, what a rascal you are !" 
 
 He sprang to her side, and in spite of the 
 presence of the astonished guardian, would have 
 caught her in his arms ; but Winnie glided 
 adroitly from him. " Beware of the microbes !" 
 she exclaimed. "I'm infected, you know," 
 and she laughed again, not mockingly, but 
 with a kindly twinkle in her dancing eyes. 
 
 " You know I'd consider it a privilege to 
 take the small-pox from you, Winnie," Van
 
 62 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 asserted, gayly gathering up her belongings ; 
 but the guardian, seeing these preparations for 
 departure, bristled with authority. 
 
 " But she has been in the chaise dporteurs ! 
 Monsieur, the consequences will be fatal. " 
 
 "Make yourself easy, my friend, I've no 
 picture strapped on my stomach ; on the con- 
 trary, quite a weight has just been lifted from 
 my mind ; and as for this young lady, I trust 
 she will escape with her life. Judging from 
 her influence over other living organisms, I 
 believe she could hypnotize even microbes." 
 
 " But me my honor !" 
 
 " You remarked that the sum which the 
 other lady offered you for the privilege of sit- 
 ting in Louis' band-wagon was not sufficient to 
 tempt your virtue. At this rate a seat in your 
 old chaise is almost as expensive as one in a 
 stage-box on a first night at the opera, but if 
 that will do the consequences need not be very 
 fatal to anybody." 
 
 Mr. Van Silver remained at Versailles but a 
 short time. Important business complications, 
 in which his mother's and his own property 
 were involved, recalled them both to the United 
 States.
 
 INTERLUDE. 63 
 
 "It is the irony of fate," he said, "that 
 while I was free to spend my vacation in any 
 part of Europe this absurd misunderstanding 
 should have come up between us, and I should 
 have wasted my time rambling around in the 
 Orient when I might have been right here ; and 
 now that everything is explained, the ' total 
 depravity of inanimate things,' together with 
 what another wordy philosopher has denomi- 
 nated the inapproposity and unscrupulosity of 
 contemporaneous events, compels me to return 
 to America." 
 
 "Nevermind," said Winnie, " it' s all right, 
 and absence and waiting and that sort of thing 
 are nothing when people understand each 
 other." 
 
 "Aren't they?" Van asked sardonically. 
 " Now it's my experience that the better they 
 understand one another the more those little 
 nothings count." 
 
 And so Van flitted into their lives and out 
 again, but he left a gleam of sunshine for them 
 all. Winnie was her old, merry self once more, 
 and though life went on in just the same lines, 
 a new element of content was recognizable, and 
 absence and waiting were no longer unendurable.
 
 64 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Adelaide's scheme for recording the results 
 of their studies in short stories was continued, 
 and Winnie herself took an active interest in it. 
 
 " Let us have another peep at the Louis XIV. 
 period," she begged. " You went to Chantilly 
 with Mrs. Van Silver on that famous coaching 
 party last year. Do bring that chateau into 
 your next story, and then I will take my turn, 
 and see what pressed flowers of romance I can 
 find between the musty leaves of history." 
 
 Mrs. Van Silver gave the girls a little dinner 
 at her apartment at the Hotel Vatel before 
 leaving for America. She had been told of 
 their literary amusement, and asked that the 
 next paper might be read at her rooms. " I 
 am very fond of this little hotel," she said to 
 Adelaide ; "its table is so good that it would 
 have been no dishonor to the man whose name 
 the hotel bears. Can you not make us under- 
 stand how a cook could make the merest detail 
 in his humble profession a point of honor ?" 
 
 How Adelaide succeeded in combining Mrs. 
 Van Silver's and Winnie's requests will be seen 
 in the next chapter.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PRINCE'S COOK AND THE KING'S GARDENER. 
 
 'ATEL and La Quintinie, 
 two of Fouquet's ser- 
 vants, were quarrelling 
 over the merits of their 
 respective callings. 
 
 " Yatel was the cook, 
 an excitable man with 
 flashing eyes, black as 
 coals, under his white 
 cap. He flourished a 
 long ladle, and blustered angri- 
 ly at the good-natured, plump, 
 and easy gardener. ' Son of a 
 turnip ! don't you see there 
 is no comparison between our professions? 
 You cater to the nose, I to the mouth. Tell 
 me, which is the nobler organ ? My lady 
 sniffs at your rose, places it in her corsage. It 
 tumbles out, she treads upon it, and it is for-
 
 66 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 gotten ; but my lord sits down to his soup, and 
 the fortunes of the nation hang in the balance. 
 If it is palatable, my lord is happy, and the 
 weightiest affairs move off prosperously ; if it 
 is burnt, my lord is angry, and he vents his 
 anger in the councils of the State. Do they 
 not say that the way to a man's heart is through 
 his stomach ? It is only a half-truth ; it is the 
 way to his brain, to his moral nature. Flow- 
 ers ! what are they ? Spots of color, useless 
 trash, which we can do without very well, but 
 can man do without eating ? Tell me that.' 
 
 11 La Quintinie, the gardener, laughed. ' You 
 forget that I minister to the mouth quite as 
 much as you do. Could you get up a dinner 
 without my vegetables and fruits ? Have I not 
 made the reputation of your dinners by my 
 green peas out of season ? No one knows the 
 secret of their production, or that I imported 
 some of the little glass houses from Holland in 
 which to grow them. I have kept a high wall 
 around that part of my potager, with the gate 
 always locked. I showed the invention to you 
 in a moment of confidence, when you were 
 troubled as to what new surprise to serve at 
 the banquet in the very early spring. The
 
 PRINCE'S COOK AND KING'S GARDENER. 67 
 
 guests thought the peas were brought from 
 Africa. They did not know that they grew 
 yonder behind the stables. What would your 
 banquet have been without them, I ask ? ' 
 
 "'True, true,' replied Yatel, somewhat mol- 
 lified, ' they were the masterpiece of the menu ; 
 but then, again, could my master and his guests 
 have eaten them raw ? Was it not the delicious 
 way in which I served them which gave them 
 their exquisite flavor ? There you are, simply 
 the purveyor of the gross products of the earth, 
 while I give them that touch of art through my 
 genius. Genius, I say. Does it take genius to 
 plant peas \ But who can cook them without 
 it?' 
 
 " ' Your skull is as thick as though you wore 
 one of your copper saucepans under your night- 
 cap. Did it not require genius to invent the 
 glass houses, to force the vegetables out of sea- 
 son, contrary to nature, thus commanding the 
 tropics ? Do I need your help to make my 
 strawberries gustable ? Can you make one of 
 your famous sauces without a bouquet from 
 my garden of herbs ? And as for my flowers, 
 more hearts have been broken and mended by 
 the gift of a rose from a fair lady's hand, yes,
 
 68 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 and battles fought, than ever trembled in the 
 scale against your soup-kettle.' 
 
 " ' Wind up that spit, you rogue ! ' exclaimed 
 Vatel, turning to the first kitchen boy ; ' the 
 mutton is burning, and this reminds me of an- 
 other argument in my favor. Surely that pro- 
 fession is noblest which is ministered to by the 
 greatest number of others. Not only do you 
 bring me your masterpieces that I may give 
 them a worthy presentation through my skill, 
 but so do all the other leading occupations of 
 the world. The cure said well, " All the labor 
 of man is for his mouth, and yet the belly is 
 not filled." Why do fishermen tempt the 
 dangers of the seas ? Why do butchers pursue 
 their sanguinary and disgusting trade 1 Why 
 do shepherds guard their sheep from the wolf 
 and the robber ? Why does the farmer till the 
 soil, the miller grind, the peasant tread the 
 grapes, the vintner bottle his wine ? Why 
 do slaves toil in the sugar plantations, or 
 ships sail the seas with the spices of the Ori- 
 ent ? Why does the king himself and his cour- 
 tiers hunt in the forest? I tell you it is to 
 serve me, to give the cook an opportunity to 
 display his artistic ability. The cook has al-
 
 PRINCE'S COOK AND KING'S GARDENER. 69 
 
 ways been called an artist, but the gardener 
 humph ! Go back to your potager ; the dung- 
 hill fork is not to be compared with the ladle.' 
 
 " s Listen, product of a bake-oven,' retorted 
 La Quintinie, ' you have but demonstrated the 
 weakness of your position. When one hangs 
 by a long chain, the more links there are in it 
 the more chances of one' s downfall should one 
 of them give way. That man is surest of suc- 
 cess who depends only upon his own efforts, 
 he can at least count on the loyalty and fidelity 
 of his servitor. The more one is ministered to 
 the more dependent one is.' 
 
 " ' Treason, treason and heresy !' shrieked Va- 
 tel. * Carry that theory further, and you make 
 the Pope, who is served by all, the weakest of 
 men ; and the king, who is supported by us all, 
 stands in the most dangerous position.' 
 
 " ' I did not say so, I did not even think so,' 
 said La Quintinie, aghast at such ideas. He 
 could not answer Vatel's arguments with the 
 same rush of eloquence. He could only rise 
 heavily and amble slowly away, shaking his 
 head quite iinconvinced. He turned at the 
 door, however, and said : ' I could pay you 
 back for this by refusing you the fruits you
 
 70 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 wish for the grand banquet which the intendant 
 is to give to the king and the court.' 
 
 " ' Surely you will not do this,' Vatel replied, 
 turning quite pale. 
 
 " ' No, I will not do it, for the blame would 
 fall on me. I will do my very best instead, 
 and we will see after the banquet who is ad- 
 vanced to the highest place of honor ; and, 
 meantime, beware lest one of your links 
 break.' 
 
 " The result of the festival has already been 
 told. Fouquet lost all but his life, but his ser- 
 vants were brought into prominence and re- 
 ceived new positions of distinction. Louis 
 XIV. did not scruple to take many of them 
 into his own employ, profiting by Fouquet's 
 admirable sagacity in discovering genius. 
 
 " La Quintinie was made gardener of Versailles 
 under Le Notre, who was landscape architect. 
 They worked together admirably, Le Notre 
 planning and laying out the grounds, and La 
 Quintinie filling them with beauty. Le Notre 
 gave him a great swamp, which he transformed 
 into a vegetable garden and orchard. His 
 specialty was the training of fruit-trees against 
 walls in the Italian method and the introduc-
 
 PRINCE'S COOK AND KING'S GARDENER. 71 
 
 tion of hot-houses. Such luscious pears, such 
 asparagus, out of season, had never been known 
 before in France ; strawberries, too, and French 
 peas when the ground was covered with snow. 
 The court physician complained that La Quin- 
 tinie made them so tempting that the king 
 overate continually, even rising in the middle 
 of the night for a petit souper of green peas 
 and strawberries. La Quintinie introduced the 
 fig into France, cultivated the coffee plant and 
 the banana, and imported orange and lemon 
 trees from Italy by the thousand. It is true 
 that the first batch were all winter-killed, from 
 having been planted in the open ground, but 
 the green boxes which are such a familiar fea- 
 ture in all French gardens were introduced the 
 next season, and the orange- tree had come to 
 stay. Mansart built the noble orangery with 
 its magnificent twin flights of staircases for La 
 Quintinie' s pets, and La Fontaine wrote them 
 a poem,* and La Quintinie himself wrote a 
 treatise on gardening. These were among his 
 
 * " Grangers, arbres que j 'adore, 
 
 Que vos parfums ine semblent doux. 
 Est il dans 1'empire de Flore 
 Rien d'agreable comme vous ?
 
 72 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 most enduring honors, but the most brilliant 
 one at that time was one of the many fetes given 
 by the king in imitation of that at Vaux. In 
 this fete fruits were used as 'decorations of the 
 various bosquets. There were pyramids of 
 slices of melon, pineapples, grapes, and other 
 fruits, forming magnificent studies in still-life. 
 There were arcades of fruit-trees in pots laden 
 with oranges, cherries, plums, apricots, figs, 
 etc. There were festoons of fruit arranged 
 against the thick green walls of the hedges. 
 Gold services on gilded tables were filled with 
 tempting arrangements of luscious berries, 
 ready and crying to be eaten. There were pro- 
 cessions of men dressed as savages,- bearing 
 upon their heads great silver salvers piled with 
 tropical varieties. It was a fruit festival which 
 would have driven wild the manager of a Cali- 
 fornia horticultural fair. And La Quintinie, in 
 
 Vos fleurs out embaume tout 1'air que je respire. 
 
 Toujour un aimable zephire 
 
 Autour de vous se va jouant, 
 
 Vous 6tes nains, mais tel arbre geant 
 
 Qui declaire au soleil la guerre 
 
 Ne vous vont pas, 
 
 Bien qu'il couvre un arpent de terre 
 
 Avec ses bras."
 
 PRINCE'S COOK AND KING'S GARDENER. 73 
 
 the guise of Bacchus crowned with vine- 
 wreaths, was brought in and presented to the 
 king. 
 
 ' ' In the mean time Yatel had also had his suc- 
 cesses. Fouquet's downfall occurred just after 
 the recall to favor of the Prince de Conde. 
 Louis II. of Bourbon le Grand Conde as he 
 was called was the haughtiest and most selfish 
 man of his time. Without faith, patriotism, 
 or honor, he had been a traitor to his country 
 and his king, but there was one person to whom 
 he was passionately devoted, . and for whose 
 glory he would have sacrificed any principle 
 and any friend. This person was himself. 
 Next to the Duke of Orleans he was recognized 
 as the highest personage in the State, and aided 
 by his powerful sister, the Duchesse de Longue- 
 ville, and his brother, the Prince de Conti, he 
 was a formidable foe and a dangerous friend. 
 Though he had taken arms frequently against 
 France, Louis XIV. considered him too power- 
 ful not to endeavor to placate, and recalled 
 him from Spain to give him the command of 
 the French forces in the Netherlands. At 
 length, disabled by the gout, he resigned his 
 post. When he sought an audience with Louis
 
 74 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 in order to hand in his resignation, the king so 
 far forgot etiquette as to come to the top of the 
 marble staircase to meet him. 
 
 " Conde mounted painfully, and the king bade 
 him courteously not to hasten. * One must 
 walk slowly, my cousin,' he said, ' when one 
 is encumbered with such a weight of laurels as 
 you carry.' 
 
 " Notwithstanding this polite compliment, the 
 king must have felt relieved that Conde' s fight- 
 ing days were over, and that he was now about 
 to retire for the remainder of his life to his 
 beautiful chateau of Chantilly. To keep him 
 interested there, Louis allowed Le Notre to 
 make over the grounds in the style of Ver- 
 sailles. Conde was a man of taste, and the 
 transformation was a continual delight to him. 
 Le Notre laid out new basins of water, allowing 
 the little river Nonnette to sweep through the 
 grounds. He cut numerous roads through the 
 forest, and had parterres of flowers planted, 
 and terraces constructed adorned with statuary. 
 Much of this beauty remains to the present day. 
 The hamlet was built before that of the Trianon, 
 and suggested the idea of a toy village to Marie 
 Antoinette. The stables for two hundred and
 
 PRINCE'S COOK AND KING'S GARDENER. 75 
 
 forty horses were built later, but the prince 
 kept a large stud at this time. He enlarged 
 and refurnished the chateau and entertained 
 larvishly, and the king encouraged him in this. 
 ' It will take his mind off of politics,' he said 
 sagaciously. He saw with complacency the 
 prince interest himself in the very matters 
 which had excited his anger in Fouquet. He 
 soon suggested his giving a fete. ' Why do 
 you never invite me to Chantilly ? ' he asked. 
 
 " Conde had taken Yatel into his employ as 
 superintendent of his house on the fall of Fou- 
 quet, and he now consulted with him. ' Can 
 you outrival yourself, can you surpass the ban- 
 quet which you prepared for Fouquet ? ' 
 
 " And Vatel, believing that he saw here the 
 opportunity of his life, readily promised to do 
 this, and the king and his court, consisting of 
 over six hundred persons, were invited to Chan- 
 tilly. They were to remain over night, and 
 Vatel was now not simply the head cook, but 
 as major-domo he had to plan the entire enter- 
 tainment of this army of guests. Every bed, 
 stool, and candlestick was to be provided by 
 him, with the lodging of the horses and ser- 
 vants. It was necessary also to cater for four
 
 76 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 meals, all of which must be royal entertain- 
 ments, and this far from markets and with no 
 magician gardener like La Quintinie at his 
 elbow. The illumination of the grounds, thje 
 programme of pleasures for the guests, the se- 
 curing of extra servants, musicians, etc., were 
 also entrusted to his care. He had a thousand 
 things to think of at once. For twelve nights 
 before the fete he had scarcely slept. He 
 planned a hunt by torchlight for the night of 
 the arrival, the ladies to follow the game in 
 their carriages, the many intersecting roads cut 
 through the park rendering this possible, while 
 the dogs and the beaters dashed through the 
 thickets and drove the deer into the long 
 avenues. Madame de Sevigne describes this 
 hunt as one of the most exciting and novel ex- 
 periences of her life. She sat in an open calash 
 (a vehicle resembling a modern hansom) ; two 
 torch-bearers ran at her side ; gay cavaliers 
 dashed by her ; there were cries in the thickets, 
 a flash of lights, and a shadowy form, a mag- 
 nificent buck with branching horns, bounded 
 into the avenue just ahead of her. Her horse, 
 which must have been a hunter, took the bit in 
 his teeth and dashed after it. There were dogs
 
 PRINCE'S COOK AND KING'S GARDENER. 77 
 
 leaping about her carriage-wheels. Some one 
 was sounding a hunting-horn, a cavalier flew 
 by, there were shots, the buck bounded into the 
 air, and madame was ' in at the death.' 
 
 " It was an exciting experience, and the guests 
 sat down with whetted appetites to a magnifi- 
 cent supper. During the repast Conde sent a 
 servant to congratulate Vatel on his success. 
 The poor man was overwrought one of the 
 courses did not quite hold out, and could not 
 be served at one of the tables. It was the table 
 at which the nobles of the very lowest rank 
 were seated, but for this very reason they were 
 jealous of any slight. Vatel had a hundred 
 annoyances, a thousand cares. The prince had 
 caused the parterres to be filled with flowering 
 bulbs from Holland, and these gaudy and rare 
 flowers excited the admiration of the guests, as 
 it seemed to Vatel, more than the banquet. 
 They reminded him of La Quintinie and his 
 warning, * Beware that none of your links 
 break !' 
 
 " ' Ah, that man is well waited upon who is 
 served only by himself ! ' he groaned. ' My 
 honor, my fame is at stake, and depends on 
 every scullion in the chateau.'
 
 78 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 "A display of fireworks on the canal followed 
 the supper. It lasted late, but every guest had 
 retired at last, comfortably provided for for the 
 night. The servants had cleared the tables 
 and slept. Only Vatel still puzzled over his 
 breakfast menu, and the more important one of 
 the noonday collation, the great banquet of the 
 festival. He visited the store-rooms, the but- 
 teries, the pantries, and saw with satisfaction 
 that the smoking ovens of the past week had 
 filled the shelves. Quarters of beef, haunches 
 of venison, hecatombs of dressed fowls, whole 
 butcher-shops and pastry-cook's windows, with 
 processions of cakes decorated to the last de- 
 gree of the confectioner's art, vats of marmalade, 
 tuns of wine everything stood in readiness 
 like a well-armored arsenal on the eve of a 
 siege everything but the fish, and that would 
 come in a few hours ; he had written to the 
 principal ports of France. There would be sal- 
 mon from Marseilles, sole from Normandy, 
 crates of eels from Brittany. The ingredients 
 for the sauces were ready to the last lemon. It 
 was daybreak ; surely he might catch a wink 
 of sleep before breakfast. His brain was shriv- 
 elled with insomnia, his nerves unstrung, his
 
 PRINCE'S COOK AND KINO'S GARDENER. 79 
 
 eyes baked in their sockets. He wakened the 
 servants and set them about the breakfast. He 
 would wait only the arrival of the fish for the 
 midday dinner, and then would give up the 
 helm, secure of his victory. 
 
 " ' Maitre Vatel, the fish has arrived,' said 
 the steward, and the major-domo descended to 
 the kitchen door. Where was the long line of 
 carriers with pannier-laden beasts ? Only a 
 boy with a single crate containing an insignifi- 
 cant number. 
 
 " ' Are we in the days of the miracles ?' asked 
 Vatel. ' Where are the others ? ' 
 
 " ' Please you, sir, these are all.' 
 
 " 'And the messengers to Fecamp and St. 
 Malo ? ' 
 
 ' ' ' They have not returned, but the weather 
 has been unfavorable for fishing up to yester- 
 day ; doubtless the fish will arrive to-morrow. ' 
 
 " ' To-morrow ! ' Vatel laughed mockingly at 
 his own despair. ' And whoever heard of serv- 
 ing a dinner to the king without fish ! I am 
 disgraced forever ! ' 
 
 " He retired to his chamber, and breakfast was 
 served in the great hall of the chateau. In the 
 midst of it a clatter of hoofs was heard. It was
 
 80 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 the train of mules from Normandy, laden with 
 panniers of fish. While the kitchen boys were 
 unloading them more fish poured in from Brit- 
 tany, from Paris ; one would think that the 
 chateau was to be victualled for Lent. ' Run 
 and tell Vatel,' said the steward ; * this will 
 be a merry sight for him. He will feast his 
 eyes on this abundance, and it will do him more 
 good than to feast his stomach, though he has 
 eaten nothing for days. ' 
 
 ' ' They knocked at his door ; only a faint groan 
 for answer. They burst it open, and found 
 him dying, thrust through by his own sword. 
 One of his links had broken. 
 
 " The news of his suicide was reported at the 
 breakfast-table, much to the annoyance of the 
 princely host. * It was such an awkward 
 thing,' says Madame de Sevigne, ' to have 
 happened at so expensive and elegant a fete." 
 
 Adelaide laid down her paper amid applause. 
 
 " Did you really find that amulet in the sar- 
 cophagus of Solomon's Egyptian wife?" Tib 
 asked of Van, after Adelaide's transformation 
 scheme had been explained. 
 
 " It really came from a tomb in Egypt," he
 
 PRINCE'S COOK AND KING'S GARDENER. 81 
 
 replied. " Adelaide's fancy may have been 
 true ; who knows ? At any rate, I hope tears 
 may be kept from your eyes until we meet 
 again." 
 
 " And in the mean time," said Winnie, " this 
 living in the past is a very good thing. I mean 
 to shorten dull days by not only looking back- 
 ward, but by stepping backward now and 
 then." 
 
 " I trust, dear, that it may not make you 
 discontented with your own century," said 
 Mrs. Van Silver. 
 
 Winnie made no answer then and there, but 
 as Van walked homeward with her through the 
 long allees of the palace garden he understood 
 that these flights of fancy into the dim cham- 
 bers of the past were only contrivances to 
 shorten the waiting time, and that her heart 
 was fixed, not in the past of the Old World, 
 but in the future and in the New.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AN EXCURSION TO RAMBOITILLET. 
 
 , BOUT the middle of the 
 summer the girls de- 
 cided to make a little 
 excursion to visit the 
 Chateaux of Rambouil- 
 let and Maintenon, sit- 
 uated to the south 
 of Versailles. They 
 found, by a consulta- 
 tion of time-tables, that 
 they could spend the night 
 at the little town of Rambouil- 
 let, go on in the early morning to Maintenon, 
 lunch there, and return to Versailles in the 
 evening. It was a short trip, but one which 
 would give them two historic chateaux, full of 
 interest to the student of the Louis XIV. 
 period. 
 
 At Rambouillet they stopped at a rambling
 
 AN EXCURSION TO RAMBOUILLET. 83 
 
 old inn called the Lion d'Or. The walls of the 
 courtyard were tapestried with Marechal Niel 
 roses, great golden balls, and the innkeeper, 
 on hearing Winnie's exclamations of delight, 
 mounted a ladder to pluck a bouquet for her. It 
 was with difficulty that he could be restrained 
 from stripping the entire wall of its golden splen- 
 dors. It was an inn to dream in and to lose one's 
 self in, with its staircases winding about, linking 
 the irregular floors, and making the guest wan- 
 der through long stretches of unnecessary corri- 
 dors to reach a point directly beneath. 
 
 The regular dining-room was engaged by a 
 hilarious military party, and a table was set 
 for our travellers in a tiny boudoir opening by 
 a glass door upon the rose-draped court. 
 
 They sat here and ate a delicious luncheon 
 all the dishes, from the trout, the partridge with 
 mushrooms, and the tiny wood strawberries 
 wet with Burgundy, had come from the forest 
 of Rambouillet ; but they did not linger long 
 over the repast, for they wanted the entire 
 afternoon for the chateau. 
 
 Fortunately the inn was quite near the castle 
 park, and a short walk through the narrow, 
 cobble-stoned streets brought them to the grille
 
 84 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 of ironwork, and they entered the old building. 
 The fagade facing the town was not pretentious, 
 and the girls were a little disappointed, but as 
 they wandered from room to room, and admired 
 the wonderful wood-carving with which the 
 interior is decorated, and looked out from the 
 broad windows on the beautiful park, their de- 
 light grew with each new discovery. 
 
 " No one but Le Notre could have planned 
 that charming vista!" Adelaide exclaimed. 
 " It is quite unnecessary for the guide-book to 
 tell us that he laid out that grand canal. It is 
 as evidently his as if he had signed his name 
 to it." 
 
 Winnie laughed. " Signing one's name to a 
 canal does seem something like having it ' writ 
 in water,' does it not ? But I know what you 
 mean. Those mushrooms we had this morning 
 were so good that I was sure they had Julie 
 d'Angenne's monogram embroidered all over 
 them." 
 
 " I don't see what mushrooms have to do 
 with Julie d'Angenne," remarked Tib, the 
 practical. 
 
 " Don't you ? Well, then, allow me to say that 
 your education in French history is deficient."
 
 AN EXCURSION TO RAMBOU1LLET. 85 
 
 " Did you ever happen to hear of the young 
 lady in question ?" 
 
 "Certainly; she was the daughter of the 
 Marquise de Rambouillet, who was so famous 
 for founding the literary coterie of the Hotel 
 de Rambouillet in Paris. The marquise fre- 
 quently invited her literary friends to visit 
 here, and they acted sylvan plays on the Isle 
 du Rocher over yonder. How charming it 
 must have been ! The audience sat on the 
 bank of the canal, while nymphs and shepherds 
 appeared from behind the bowlders' and recited 
 their parts. How I wish Adelaide's little fic- 
 tion about the tear of the aloe were true ; and 
 I would wish myself back to one of these gar- 
 den parties. Think who the other guests were 
 Corneille, Balzac, Cardinal Richelieu, the 
 grand Conde, Boileau, Bossuet, Voiture, Ma- 
 dame de Longueville, Angelique Paulet, Made- 
 moiselle de Scudery, Madame de Sevigne, Ra- 
 cine, Moliere. Only imagine that it is one of 
 the fetes champetres of the Marquise de Ram- 
 bouillet in sixteen fifty something, and that we 
 have all this witty and learned society here 
 with us." 
 
 " Yes, let us imagine it," said Winnie. "I'll
 
 86 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 sit over there beside the canal and think and 
 scribble it all oat while you girls visit the dairy 
 with the marble floor and tables, and the her- 
 mitage with the beautiful frescoes. " 
 
 Winnie rambled down the grand avenue of 
 Louisiana cypresses, which has its match no- 
 where else in Europe. The great cypress knees 
 formed inviting arm-chairs, and the soft, fern- 
 like foliage waved from its long, pendulous 
 branches. The brilliant parterres of flowers 
 were reflected a shade lower in tone in the un- 
 ruffled mirror of the canal, which zigzagged 
 through the tranquil forest. The stillness was 
 only occasionally broken by the cry of a bird ; 
 the only human being in sight was a gray -haired 
 man patiently fishing at the foot of a headless 
 sphinx, and apparently as motionless and as 
 moss-grown as the statue. 
 
 As Winnie scribbled, it almost seemed to her 
 that the transformation which she dreamed 
 had come true. A stately but courteous and 
 very loveJy woman was talking to her of a 
 house party to which they had invited their 
 Parisian friends. "And, Julie," she said, "I 
 want this fete to be especially delightful, for you 
 know the king and Madame de Maintenon will
 
 AN EXCURSION TO RAMBOUILLET. 87 
 
 drive over from madanie's ch&teau at Maintenon. 
 They say it is very beautiful, but the grounds 
 cannot eclipse ours, nor royalty even collect a 
 more distinguished literary coterie than our 
 guests. I want to have the play a great suc- 
 cess, for the king is fond of spectacles, and so 
 is madame, though she is such a prude, but 
 everything must be unexceptionable. We can 
 have no ballet, and the costumes must not be 
 too closely imitated from the antique. Our 
 nymphs must drape themselves with excessive 
 care. I had thought of engaging Moliere to 
 arrange it all, but we cannot trust to him." 
 
 "No, mamma," replied Winnie or Julie, as 
 she now imagined herself to be " Moliere is far 
 too amusing. Get the Abbe Arnauld to arrange 
 us something very classical. ' Sophonisbe and 
 Scipio ' will be just the thing. We will invite 
 Angelique Paulet, whose beautiful red hair has 
 earned her the name of la belle lionne, to take 
 the principal part." 
 
 " Mademoiselle may have a part and play 
 upon her lute and sing, but you, Julie, are to 
 be Sophonisbe, for my little daughter shall not 
 be cast in the shade on this particular occasion. 
 The young Comte de Guiche and the Due de
 
 88 WITGH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Montausier are both coming, and I am desirous 
 that you should appear to advantage." 
 
 The fair Julie shrugged her shoulders and 
 blushed, and the marquise regarded her criti- 
 cally, knowing that the blush was for one of 
 the aspirants to her daughter's hand, and the 
 shrug for the other. 
 
 " We must have a series of surprises," she 
 continued. " A fete is always wearisome where 
 everything proceeds after a cut-and- dried pro- 
 gramme. When the king and Madame de Main- 
 tenon arrive we will meet them with a proces- 
 sion of the prettiest girls of the village, dressed 
 in white, and bearing blossoming boughs and 
 singing songs, and Maitre Claude (concierge of 
 the chateau) shall have orders to fire a salute 
 from the cannon in the two towers." 
 
 " Maitre Claude has grown so pompous," said 
 Julie, " that I fear he will not conduct himself 
 with proper respect even before the king. 
 When the priest brought the pain benit the 
 other day a little late and told him that he was 
 sorry to have kept you waiting, but he had 
 been called to the death-bed of one of your 
 people, Maitre Claude refused to receive the 
 bread, saying that the peasant was lacking in
 
 .4^ EXCURSION TO RAMBOUILLET. 89 
 
 respect not to have put off his dying until Ma- 
 dame la Marquise was served." 
 
 " Maitre Claude will have to be warned ; but 
 have you no suggestions for the entertainment 
 of our guests ?" 
 
 " You might have a sermon preached for 
 Madame de Maintenon." 
 
 " The very thing. You are in jest, but I 
 shall ask Bossuet to come and preach in the 
 chateau chapel the morning after the fete." 
 
 Julie pursed her lips. "I trust *he will re- 
 strain his eloquence within proper bounds. Do 
 you remember, when he was a boy of seventeen 
 he improvised a sermon at one of the literary 
 evenings in your salon bleu, and preached half 
 the night ? Monsieur Yoiture said he had never 
 heard any one preach at the same time so early 
 and so late." 
 
 " No matter, Julie, I particularly request 
 that all of our guests be present at the chapel 
 service, and if any one is desirous of my favor, 
 he must not miss it. " 
 
 Julie made a mental memorandum of this re- 
 mark. " I shall manage so that the Comte de 
 Guiche shall not be there, for mamma thinks 
 too much of the tiresome fellow as it is ; but
 
 90 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 how can I make the Due de Montansier get up 
 early enough ? The last time he was here he 
 sat up half the night writing verses to me, and 
 such poor poetry, too ; and he overslept the 
 next morning, so that he missed a hunting 
 party." 
 
 The marquise was still thoughtful. " The 
 Comte de Guiche is a fine young man," she 
 said musingly ; "so punctilious in matters of 
 etiquette. He always dresses in perfect taste, 
 and in a manner befitting every occasion ; and 
 then he is so brave. Death has no terrors for 
 him. It is remarkable to see one so young so 
 well prepared for every exigency of life. The 
 Due de Montausier has a kind heart and many 
 honors, but I fear he is not accustomed to lit- 
 erary society such as ours. A man is known 
 by the company he keeps, and I fear the duke's 
 friends would hardly do us honor. However, 
 it is some years since we have seen him, and 
 his tastes may have changed. In the letter in 
 which he accepts my invitation he writes that 
 he has been travelling in Savoy, and speaks of 
 the beauty of the rocky cascades and waterfalls. 
 ' At Rambouillet, ' he says, ' you have a tran- 
 quil beauty in your broad, flat meadows and
 
 AN EXCURSION TO RAMBOUILLET. 91 
 
 lake-like expanses of unrippled water, but I 
 fancy you must find it a little monotonous, and 
 must miss the joyous gurgle and plash of foun- 
 tains and waterfalls.' ' 
 
 " That is like Charles," Julie replied, with a 
 little pique. " He dearly loves to affect the 
 superior, and to patronize me. I cannot en- 
 dure it." 
 
 "I have an idea," said the marquise. "I 
 will send a messenger in haste to Vaux, and 
 ask the intendant to lend me his chief fonta- 
 nier for a few days. There is high ground in 
 the pheasant park. We might construct a tank 
 there, have the water pumped into it from the 
 river, and obtain the most delightful results. 
 We will keep it a complete secret until the 
 proper moment." . 
 
 For the next week all was bustle about the 
 chateau. A major-domo and pastry-cook came 
 from Paris with a staff of waiters, the Abbe 
 Arnauld and the actors for the little play came 
 early and rehearsed every day. There were 
 musicians and extra gardeners and dressmakers, 
 and a new army of stable-boys to care for the 
 horses of the expected guests, and a dancing- 
 master to arrange the quadrilles. Bat though
 
 92 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 the marquise had much to arrange in order to 
 lodge and cater for her guests, her chief care 
 was for their mental entertainment. Le Notre, 
 the great landscape gardener, arrived late, but 
 he entered into the plans of the marquise with 
 enthusiasm. Fortunately he had brought his 
 workmen and materials with him, and they set 
 to work at once upon the cascade in the park. 
 The water was conducted a long distance in a 
 great pipe, which was finally concealed in the 
 branches of an oak growing on the summit of 
 the cliff. Here the water burst forth as though 
 from the heart of the tree itself, and fell in a 
 graceful waterfall into a basin half-way down 
 the rocky declivity, from each side of which it 
 issued in two cascades, meeting at the foot in a 
 broad pool with marble coping, flanked by 
 two fountains of extraordinary height for that 
 period. It was a beautiful bit of work of its 
 kind, and effected almost by magic. The even- 
 ing before the fete it was far from finished, 
 but the marquise ordered her people to attend 
 the workmen with flambeaux. They worked 
 all night, and in the morning everything was 
 completed. 
 The Due de Montausier arrived the night
 
 AN EXCURSION TO RAMBOUILLET. 93 
 
 that the work was in progress, and looking 
 from the chateau windows exclaimed : " What, 
 you have a fete to-night in the park ; it is all 
 illuminated ! What a delightful surprise !" 
 
 " Is it not ?" Julie replied demurely. " It is 
 a firefly dance which mother has arranged, but 
 . you are not to go out into the park. You get 
 the effect best from the windows." 
 
 The duke watched it, admiring the lines and 
 figures of light changing and reflected in the 
 quiet water of the canal, without suspecting 
 that the lights were anything more than a 
 pageant arranged for the diversion of the guests. 
 To add to this effect and to disguise the noises 
 of the workmen, the marquise had stationed 
 her musicians in a boat in the centre of the 
 canal, where, among swaying lanterns, they 
 played and sang Venetian serenades. 
 
 " I have a surprise for your mother, Julie," 
 he said, as they stood together alone for a mo- 
 ment ; "a book of poems composed especially 
 for this occasion. When shall I present it ?" 
 
 " Oh, not until after to-morrow ; the fete 
 will fill all our minds, and mamma and I could 
 not give your poems the least considera- 
 tion."
 
 94 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 " Then I shall wait until you can tell me of 
 an .auspicious moment, for I want very much to 
 please both your mother and yourself." 
 
 " The auspicious moment for presenting your 
 verses will be just before chapel the morning 
 after our fete." 
 
 " Why before chapel 1" asked the duke. 
 
 " Because it is then that mamma makes her 
 plans for the day, and it is the only hour at 
 which you would find her disengaged and not 
 surrounded by her other guests. Besides, she 
 has a great admiration for early risers." 
 
 " But your honored mother knows that I am 
 not fond of early rising." 
 
 " So much the better. She will think that 
 you have made a special effort to hear the 
 Bishop of Meaux preach, and almost any poems 
 read after a sermon would certainly seem 
 interesting by contrast." 
 
 Although Julie sincerely wished to have the 
 Due de Montausier stand well in her moth- 
 er's good opinion, her inborn love of teasing 
 could not forbear this fling at his literary pre- 
 tensions. Out of pure wilfulness the next day 
 she chatted and laughed with the Comte de 
 Guiche, a young fop excessively fond of fash-
 
 MADAME DE MAINTENON.
 
 AN EXCURSION TO RAMBOU1LLET. 95 
 
 ionable clothing and a braggart of courage, 
 which Julie suspected he did possess. When 
 she acted her part in the pastoral in the prettily 
 arranged out-of-doors theatre, it was not to the 
 king or to Madame de Maintenon, enthroned 
 in the great fauteuils of honor, that she direct- 
 ed her pretty speeches, or for them that she 
 threw herself into the most fascinating atti- 
 tudes ; it was all for the Due de Montausier, 
 toward whom she never looked, while her heart 
 felt his gaze of fixed admiration and beat high 
 in her bosom, and her mischievous eyes shot 
 demure glances at the Comte de Guiche, who 
 imagined himself highly favored. 
 
 After the play and the collation the mar- 
 quise proposed a stroll in the park, herself con- 
 ducting the royal party, and requesting Julie 
 to show the Due de Montausier " some of the 
 commonplace views of their too monotonous 
 scenery." 
 
 " It will be very stupid after your travels, 
 I fear," Julie remarked apologetically, as she 
 led him in the direction of the fountains. 
 " What did you find in your journey which in- 
 terested you most ?" she asked, not giving him 
 time to reply to her first sally.
 
 96 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 " Flowers," lie replied, " and of them I have 
 made a garland which, with your mother's per- 
 mission, I will present you to-morrow, though 
 I would rather have laid it at your feet at the 
 conclusion of the play in which you acted so 
 admirably." 
 
 Julie pouted. "Flowers are so perishable," 
 she said, " and people always give me flowers. 
 Why is it they never give young girls jewels, 
 which are enduring ? One must wait for those 
 till one is old and ugly so ugly that the jewels 
 only attract attention to one's wrinkles ; so old 
 that one must soon give them to one's heirs." 
 
 " The flowers I have brought you are imper- 
 ishable," the duke began; then catching the 
 sound of falling waters, he stopped in amaze- 
 ment,. "What do I hear?" he asked. "You 
 have only flat lands at Rambouillet, and a 
 sleepy river that scarcely ripples as it flows. 
 How have you imitated the rush of a water- 
 fall ?" 
 
 Julie's eyes danced with merriment as she 
 led him around a thicket and into the open 
 space where the other guests were already ad- 
 miring the artificial cascade. That of St. Cloud 
 had not yet been constructed, and although the
 
 AN EXCURSION TO RAMBOUILLET. 97 
 
 one before them was much smaller, its novelty 
 filled every beholder with admiration. 
 
 " I do not understand how you have managed 
 it," the duke repeated, again and again. 
 
 "It is not necessary to understand," Julie 
 replied. " Mamma is an enchantress ; she set 
 the fireflies to work the other night, and this is 
 the result." 
 
 " Confess, my friend," said the marquise as 
 she passed by, " that the waters and society of 
 Rambouillet are not so flat and monotonous as 
 you had thought." 
 
 " Ah, madame, you are cruel. I see you 
 have taken offence at my thoughtless remark. 
 How shall I ever obtain your forgiveness ?' ' 
 
 "You have it already," she said, kindly 
 taking his arm, and motioning Julie to accom- 
 pany the Comte de Guiche as they walked back 
 to the chateau. The comte was in high feather, 
 tricked out in a mauve satin doublet embroid- 
 ered in gold and studded with gems. ]t fitted 
 his elegant figure to perfection, and the comte 
 showed his vanity by attitudinizing at every 
 step. 
 
 " Your mother tells me," he said, " that the 
 Bishop of Meaux will preach for us at matins
 
 98 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 to-morrow. I shall not miss the occasion. One 
 should always dress with sobriety at church. 
 It is a pity that I have not brought with me a 
 black velvet suit I wore on Corpus Christ! Day. 
 However, a gray velvet slashed over violet 
 would be suitable, would it not ? I am espe- 
 cially anxious to please your lady mother." 
 
 Julie looked at him quizzically, racking her 
 brain for an expedient to make him oversleep. 
 The good wine of the chateau cellars might 
 have had that effect, but the comte was 
 temperate in drinking, though not in eat- 
 ing. To her delight she noticed at dinner that 
 he ate freely of mushrooms ; not that Ram- 
 bouillet's mushrooms were not of the most 
 wholesome kind, but because she saw that with 
 all his affected bravery he turned pale when 
 Madame de Maintenon remarked to him that she 
 had known several cases of mushroom-poison- 
 ing- 
 
 Late in the evening, when the others were 
 dancing, Julie stole away and bribed the valet 
 of the Comte de Guiche to assist her in playing 
 a practical joke upon his master. 
 
 " Give me for a few moments," she said, 
 " his gray velvet doublet," and having received
 
 AN EXCURSION TO RAMBOUILLET. 99 
 
 it she proceeded to take in all the seams, so 
 that it was tighter by a handbreadth than it 
 had been. 
 
 " You would better change all the others 
 also," said the valet, "for when my master 
 finds that the gray one is too tight he will ask 
 for them." 
 
 Julie industriously took them all in, and 
 their owner as well, for when he retired his 
 valet assured him that he was not looking well, 
 and greeted him on drawing the curtains in the 
 morning with an exclamation of horror. 
 
 " You are positively livid, my master. You 
 are surely ill. Do not think of rising until you 
 feel better." 
 
 "Nonsense," replied the young man, "I 
 never felt better in my life. Bring me my 
 gray doublet. It is almost time for chapel, 
 and the marquise told me that she was particu- 
 larly desirous that I should hear her favorite 
 orator preach." 
 
 The valet brought the doublet, but the 
 young man could not make it meet about 
 him. 
 
 " Is it possible that I have sw r ollen during the 
 night !" he exclaimed.
 
 100 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 "Mushrooms sometimes have that effect," 
 replied the valet. 
 
 " Impossible, I feel no pain. Bring me an- 
 other doublet the rose one embroidered with 
 crimson ; no, that is too gay the blue and 
 silver." 
 
 This was found much too tight. " Give me 
 the one I wore last night, it fitted me per- 
 fectly." 
 
 The valet had taken the precaution to alter 
 it after his master had retired, and the young 
 man stood aghast. 
 
 " I must be in a very dangerous condition," 
 he mused. " Is there a doctor at the chateau ?' ' 
 
 " Fagan, the king's doctor, is at Versailles. 
 There is no doctor of any reputation nearer. 
 Shall I send for him ?" 
 
 " Yes no. There is the chapel bell. I will 
 go, though I drop dead on my knees. It is the 
 best way to die surely. But I cannot go in my 
 night-clothes. Bring me my dressing-gown. 
 There, fasten it about me. The marquise will 
 see that, though poisoned and in a dying con- 
 dition, I dragged myself to chapel out of re- 
 spect to her and to the Church." 
 
 Julie's amusement was such that she nearly
 
 AN EXCURSION TO RAMBOUILLET. 101 
 
 fell from her seat as she saw the comte enter 
 the chapel in his gaudily flowered India dress- 
 ing-gown. The marquise regarded him with 
 astonishment, her eyes nearly starting from 
 their sockets with surprise. " Has he gone 
 mad ? What disrespect to me and to this sacred 
 place !" she murmured. But the bishop had 
 begun his sermon, and there was no opportu- 
 nity for explanations. 
 
 The eyes of the marquise were riveted upon 
 him, however, throughout the entire service. 
 She noticed his dishevelled hair, his wild, wan- 
 dering gaze, and she grew more and more in- 
 dignant as she perceived that some of the young 
 people to whom Julie had confided the joke 
 were laughing behind their missals. " He has 
 been drinking," she thought ; " it is the only 
 explanation ; it is disgraceful, unpardonable !" 
 
 The marquise was so much disturbed that she 
 did not notice the absence of the Due de Mon- 
 tausier, who had realized Julie' s fears by over- 
 sleeping. 
 
 After the sermon was ended the marquise 
 hurried out of chapel without allowing the 
 comte an explanation, while Julie and the 
 young people who were in the secret sur-
 
 102 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 rounded him and assured him that he was look- 
 ing very badly and ought to be assisted to his 
 room. The young man began to imagine that 
 he must be really ill, and took to his bed thor- 
 oughly frightened, beseeching that a physician 
 might be sent for at once. The younger guests 
 ran about to every room telling everybody of 
 the joke, but Julie, who felt that the jest had 
 possibly gone too far, asked the young man's 
 valet to tell his master that the marquise had 
 an antidote for mushroom -poisoning which she 
 would send him. Then Julie wrote something 
 on a sheet of paper, and sealing it, handed it to 
 the valet, saying, " Tell the comte to follow this 
 prescription." 
 
 The frightened dupe tore open the paper with 
 trembling fingers and read : " ' Take a pair of 
 scissors ' Take a pair of scissors ! How can 
 I do that f ' 
 
 " Read the rest," suggested the valet. 
 
 " 'Take a pair of scissors and rip open the 
 seams of your doublets.' ' 
 
 When the marquise heard the entire story 
 she upbraided the mischievous Julie for play- 
 ing so serious a practical joke upon a guest, 
 but the ruse had its effect. The young man
 
 AN EXCURSION TO RAMBOUILLET. 103 
 
 was so mortified that he made no proposal. 
 Had he done so the marquise would never have 
 listened to it favorably, for her good opinion of 
 his punctilious etiquette in dress, as well as of 
 his indifference to death in any form, was sadly 
 shaken. Meantime the Due de Montausier had 
 presented to Julie, with her mother's permis- 
 sion, a most remarkable album of twenty-nine 
 autograph poems, written by nineteen of the 
 most celebrated poets of the day all his per- 
 sonal friends. Each poem was written in praise 
 of Julie, and compared her to a flower, which 
 was beautifully painted by some artist of note 
 on the opposite page. The book was of the 
 finest vellum, and was entitled La Guirlande 
 de Julie. It is spoken of as " une desplus illus- 
 tres galanteries qui aientjamais etefaites." 
 
 This tribute gained the heart of the marquise. 
 She was convinced not only that the duke was 
 appreciative of literary society, but she dis- 
 covered that certain of his own poems, scattered 
 through the volume, possessed as much merit 
 as those of the famous poets whose friendship 
 she envied him. Julie, though she was hard 
 to win, 
 
 " A rosebud set with little wilful thorns,"
 
 104 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 had always in her secret heart loved Charles de 
 Montausier, and later became his wife. The 
 marriage was a happy one, and the Guirlande 
 de Julie is still preserved by descendants of the 
 mischievous girl for whom it was composed, 
 while legends of her merry pranks and of her 
 mother's delightful garden-parties cluster about 
 the chateau and its enchanting environs.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF 
 VENICE. 
 
 HE next morning, after 
 their return from Ram- 
 bouillet, the postman 
 
 I |.j(. fMKf r handed Winnie a pack- 
 ^bto^f a ft e which during her ab- 
 
 lu'lB'' : ("* soll(>( ' ll:l(l {ll ' riv(Ml from 
 America. The hand- 
 
 writing in which it was 
 addressed was perfectly 
 familiar, and she tore it 
 open, with the remark : 
 " Well, of all long let- 
 A moment later, and she exclaimed : 
 " Girls, what do you think ? Our dream- 
 stories are contagious ; even Van has tried 
 his hand at one. Isn't it too absurd ? You 
 know Van was greatly taken by the pastel 
 paintings of Rosalba Camera, that talented 
 Venetian artist who had such an immense 
 
 ters !"
 
 106 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 vogue at the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. She travelled all over Europe, and was 
 patronized by the royalty and nobility of so 
 many countries, whose museums now preserve 
 examples of her graceful art. She was the first 
 to introduce pastel painting into the countries she 
 visited. The medium was known, of course, be- 
 fore, but no one had handled it with such charm. 
 Van has looked for her work in every museum 
 that he has visited, and was especially delighted 
 with what he found in Venice. He begins his 
 paper with a sort of poetic rhapsody. The 
 idea of Van's dropping into poetry ! 
 
 '"TO THE PASTELS OF ROSALBA CARRIERA. 
 
 " ' Floating on the Canal Grande, 
 How we miss the belle and dandy 
 
 Of the past ! 
 
 And each stately marble palace 
 Seems a carven, empty chalice. 
 
 They outlast 
 
 " ' All the dames of the SpinelH, 
 Fair Signoras Giovanelli, 
 
 They who danced 
 In the ball-room of Pisani, 
 And at Doge Giustiniani 
 Coyly glanced.
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 107 
 
 ' Vanished are intrigues and menace 
 With the brides and maids of Venice, 
 
 In their bloom ; 
 And the Venice of to-day. 
 With its marbles, white or gay, 
 
 Is a tomb. 
 
 ' If the past could tell its story, 
 Tell its dreams of love and glory, 
 
 Could it give 
 
 Back to life one fair marchesa, 
 Warm the dust of one contessa, 
 
 Make her live, 
 
 * With her pretty, courtly graces, 
 Powdered hair and costly laces, 
 
 Pearls in ear, 
 
 Could it show her now, as lately, 
 Sweet, bewitching, dainty, stately, 
 
 Charming, dear ! 
 
 ' She has wrought this, Camera, 
 In her fame each is a sharer, 
 
 All are there, 
 
 In the lace the city 's famed for, 
 And the white rose she was named for, 
 
 In their hair. 
 
 ' ' In the great tomb's gloomy splendor, 
 On the portraits' bloom so tender, 
 
 Is but dust ;
 
 108 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 But in tinted pastel powder 
 Arch the proud lips, and the prouder 
 Snowy bust. 
 
 " ' Still on earth their sweet charms linger, 
 Perfect cheek and faultless finger. 
 
 Sparkling eye, 
 
 Though in heaven they are sainted, 
 The fair maids Rosalba painted 
 
 Cannot die ! ' 
 
 " That is all of the poetry. Onr writer now 
 dismounts from Pegasus, and continues in 
 
 prose : 
 
 " There stands on the records of the great 
 French Academy an official decision dated Sep- 
 tember 25th, 1706, to the effect that the associ- 
 ation having learned that several demoiselles 
 had presumed to present themselves as candi- 
 dates for admission, ' the company, after hav- 
 ing reflected seriously, resolved that no Miss 
 should be received into membership, ' etc. The 
 reason for this ban is not given, but it was 
 gravely considered and not to be lightly broken. 
 
 "But Rosalba' s shining fame, which had 
 preceded her coming, and her splendid achieve- 
 ments during her visit in France, swept away
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 109 
 
 all barriers, and the Academy did itself the 
 honor to make her a member. She presented 
 to the Academy (as the test painting -on which 
 her admission was based) her portrait of the 
 boy-king, Louis XV. He is so handsome in 
 this portrait, with his beautiful eyes, noble 
 brow, and abundant curling hair, that one does 
 not wonder that the title Bien dime was given 
 him, and that all Paris went wild with joy 
 when he recovered from an illness. 
 
 " * How sweet it is to be so loved ! ' he ex- 
 claimed when told of the devotion of his sub- 
 jects. ' What have I done to deserve it ? ' 
 
 ' " ' What had he done, indeed ? ' ask the his- 
 torians when the whole record of his life was 
 written. How much better, to our human 
 judging, for him and for France, if he had 
 died in his innocent youth, beloved and re- 
 gretted ! 
 
 " Even in Rosalba's portrait, though the face 
 is pure and distinguished, it is cold and selfish. 
 It is not a loving face, not even one that would 
 appreciate and be grateful for the affection lav- 
 ished upon it. One wonders if the purity and 
 distinction were really there, or whether Rosalba 
 gave the portrait a transforming touch, endow-
 
 110 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 ing it with something of her own whiteness of 
 soul, so that the face 
 
 " ' Like the stained web which whitens in the sun, 
 Grew pure by being purely shone upon.' 
 
 " Rosalba visited France in 1720. It was the 
 period of its greatest corruption, that of the 
 Regency, between the reigns of Louis XIV. 
 and XV., when faith was broken down and 
 morality laughed at, when the whole business 
 of life was to amuse one's self. As the great 
 and noble in life lost its hold upon men's minds, 
 greater weight was given to the externals. 
 Never was more attention given to elegance in 
 dressing, in manners, and in the arts, to accom- 
 plishments and graces. There is a certain dan- 
 gerous and seductive charm in the result when 
 the entire nobility, the flowering of a nation 
 leading the world in its cultivation, ' is solely 
 occupied in pleasing one another.' Such an 
 idle, luxurious life could not last the rose 
 must fall to pieces from its over-flowering. 
 ' At the death of Louis XV., in 1774, the easy- 
 mannered joyance, the peaceful and brilliant 
 charm of fashionable and philosophical society 
 were reaching their end ; the time of stern re- 
 alities was approaching with long strides.'
 
 Louis XV. 
 
 From a pastel portrait by Rosalba Camera.
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. Ill 
 
 "But fifty years before there was not a cloud 
 in the sky. Louis XIV. had created the most 
 beautiful gardens, the largest, most magnificent 
 suite of apartments for the ceremonies and 
 pleasures of a court that the world had seen. 
 Versailles was a never-ending chain, in which 
 each link was composed of ball-rooms, theatres, 
 salles des billiards, galleries of paintings, ban- 
 quet-rooms, cabinets for gaming and for drink- 
 ing, long galleries for promenades and state 
 processions, throne-rooms, and chambers where 
 the beds, raised on a balustraded dais and cano- 
 pied with costly stuffs, were magnificent as 
 thrones. What was the natural result of such 
 environment but to make life as exquisite and 
 as selfish as it in fact became. 
 
 " We wonder what impression is made upon 
 the talented Venetian girl, accustomed to the 
 free life of the lagoons, brought up in a 
 healthful, stimulating poverty, in noble artistic 
 surroundings, breathing the fresh salt air of 
 the Adriatic, kneeling with reverence in San 
 Marco, inspired by Titian, by Giorgione and 
 Paul Veronese, but charmed most of all by the 
 wonderful coloring and matchless grace of Cor- 
 reggio, laboring with a tireless industry to re-
 
 112 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 alize her ideals, utterly given with a high and 
 pure enthusiasm to her art ! 
 
 " Her journal during her visit to France ex- 
 ists, but it is a meagre jotting of events. She 
 was too busy to write long descriptions of what 
 she saw and what she thought. One should 
 have seen her, have talked with her. So I 
 thought at Venice, when I tried the effect of 
 the amulet which had such remarkable results 
 in your hands ; but it seems that the tear of 
 the aloe is only a balm for. woman's tears, for 
 it had no effect on my masculine eyes. 
 
 " But one day in Paris before leaving you, 
 I came across a lucky find in an old curiosity 
 shop kept by a Hebrew, the most wily and 
 seductive of his race a place into which I had 
 stumbled, attracted by some finely colored old 
 meerschaums which proved to be too exorbitant 
 in price for my somewhat problematical ex- 
 chequer. In this old shop, full of all manner 
 of entrancing antiquities, I happened to notice 
 an old japanned tin box. I was in search of 
 something of the kind. I thought then of pur- 
 suing a course of study with Pasteur, and I 
 wanted a case in which to carry vials to and 
 from the laboratory. This box had slides for
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 113 
 
 a strap, and trays with divisions which had 
 once contained tubes of oil paint, but which 
 would serve equally well for my purpose. I 
 bought it for a song, but never used it, for the 
 next day I was summoned to America. I de- 
 cided that it might be convenient to hold toilet 
 articles during the voyage, and had it sent to 
 my stateroom, where on the first day out I 
 made an important discovery. I had thought 
 that it contained only two trays, but on re- 
 moving these and piling them one on the other 
 beside the box, I saw that there must be a 
 space below what I had taken for the bottom 
 of the box. A little prying with my pocket- 
 knife and this false bottom was lifted out, and 
 neatly fitting in the space beneath lay this 
 manuscript. It was well for me that the keeper 
 of the antiquity shop had not known the fact, 
 but the box had been the boite d couleurs of 
 the painter Antoine Watteau, and this was his 
 journal during the two years of Rosalba's visit 
 in Paris : 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 " February, 1720. 
 
 " The Signorina Rosalba Camera is coming 
 to Paris ! I have just learned it from Pierre
 
 114 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Crozat. He is her patron, and is to be her host 
 as well as mine. He has offered her rooms in 
 his hotel on the Rue de Richelieu at the Ram- 
 parts (now Boulevard des Italiens) for her resi- 
 dence and that of her mother and sisters (for 
 she brings with her her entire family) during 
 her stay in Paris. What a wonderful man he 
 is, this Pierre Crozat ! A bachelor, he has 
 made art his wife and the artists his children. 
 His hotel on the Rue Richelieu is a true palace. 
 Palace did I say ? It is better, it is a museum, 
 formed of a collection of collections made by 
 connoisseurs and experts. Its long gallery on 
 the garden front is filled with hundreds of 
 paintings, of bronzes, of statues. Its every 
 apartment is crammed with thousands of books 
 and engravings, and the great- rotunda on the 
 second floor is lined with precious cabinets filled 
 with intaglios and engraved gems, original 
 drawings of the old masters and other precious 
 objects of art ; and with all this wealth he is 
 not selfish. When the world began to flock to 
 my studio after my first success, keeping me 
 from my work by its senseless compliments and 
 chatter, Pierre Crozat came to my rescue. 
 'Come to my town house,' he said, 'as you
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 115 
 
 have so often been my guest at my country 
 villa at Montmorency. Then you honored me 
 by painting your fetes galantes, which have 
 made you famous by their laughter and lib- 
 erty. Now that people embarrass you with 
 their attentions, come to me again, and I will 
 be your Cerberus to keep them from disturbing 
 your hours of inspiration. You shall have a 
 studio, an apartment, quite to yourself ; only 
 in the evening, when the labors of the day are 
 ended, will I ask you to join me and a few 
 choice friends at dinner, with music and con- 
 versation thereafter. ' 
 
 " Could any one have been kinder ? Among 
 this wealth of the best examples of the painters 
 of Italy I have studied anew and have gained 
 much, and all of these riches he has offered on 
 the same terms to his Venetian protegee, this 
 Rosalba Camera. I shall be jealous of her ; 
 not grudging her my friend's patronage, but 
 his affection. 
 
 " Among the paintings are some pastels by 
 Rosalba herself, which M. Crozat acquired 
 when in Venice. She paints with a grace, a 
 style unknown to any of our artists of the pres- 
 ent day. Her coloring is a trifle chalky, and
 
 116 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 tins gives her portraits the air of ghosts, beau- 
 tiful phantoms, too pure and spiritual for our 
 fleshly life. Her paintings are so interesting 
 that one wonders as to her personality. What 
 is she like ? She is doubtless very different 
 from her work. We artists put our best selves 
 into our pictures, our ideals of what we would 
 be, but we are so busy realizing these ideals on 
 canvas that we have no time to do so in our 
 lives. To judge from my fetes champetres, the 
 gay and innocent garden-parties which I am 
 always imagining, one would think me a joy- 
 ous, light-hearted youth, a beau galant, accom- 
 plished, self-assured, with no flutter of the 
 heart more serious than that formed by the 
 breath of a lady's fan. No one would recognize 
 the solitary, shy, and melancholy Watteau in 
 his pictures. This Rosalba is doubtless a bux- 
 om but elderly matron with wine-washed cheeks, 
 an eater of garlic and strong cheese, vulgar and 
 commonplace. 
 
 " April. 
 
 " Rosalba has arrived. I saw her last night 
 at a concert which Monsieur Crozat gave in her 
 honor, and to which he invited all the notables, 
 both of the court and of the artistic and the
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 117 
 
 financial world. I saw Law, the great banker, 
 the eminent critic Mariette, and the Comte de 
 Caylus, several learned and pious abbes in con- 
 trast to the Regent, the ladies of the court, and 
 the prima donnas of the opera, and officers of the 
 army almost as out of place as myself. An- 
 toine executed a charming morceau on the 
 flute, Mademoiselle d'Argenon sang, and was 
 applauded to the skies, then Pacini, and after 
 these virtuosi Monsieur Crozat introduced the 
 signorina. It seemed to me a great mistake to 
 submit a mere amateur, to whom music was 
 only a recreation, to comparison with the most 
 able artists of the day. When my friend led 
 her forward, I pitied her from my heart. A 
 woman not in her first youth, but about my 
 own age, not absolutely beautiful, but of dis- 
 tinguished bearing and gentle manners, she 
 stood for a moment and looked about her with 
 an appealing glance, and I saw that she had 
 the most beautiful eyes in the world. Then 
 she lifted her violin to her shoulder, and in a 
 moment she had forgotten us all and we had 
 forgotten her in her wonderful playing. Strong 
 and fir.m, her touch was at the same time mar- 
 vellously sympathetic. It was as though we
 
 118 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 heard the voice of an angel triumphing and 
 soaring. She captured us all ; we were hers at 
 once. 
 
 " After the concert was over I pressed near 
 for an introduction, but the Regent must have 
 his turn first. He congratulated her warmly, 
 and invited her to the king's ball, a fete at 
 which the king himself will dance with other 
 noble youths of his own age (ten years) in a 
 ballet composed for the occasion. It is a ball 
 to which all the courtiers and fashionables of 
 Paris are longing to be invited, and I heard the 
 Due d'Orleans ask the signorina to view it from 
 his own box, in company with his daughter, 
 the Duchesse de Berri. I was vexed that my 
 friend Crozat should have accepted such com- 
 pany for her, and told him so, but he showed 
 me Itow important it was that the signorina 
 should be seen to be sought after by people of 
 the highest rank, and then the patronage of all 
 others would follow. ' I am determined,' he 
 said, ' to make her famous. This visit to France 
 shall unlock for her not alone every door of op- 
 portunity in Paris, but in the world.' 
 
 ".April. 
 
 "I have lunched with Rosalba en famille,
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 119 
 
 have been admitted to her studio, and have 
 watched her at work. My admiration of her 
 skill increases. She has asked me to sit for 
 her, and to give her in return for my portrait 
 one of my paintings, which I am very willing 
 to do. 
 
 " I have had my first sitting. Unhappily for 
 me the signorina works with a surprising celer- 
 ity ; there will not be as many of these tete-d- 
 tetes as I would like. She gave me a descrip- 
 tion of the king's ball, which was very brilliant. 
 The children's ballet was composed with a cer- 
 tain ingenuity. The action of the libretto was 
 this : Grief, disguised as Reason, wishes to 
 establish the empire of Care in the palace of 
 the king. Pleasure replies with a madrigal. 
 The true god of Reason appears and approves 
 the counsels of Pleasure. The spectacle of two 
 personages pretending to be Reason and coun- 
 selling at variance with each other is perplex- 
 ing, and Minerva is called in to decide between 
 them. She unmasks Grief, who retires de- 
 feated with Care, and Pleasure is crowned, and 
 the ball is opened by her triumphal procession, 
 in which she leads the king b/ ':he hand. The
 
 120 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 parts of the goddesses were acted and sung by 
 the ladies of the opera. Mademoiselle Antier, 
 who represented Minerva, was enthusiastically 
 applauded, and the king gave her a pension of 
 1200 livres. A very beautiful dance was given 
 by a fine ballet in the suite of the Goddess 
 Pleasure, and by the king costumed as the God 
 of Love, with children of all .the greatest families 
 of the French nobility as cupids. Monsieur le 
 Due de Chartres represented Hymen, and among 
 his followers were the Prince de Turenne, the 
 Due de Montmorency, and others. There were 
 also quadrilles of Moors, Indians, Chinese, 
 shepherds, shepherdesses, peasants, sailors, 
 then, a grand entree of French knights. The 
 symphony was very fine, and a comedy, en- 
 titled " Don Japheth of Armenia," written by 
 Scarron, followed, and occasioned much laugh- 
 ter. The king danced twice alone ; the first 
 time with little vivacity. He seemed to the 
 signorina very delicate, and had a cold, unin- 
 terested air, seemingly regarding the fete as a 
 very wearisome performance. Before his sec- 
 ond dance the signorina was much shocked by 
 a very unfortunate accident. The Chevalier de 
 Fenelon, of the Royal Guards, aged twenty-
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 121 
 
 two, endeavoring to climb into one of the boxes, 
 fell on the points of the sharp railing which 
 pierced a blood-vessel. He was carried from 
 the ball-room, and died almost immediately at 
 the house of the surgeon. The signorina rose 
 to retire, for she supposed that this terrible 
 event would put an end to the festivities. But 
 the Due d' Orleans decided that it would be 
 giving a poor application of the principles of 
 Pleasure just announced by the ballet as those 
 which were to govern the reign of the king ; and 
 accordingly the king, who had witnessed the 
 accident and was somewhat affected by it, if 
 one might judge from his pallor, was led out 
 for his second dance, and the whirl of gayety 
 continued as though nothing had happened. 
 1 Surely,' said Rosalba, ' this is a lesson in in- 
 humanity and selfishness which one might re- 
 gret giving to so tender a child.' 
 
 " May. 
 
 " Rosalba, who has been honored by the pat- 
 ronage of many of our noblest families, has to- 
 day received an order to go to Versailles to 
 paint the portrait of the king. This will post- 
 pone my sittings, but I am glad of it, for it will 
 lengthen out our interviews. While she is at
 
 122 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Versailles I will busy myself in painting some- 
 thing for her. Monsieur Crozat said to her to- 
 day, ' You must feel that you have received the 
 highest honor in the gift of France, since you 
 are to paint the portrait of the king. ' 
 
 "'Not so,' she replied, 'there is another 
 honor which I would prize far more, and that 
 is to be created a member of the French Acad- 
 emy.' 
 
 " ' Ah ! ' exclaimed Monsieur Crozat, ' do 
 not desire the impossible. ' 
 
 " ' How the impossible ? I am already a 
 member of the academies of several Venetian 
 cities.' 
 
 " ' And deservedly, but our French Academy 
 has enacted a law that no woman shall ever be 
 elected to its membership. Unfortunately I 
 am powerless to help you.' 
 
 " May. 
 
 " I have to-day received a summons from the 
 Academy to send in a painting from which they 
 may judge of my eligibility to membership. 
 I have time to paint a masterpiece if the inspira- 
 tion will but come. It is an honor which will 
 make my fortune. I would have set about it 
 this morning, but Monsieur Crozat came to me
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 123 
 
 asking me to sit again for Rosalba, who has re- 
 turned from Versailles. I did not tell her this 
 news, for I know how ardently she has desired 
 this honor for herself. Would that it were in 
 my power to procure it for her. I asked her 
 how she enjoyed her stay at Versailles, and she 
 had much of interest to relate. She did not 
 weary the king by making him pose contin- 
 ually, but watched him at his play and made 
 rapid sketches. With some of his young com- 
 panions he was playing at blindman' s buff in 
 the great galerie des glaces, when, not wishing 
 to be detected by the boy who was blinded, he 
 took off his cross and cordon of the St. Esprit, 
 and threw the ribbon over the head of a boy of 
 about his own size. The Due d'Orleans told 
 the signorina that in so doing he really con- 
 ferred the order of knighthood on his compan- 
 ion, who might in future claim of the king that 
 he had made him a member of the order of the 
 St. Esprit ;* so that this bit of childish pleasan- 
 try may have serious consequences. 
 
 " The incidents of the next visit were not so 
 pleasant. The king was in ill -humor, because, 
 
 * A claim which was actually preferred and granted.
 
 124 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 though the Prince de Bourbon had given him a 
 fine gun. the Due d' Orleans would not permit 
 him to go hunting with him. * I will have 
 good sport all the same, ' he muttered, ' and 
 will kill my own game, which is more than the 
 Regent can do. ' 
 
 " So that afternoon, with only his body-ser- 
 vant, he went into one of the bosquets near the 
 palace, and caused his valet to lead his little 
 pet spaniel a short distance away for him to 
 fire at. Having wounded the little animal, it 
 crawled to his feet and licked his hands ; but 
 this did not touch his heart, and he caused the 
 valet to drag him away again, and continued 
 shooting until he had killed the forgiving little 
 creature. 
 
 " Rosalba said that when this was related of 
 him she could no longer abide to look at him, 
 and caused the portrait to be brought back 
 with her to finish from memory, or rather from 
 imagination of what a boy-king so beloved by 
 his subjects should be. 
 
 " July. 
 
 " Monsieur Crozat has taken us to his chateau 
 at Montmorency. The weather at Paris was 
 warm, and I am glad of the change, for I love to
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 125 
 
 paint in the park. The gardens around the Hotel 
 Crozat at Paris are fine, and descend by a beauti- 
 ful terrace at the rear, while a subterranean 
 way, arranged as a grotto, pierces the ramparts 
 and leads to his beautiful gardens outside the 
 city. But at Montmorency one enjoys the real 
 country, if one will, for there is always com- 
 pany at the chateau, a princely house which 
 Monsieur Crozat has built, decorated with the 
 paintings of Lebrun and La Fosse. The grand 
 salon, with a cupola ornamented with frescoes, 
 is a stately apartment, and the sculptures in 
 the family chapel are very fine. But to me the 
 formal garden, laid out by Le Notre in his best 
 style, and the park with its vistas through the 
 magnificent trees, are a delight and an inspira- 
 tion. I have painted my best pictures here, 
 and have made many sketches and studies.* 
 
 * Jean Jacques Rousseau afterward lived in a hermitage in 
 this park, and wrote of it as follows : " It is in this profound 
 and delicious solitude, in the midst of woods and of waters, 
 charmed by the concerts of birds, and by the perfume of 
 orange blossoms, that I composed, in a continual ecstasy, the 
 fifth volume of ' Emile.' " De Goncourt writes of Watteau's 
 pictures painted here : " With their foliage trickling and cas- 
 cading to the ground, and bosquet* of witch-elm spreading a 
 fan-like screen behind the siesta of lovers, and arches of ver-
 
 126 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 " It was a great pleasure to me to show my 
 favorite points of view to the Signorina Rosalba, 
 and I asked her to choose a background for my 
 new picture. We have had much delightful 
 converse on art matters, for she cares not for 
 the society at the chateau, and comes often to 
 'see me paint. These fashionable people care 
 nothing for nature. They have spent a week 
 here, and have not set foot in the park. Their 
 mornings are occupied with cards, their even- 
 ings with music and dancing. A party went 
 away this morning who had been here ten days 
 and had not seen the gardens. This was men- 
 tioned last night, and to please their host they 
 made the tour of the gardens lighted by flam- 
 beaux. 
 
 " Rosalba admires my work. This is a great 
 pleasure to me. She appreciates my manage- 
 ment of light which I learned in Holland ; she 
 
 dure opening like the side scenes of a theatre, and pathways 
 thronged with a 'minuet in a sunbeam,' and great forests 
 rolling up their shade over groups of bathing girls, and all 
 that evanescent foliage touched with his fluid color, and deco- 
 rated with balustrades, terms, statues, women of marble and 
 children of stone, and fountains enveloped in rain, of which 
 Watteau has created a nature ' plus belle que la nature. ' "
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 127 
 
 has praised the grouping of my figures that I 
 studied as a young man at the theatre, where 
 I painted scenery and picked up for myself cer- 
 tain tricks of composition. Nothing escapes 
 her intelligent observation. She is a wonderful 
 woman. Our host admires her as much as I 
 do. He also leaves his guests and sits beside 
 us in the park. ' Ah, Watteau, my good 
 friend,' he said to me the other day, ' how 
 much I am indebted to you for making the 
 stay of the signorina in my house an agreeable 
 one!' 
 
 ' ' August. 
 
 " We have returned to the city. Rosalba 
 could not remain long at Montmorency. She 
 was recalled to paint a miniature of the king, 
 and in spite of her dislike for him, has gone 
 again to Versailles. She has painted the Re- 
 gent, the Prince de Conti, and nearly every 
 noble of the highest rank. She is turning away 
 orders, for if she had an hundred eyes and a 
 hundred hands she could not fulfil all the com- 
 mands which she receives. Monsieur Crozat 
 urges engagements upon her. It is because he 
 wishes her to remain long in France. I miss 
 the country, and stifle here in town, but I could
 
 128 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 not stay after she went away. The park was 
 tedious, I could get no inspiration, I could not 
 paint. The signorina, I think, must miss the 
 country also. I place flowers at her plate every 
 morning. She loves best white flowers, as she 
 does all white objects. It is but natural. As 
 the animals that inhabit the great sunny wastes, 
 from the little ermine to the great polar bear, 
 take on the same whiteness of their surround- 
 ings, so Rosalba, whose soul is all white, loves 
 to environ herself with purity. In painting 
 the portraits of the ladies of the court she uses, 
 where she can, white accessories lace, gauze, 
 plumes, ermine, and always white flowers. Of 
 gems she will have none, but only pearls, and 
 these she paints of a surprising beauty and 
 lustre, from her imagination alone, thus endow- 
 ing many a beauty of scant fortune with a 
 parure such as a queen might envy. Her 
 name, which signifies white rose, was a proph- 
 ecy of her tastes. When first I presented her 
 white lilacs the company protested, for here, in 
 France, it is en regie to give white flowers only 
 on four occasions at christenings, at wed- 
 dings, at first communion, and at death ; and 
 one repeated in support of this custom ;
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 129 
 
 " ' White flowers, white flowers, all flowers among, 
 
 Camellias, jasmine, roses ; 
 'Tis for the pure, the loved, the young, 
 Each sweet bud opes and closes. ' 
 
 " ' Then,' said our host, ' they belong to our 
 guest by right of pre-eminence ; for though we 
 do not celebrate now either her first communion 
 or her removal to Paradise, no saint could be 
 purer, and love will not cease to be offered to 
 the signorina, though she will not deign to ac- 
 cept it.' It was a long speech for Monsieur 
 Crozat, and a gallant one. 
 
 " September. 
 
 " Rosalba and her sister have gone to visit at 
 the house of Monsieur Crozat' s brother, the 
 great financier, who has purchased Louisiana ; 
 she is to paint his beautiful daughters, of whom 
 the Duchesse de Choiseul is the most charm- 
 ing. We are all distracted by her absence. 
 The good Crozat wanders into my rooms and 
 maunders of Rosalba. This exasperates me, but 
 when he goes I lay down my brushes and rush 
 into his study to talk of her. I found her vio- 
 lin in the music-room last night, and laid it 
 against my cheek, as I have seen her caress it ; 
 but Monsieur Crozat, coming quickly in, took it
 
 130 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 away from me. ' Nay, Watteau,' he said, ' you 
 are free to use anything of mine, but no one 
 must touch an article that she has made sacred.' 
 He spends his time in planning surprises for 
 her return. I lay my little offering of jasmine 
 and roses on her plate every morning, though 
 she is not here. 
 
 " September. 
 
 " Something has happened. At last I de- 
 serve well of the signorina. Monsieur Crozat has 
 used his influence in vain to have her admitted 
 to the Academy. Yesterday the messenger came 
 for my picture, on which my election depends. 
 It was finished. It is one of my best, for it was 
 painted at Montmorency under her eyes, but 
 I did not send it, for suddenly I had a lucky 
 inspiration. Rosalba's portrait of the king was 
 in her studio, but turned with its face to the 
 wall, for she does not care for it, though it is a 
 beautiful work of art. It occurred to me that 
 she would never miss it if I sent it to the Acad- 
 emy. The judges will see it in spite of them- 
 selves, and they cannot fail to be won over. 
 Before sending it I sought Monsieur Crozat and 
 asked his advice. He trembled with joy. 
 ' Ah, dear friend, how can I ever thank you ? '
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 131 
 
 he said. ' It is the desire of her heart.' And 
 so, as I had the right, I sent a picture to the 
 Academy, but not my picture. 
 
 " Monsieur Crozat and I count the hours and 
 tremble for the result. 
 
 " October. 
 
 "The letter has come from the Academy: 
 Rosalba was unanimously received. Good Mon- 
 sieur Crozat is wild with joy ; he embraced me 
 with tears. ' My friend,' he said, ' she owes it 
 all to you, but I have a favor to ask of you. 
 You have often acknowledged that you owe 
 something to me. Will you grant it ? ' ' What- 
 ever you ask,' I replied, my heart swelling with 
 joy and gratitude. ' Then do not tell her,' he 
 besought, * the part you have played in this 
 matter. She knows that I have labored for 
 this thing ; let her think that she owes it to 
 me. See, my friend, I have bought these pearls 
 to give her at the same time, that .she may al- 
 ways have them to paint from when- she wishes 
 to have them in her portraits ; but she would 
 think nothing of the gift in comparison with 
 this honor. I would not ask you to let that be 
 my gift were it not that I love her. Yes, An- 
 toine, old as I am, I love her, and I can do
 
 132 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 much for her ; all that wealth can do to bring 
 leisure, opportunity, luxury shall be hers. She 
 shall paint only for fame, never again for 
 money ; she shall travel ; she shall meet the 
 most cultivated and distinguished people. Is 
 it too much to ask, Antoine, that she should 
 be my wife ? ' 
 
 " 'Not if she loves you,' I replied, 'and I 
 see not how she can help it, for you are good- 
 ness and kindness personified. ' But the words 
 choked me, for Monsieur Crozat's confidence 
 had awakened me to a knowledge of my own 
 affection, and I knew suddenly that I too loved 
 Rosalba. But what could I do as a man of 
 honor ? 
 
 " It was much to ask, this relinquishment of 
 all claim on her gratitude. Before I realized 
 that I loved her I had looked forward to the 
 sweet reward, of her thanks in return for the 
 sacrifice. .To have had her look at me with 
 that great delight in her eyes, and say, ' Antoine, 
 my friend, but for you I should not have heard 
 this.' I had gloated over it in anticipation, 
 and now I thought of what I might dare to say 
 in reply. But Monsieur Crozat was my friend, 
 my benefactor ; I owed everything to him, even
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 133 
 
 this precious acquaintance with Rosalba, and I 
 could not hesitate. But I would not see her 
 joy, I could not see her express her gratitude 
 to him, and I let him carry her the news alone. 
 " I placed my jasmine at her plate at dinner, 
 but I would not dine with them, for Monsieur 
 Crozat had invited in a goodly company to cele- 
 brate her victory. I wandered in the garden, 
 but I could not go far. I strolled along the 
 terrace and looked in at the windows. The 
 salons were brilliantly lighted, the guests would 
 not notice me in the shadow of the garden. 
 Rosalba and Monsieur Crozat were not in the 
 great gallery. I saw them at last in the cabinet 
 of precious stones. He had opened a little 
 drawer, and was holding the pearls in his hand, 
 with such an eager, hopeful look in his honest 
 face. 1 could not bear to look at hers, and I 
 turned away and paced the garden walks, a 
 soul possessed by demons. I grew calmer after 
 a time and entered the house. Monsieur Crozat 
 was bidding farewell to the last guests at the 
 door, and Rosalba stood alone by the fireplace 
 that pretty fireplace with sculptured loves 
 above the pier-glass, and loves wrought in metal 
 on the andirons, warming their baby hands at
 
 134 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 the light blaze, as 1 had warmed my heart in 
 her presence. She held out her hand to me 
 and thanked me for the jasmine I had placed 
 at her plate. ' Did you write the verses, too \ ' 
 she asked. 
 
 " ' What verses ? ' I replied. 
 
 " * These,' she answered ; 'they are a con- 
 tinuation of our discussion about white flowers, 
 and a graceful defence of your gift. If you 
 did not write them, who did ? ' 
 
 " I took the paper she handed me and read : 
 
 " ' White flowers, white flowers, all flowers among 
 
 Camellias, jasmine, roses ; 
 'Tis love, 'tis love, shy, pure, and young, 
 
 The orange-bloom discloses. 
 But secrets told by orange flowers 
 Are safely kept in jasmine bowers.' 
 
 " ' It was doubtless Monsieur Crozat who 
 placed this poem with the flowers,' I replied. 
 ' It can be no longer any secret to you that he 
 loves you. He will make you happy, and your 
 friends should all rejoice in your happiness.' 
 
 " Rosalba trembled ; she was much moved. 
 1 And you counsel me to this marriage, my 
 friend ? ' she asked. 
 
 " ' I do,' I replied. The words cost me a
 
 TllE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 135 
 
 great effort, but I am thankful that I was 
 strong enough to bear her questioning gaze un- 
 flinchingly. ' He is a noble man. I can ask no 
 greater joy for you than the possession of such 
 a heart.' I kissed her hand, but she made no 
 reply. I found Monsieur Crozat in the hall, 
 and bade him farewell, telling him that I was 
 called to England. I could stay no longer in 
 that house. He tried to make me change my 
 decision. He said that he was going on the 
 morrow to Montmorency, and wished me to re- 
 main to be the guardian, the friend of Rosalba ; 
 but I could not tell him why I could not accept 
 this post. I shall never see him again or her, 
 but my prayers shall be always for their hap- 
 piness. 
 
 " So ends the journal. Poor Watteau, did 
 he sacrifice himself in vain \ For Rosalba did 
 not marry Crozat. We judge from her journal 
 that he offered himself and was refused, for he 
 gave up his house to her, going away and seclud- 
 ing himself at his chateau at Montmorency, 
 while she made all speed to finish the orders 
 which she had accepted, refusing all new com- 
 mands and hurrying home to Venice. A letter
 
 136 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 from Monsieur Crozat shortly after her return 
 to Venice, and which we find in her printed 
 correspondence, announces the death of Wat- 
 teau a few months after the last date in his jour- 
 nal. There is another letter of Crozat's in the 
 same collection begging Rosalba to return to 
 Paris. ' The house, ' he writes, ' which you 
 honored with your presence still stands ready to 
 receive you ; the little loves in front of the fire- 
 place stretch out their hands, longing for the 
 flame which will not be lighted till you return 
 again. The other cupid in the carved work 
 above, and to the right of the mantel, guards 
 the gift which you would not accept at my 
 hands. You have but to touch the heart which 
 he holds, and it is yours. Should you delay 
 your coming until after my death, you will 
 still find it, for I arranged the hiding-place 
 myself, and no one but you knows the secret. ' 
 " The resemblance of the decoration described 
 by both Watteau and Crozat to that in your 
 own little salon has made me wonder if it 
 might not be possible that when Crozat's house 
 was pulled down, the interior woodwork 
 was removed and used in the construction of 
 other houses. It would be strange, indeed, if
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 137 
 
 you should find that you have it in your little 
 parlor at Versailles. Pray, touch the heart 
 held by the carved cupid, and tell me what you 
 find. 
 
 " Always devotedly, 
 
 "YAK." 
 
 " Well, of all absurd stories !" Winnie ex- 
 claimed, as she laid down the manuscript. 
 
 " How absurd ?" asked Tib. " Watteau and 
 Crozat may have loved Rosalba, who knows ? 
 The French artist La Tour wanted to marry 
 her. Why not Watteau, who knew her so 
 much better ?" 
 
 " That might have been, but he did not and 
 could not relinquish his election at the Acad- 
 emy in her favor. He was a member before her 
 arrival in France." 
 
 " He may have assisted in her election, all the 
 same. I think the story is every bit as good 
 as any of ours." 
 
 " What I see no probability and no reason 
 in," said Adelaide, " is his bringing in our own 
 fireplace. That quite violates my sense of the 
 dramatic unities." 
 
 " I don't know," said Winnie ; " Van never
 
 138 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 does anything without some sort of a reason. 
 He liked this little fireplace of ours, and one 
 day when he called here I happened to be out 
 sketching, and when I returned I found him up 
 in a chair examining that little cupid." 
 
 " Do you mean the one on the right of the 
 mantel ? It seems to me it does hold a heart, as 
 Crozat's letter states." 
 
 * 
 
 Winnie sprang upon a chair and gave the ob- 
 ject in the hand of the cupid a vigorous little 
 punch. Instantly a tiny door flew open, re- 
 vealing a small closet, and in the closet a box. 
 Winnie descended and the girls crowded around 
 her. 
 
 " There is something written on the lid in old 
 French," said Adelaide; "can you translate 
 it?" 
 
 " Why, yes ; it's easy enough. ' To my 
 white rose, my pearl of pearls.' " Winnie 
 opened the box and lifted a strand of pearls. 
 
 " Then these are really the pearls that Mon- 
 sieur Crozat offered to Rosalba ?" Adelaide 
 asked. " How very remarkable !" 
 
 " How very remarkably like Van !" Winnie 
 replied. 
 
 " Van ! What did he have to do with it ?"
 
 THE WHITE ROSE OF VENICE. 139 
 
 "It's perfectly plain," Winnie laughed. " I 
 pressed the button, but Yan did the rest. He 
 must have discovered this secret closet when 
 he was here, and instead of telling us about it 
 have concealed the pearls there for me to find. 
 Not a bad scheme, but a little too labored in its 
 ingenuity just like Van. "
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 
 
 " ONE dame was dressed in rose- red silk, 
 
 And one in velvet green, 
 And one in satin as white as milk, 
 Would their souls as pure had been." 
 
 F all china maniacs 
 Mrs. Van Silver was 
 one of the most in- 
 curable. She haunt- 
 ed the museum of 
 Sevres, gloating over 
 the beautiful masterpieces 
 preserved there, and could 
 talk very learnedly of all 
 the periods and the marks 
 which distinguished a factory or 
 an artist. She was a collector as 
 well, and her pretty cabinets with 
 glass doors were filled with Venice glass, bits 
 of Oriental porcelain, Italian majolica, and
 
 MADAME RECAMIER.
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 141 
 
 Dresden china. She cared more for historic or 
 antique specimens than for the most exquisite 
 examples of modern art, and never minded how 
 often a punch-bowl had been riveted, or whether 
 a piece of genuine old Henri II. was so seamed 
 with diamond cement that it resembled a piece 
 of Japanese crackle. She had learned to mend 
 china very cleverly herself. " We are all of 
 us, as we grow older, a little the worse for wear, 
 my dear," she would say ; " but think of the 
 souvenirs, the associations held together in 
 that cracked blue glass salt-cellar. The setting 
 is silver, style de 1' Empire, you recognize. 
 Yes, it belonged to Madame Recamier. I have 
 its pedigree. There is a Tiuilier of the time of 
 Louis XIV.," she said, pointing to two grace- 
 ful little porcelain pitchers for oil and vinegar 
 enclosed in a porcelain castor. " I've no doubt 
 it was a part of the furnishings of Clagny, Ma- 
 dame de Montespan's maison de plaisance. I 
 bought it at the curiosity shop here in Ver- 
 sailles. They could only say that it was found 
 in a cupboard of an old house on the Rue des 
 Reservoirs ; but that is just where Clagny 
 was situated, and it is quite of the period.. I 
 have hoped to find some Sevres porcelain here
 
 142 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 of the time of Madame Pompadour. There 
 is plenty of it in the museum, and one sees ex- 
 actly what it was like, and how the Sevres of 
 that period surpassed ours ; but although the 
 sellers of antiques have been on the lookout 
 for me all summer, they have been unable to 
 find anything which had the stamp of being 
 genuine. Should you come across any pieces 
 while you are in Versailles, secure them for 
 me no matter at what cost." 
 
 " How shall I know them when I see them ?" 
 Winnie asked, and Mrs. Van Silver took great 
 pains to instruct her. They visited the museum 
 at Sevres together, and Winnie learned to know 
 the exquisite flower paintings of Bachelier as 
 well as the colors invented by the chemist 
 Macquer ; but though she also haunted the cari- 
 osity shops she could find nothing in them that 
 remotely resembled the period of Sevres' great- 
 est glory. 
 
 When Mrs. Van Silver left Versailles she 
 gave Winnie a bank-note for five hundred 
 francs. "It is just as well that you should 
 have it," she said. u One often loses an oppor- 
 tunity by not snatching it up the instant it is 
 offered. You know enough now to buy with
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 143 
 
 no risk of being deceived. I will give a hun- 
 dred francs for a tea-cup, in fragments even, 
 and in like proportion for anything you can 
 find." 
 
 After this anything remotely connected with 
 porcelain interested Winnie. She stopped 
 one afternoon to watch Boulette playing with 
 some broken pieces of china in the garden. 
 Boulette was the child of the concierge, who 
 was also their landlady. He was a fat, flaxen- 
 haired little fellow, as round as a dumpling 
 and as bright as a sunbeam, who played about 
 all day among the flowers. He had made him- 
 self a little table of a flat tile, and was laying 
 it with bits of broken china, with a tiny bit of 
 a flower on each by way of the repast. 
 
 " Je suis un enfant gate 
 J'aime les gateaux et les patees 
 Et les confitures," 
 
 sang Boulette as Winnie approached. 
 
 " May I have some too 3" Winnie asked, and 
 Boulette nodded gravely. "(Test le fete de 
 Noel" (Christmas dinner), he said; "one al- 
 ways has good things to eat at Noel. Do you 
 know the verses ? I learned them last Noel.
 
 144 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Shall I say them for you?" and Boulette re- 
 cited : 
 
 LA NOEL DES BEBES. 
 
 La neige tombe, c'est Noel ! 
 
 Les cloches sonnent dans 1'espace, 
 On entend un cri dans le ciel, 
 
 C'est le Petit Jesus qui passe ! 
 
 II vi'ent voir les petits enfants, 
 Car c'est le jour des gourmandises 
 
 Et sils n'ont pas etc mediants 
 II leur porte des friandises. 
 
 Pour penetrer dans la maison, 
 
 II entre par la cheminee 
 Que, vu la mauvaise saison, 
 
 On a de nouveau ramonee. 
 
 II met, dans les petits souliers, 
 
 De beaux jouets et des images, 
 II ecrit, sur des fins papiers ; 
 
 Des sonbaits pour les enfants sages. 
 
 Pour les mechants, car il en est, 
 
 Le Petit Jesus leurinflige 
 Des petits boutons sur le nez 
 
 Ne faut, il pas qu'on les corrige ? 
 
 Et, pour sortir de la maison, 
 
 II s'en va par la cbeminee, 
 Que, vu la mauvaise saison 
 
 L'on a de nouveau rainonee.
 
 ROHK POMPATtOIIR. 145 
 
 La neige tombe, c'est Noel ! 
 
 Les cloches sonnent dans 1'espace, 
 On entend un cri dans le ciel, 
 
 C'est le Petit Jesus qui passe ! 
 
 " That is charming, little Boulette," said 
 Winnie. 
 
 1 ' Nest ce pas, mademoiselle?" said Boulette' s 
 mother, who had come toward them from the 
 porter's lodge, and now regarded her progeny 
 with pride. ' ' That child can recite poetry with 
 no more effort than a parrot ; it is a true angel 
 of the good God. It is fortunate, mademoiselle, 
 that poetry is cheap, for my children can have 
 nothing of any value." 
 
 "The best things have no money value," 
 AVinnie replied cheerfully " sunshine, and 
 pure air, and poetry, and love 
 
 " Love ? All ! voild, that is the most expensive 
 luxury of all. It costs nothing, think you, to 
 marry and monter un menage f Many a pretty 
 girl would have lovers in plenty if she only had 
 a reasonable dot. That is the matter with my 
 Rose. She has a lover, Gastori ; but can they 
 marry on love ? Not at all. Gaston has a good 
 position as salesman in a perfumer's shop in 
 Paris. He is a clever salesman, and the busi-
 
 146 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 ness is a good one. His employer is old, and' 
 he would take him into partnership for a thou- 
 sand francs, and Gaston's father has said that 
 he will consent to his marriage with our Rose 
 if we will give her the thousand francs. It is 
 for that we have rented the villa to ces dames 
 and have incommoded ourselves in the lodge 
 for the summer ; but ces dames' 1 five hundred 
 francs of rental is only half, and nous voild as 
 far off as ever." 
 
 " But with another season you will have 
 enough." 
 
 " Ah ! mademoiselle, there is the trouble. 
 Gasfcon's employer wants his thousand francs 
 at once ; and there is another young man ready 
 to give fifteen hundred for the place, though 
 Gaston has the first chance, for his employer 
 likes him ; but love, as mademoiselle sees, is 
 not money." 
 
 "Cheer up," said Winnie; "perhaps the 
 money will come in some unexpected way," 
 and for the first time the generous girl regretted 
 that she was not rich. 
 
 Boulette looked up from his Barmecide feast. 
 " Le petit Jesus will give Rose her dowry at 
 Noel," he said. " Come, mademoiselle, this is
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 14? 
 
 your place ; eat some of my confiture, " and he 
 handed Winnie a scrap of broken china on 
 which he had placed a rose-leaf. 
 
 "If this is Noel," said Winnie, "where are 
 the snowflakes ? Your poem said : 
 
 " ' La neige tombe, c'est Noel.' " 
 
 " La voildf Voild la neige!' 1 ' 1 exclaimed 
 Boulette, shaking the great syringa-bush under 
 which Winnie was sitting, until she was cov- 
 ered with the flying white petals; "and if 
 mademoiselle will come around to the other 
 side of the house and sit under the great rose- 
 bush, I will make it snow pink snowflakes. " 
 
 Winnie allowed the child to lead her, and the 
 mother followed. 
 
 " I remember when my father planted that 
 rose-bush," Boulette's mother said. " It was 
 just before the Prussians came to Versailles. It 
 was a droll time to be busying one's self in one's 
 garden. Our neighbors were fleeing on every side. 
 I remember I ran to my father to tell him that 
 Pierre le Grand had seen the advance-guard of 
 the Prussians ten miles from Versailles, and 
 that my mother said she was going to Paris, 
 and that he must be quick ; but he patted
 
 148 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 down the earth around the rose-bush as care- 
 fully as though there were no reason for haste, 
 and sang, as he did so, that song of Beranger's. 
 Mademoiselle knows it doubtless : 
 
 ' ' Quoi ! ces monuments cheris, 
 
 Histoire 
 
 De notre gloire, 
 Secrouleraient en debris ? 
 Quoi les Prussians a Paris ! 
 
 Gai ! gai ! serons nos rangs ; 
 
 Esperance 
 
 De la France ! ' 
 
 " ' You will thank me some day for this,' he 
 said, as he finally put away his spade. ' You 
 will want blossoms from this bush for your 
 wedding bouquet, and this rose-tree may give 
 you the only dowry you will have. Remember 
 that, little girl.' And his saying came true, 
 for I carried them to the church, though they 
 were pink and not white, for I remembered 
 what my father had said ; and he was dead 
 then killed in the last sortie. I was married 
 without any dowry other than this place, and 
 it was half destroyed, for the Prussians occu- 
 pied it while they were in Versailles. They 
 wantonly destroyed everything they could not 
 carry away. They broke the mirrors with pis-
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 149 
 
 tol practice, and slashed the best upholstery with 
 their swords, and built fires on the hardwood 
 floors, though they did not burn the house en- 
 tirely to the ground ; for that I thank them. 
 But the meanest thing which they did was to 
 carry away my father's collection of porcelain. 
 Ah ! mademoiselle should have seen it a whole 
 tea service of Sevres, the rare old Sevres that 
 the connoisseurs prize so much." 
 
 " And you say your father possessed an en- 
 tire service of that porcelain ?" Winnie gasped. 
 
 " Yes, mademoiselle ; all in delicate rose 
 pink powdered with little forget-me-nots as 
 blue as Boulette's eyes. There was a tea-pot, 
 and a tiny cream -pitcher, and a sucrier, and 
 four cups and saucers, and four plates. I have 
 heard my mother tell of it often, and I remem- 
 ber it myself, and how I used to beg my father 
 to let me eat from the plates, but he would 
 never allow it." 
 
 " And haven't you a single cup or saucer 2" 
 
 " Not one, mademoiselle. The Prussians car- 
 ried them all to Germany. The placard (wall 
 cupboard) where my father kept them had been 
 pried open with bayonets, and was empty." 
 
 " What a pity," Winnie thought, " for Mrs.
 
 150 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Van Silver and for poor little Rose, for whom 
 this tea service might have furnished a dowry !" 
 She strolled away, too preoccupied to notice 
 that she was carrying in her hand Boulette's 
 plate of imaginary confitures, and she slipped 
 it into her pocket, where it clinked beside the 
 bonbonniere that held the tear of the magic 
 aloe. She walked through the park toward the 
 Trianon. The Queen of the Frogs was with- 
 holding the water from the thirsty stone turtles, 
 for it was not a day des grands eaux, and the 
 mischievous little cupids who, when the foun- 
 tains were in action, blew water at one another 
 through carved bellows, looked hot and dusty. 
 Even the statues of the horses in the Rocher of 
 Apollo, who seemed to have been brought to 
 the pools to drink, appeared to be fractious and 
 impatient because the waters were not leaping 
 and splashing about them. 
 
 Winnie was out of sorts with herself, disap- 
 pointed and weary, and the park, with all its 
 magnificence, tired her still more ; the distance 
 to Trianon seemed interminable. Just now a 
 gay, careless life seemed really preferable to 
 the wearisome ceremoniousness and punctilio 
 of Louis XIV., as a vision floated through her
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 151 
 
 mind of the court of the Marchioness of Pom- 
 padour ; for the court of the time of the fif- 
 teenth Louis was more truly formed and ruled 
 by that clever, though unscrupulous woman 
 than by the puppet who disgraced her, him- 
 self, the throne, and France. 
 
 Louis XIY. had built up Versailles, and had 
 imposed on the nobility of France a wearisome 
 court etiquette. He was the Grand Monarque 
 to the last ; not a great man, but a great king, 
 as scrupulous himself in observance of courtly 
 dignity as in the observance he demanded from 
 his courtiers. He kept his word, and his old 
 age, under the guidance of his legal, though 
 uncrowned wife, Madame de Maintenon, was 
 decent and respectable ; but the pomp and osten- 
 tation on which he insisted were tiresome be- 
 yond endurance. It was not strange that the 
 pendulum in the succeeding reign should have 
 swung toward sans gene and unconventional- 
 ity. Trianon, the direct contrast to Versailles, 
 was the natural outgrowth of a revolt against 
 formality. 
 
 Winnie was in perfect sympathy with the 
 graceful French author who wrote : " Trianon, 
 how I love thy great trees, thy lawns, thy fields
 
 152 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 of roses ! In spring mornings, when the sun 
 still filters through the sparse foliage, and lies 
 in disks of gold upon the velvet lawn, in the 
 sultry afternoons of summer, when the dense 
 shade preserves the freshness of the grass, how 
 many enchanting tales are read, how many ten- 
 der, golden dreams float like a distant mirage 
 over thy rustic benches and through thy de- 
 serted allees ! Shall I ever see again the little 
 chateau with its marble steps, the Temple of 
 Love surrounded by its elegant and frail colon- 
 nade, the forgotten path, the little river with 
 the white and black swans, the mysterious 
 grotto, the chalets, the village with the house 
 of the grand seigneur, the priest's house, the 
 burgomaster's, the dairy, the tiny huts tapes- 
 tried with ivy and roofs overgrown with moss ? 
 In the beautiful sunsets of autumn I shall al- 
 ways see Louis XV. in brocade and lace, and 
 his rouged and powdered marquise flitting in 
 and out of the shadows." 
 
 Winnie ensconced herself in a summer-house, 
 back of the little theatre of the Trianon, and 
 opened the book which she had brought with 
 her ; but the air was warm and drowsy, and 
 she could not fix her attention. She took the
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 153 
 
 balsamic tear from its little casket and played 
 with it idly. She thought of Rose, the por- 
 tionless girl, whose dream of love might never 
 be realized, though the lost tea service of the 
 marquise would have secured it without ques- 
 tion. " If Pompadour were only here," she 
 thought, " or if Rose lived in the time of Pom- 
 padour, the course of true love might have run 
 more smoothly." She touched her eyelids 
 gently with the bit of aromatic gum, and sud- 
 denly, instead of being only half awake and 
 half asleep, she was either wholly asleep, and 
 enjoying a very vivid dream, or, as she pre- 
 ferred to believe, she was very wide awake in 
 the time of the beautiful marquise. She re- 
 alized this perfectly, for there was Pompadour, 
 as she had so often seen her in Latour's mar- 
 vellous portrait one of the masterpieces of the 
 Louvre, and the finest pastel in all the world 
 Pompadour in her flowered silk gown, with the 
 rich lace at sleeves and knots of delicate rose- 
 colored ribbon contrasting with the whiteness 
 of her bosom, a beautiful woman from the light 
 blond curls to the high-heeled slippers and the 
 tips of her exquisitely modelled fingers. She 
 was turning over the music of an opera by
 
 154 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Lully, in which she was to take part that 
 evening in the Theatre des Petits Cabinets, 
 and at the same time she was sitting for her 
 portrait to La tour, an eccentric man though 
 a great artist. He had hung his coat on the 
 back of his chair and his wig on a sconce, in 
 order to work with more freedom, and had 
 stipulated that he should not be annoyed 
 by visitors during the sittings. There were 
 plenty of courtiers waiting for admittance 
 in the ante-room. Voltaire had sent in the 
 first volumes of the encyclopaedia which lay on 
 the table awaiting the attention of the mar- 
 chioness. A portfolio of the marchioness' s own 
 engravings leaned against the foot of the table, 
 for she was talented as an artist, and practised 
 as well as encouraged the arts. 
 
 Among those seeking her favor who were 
 waiting in the ante-room were generals and 
 politicians, for Pompadour elevated men to 
 office or degraded them at her own pleasure. 
 The king had an indolent aversion to business, 
 and referred all matters to her, signing such 
 papers as she recommended without even glanc- 
 ing at them. 
 
 Winnie wondered how she herself had gained
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 155 
 
 admission to the presence of the marchioness, 
 until she glanced at her reflection in a pier- 
 glass, and saw that she was dressed as a servant ; 
 then her position suddenly became natural to 
 her, and when Pompadour gave her orders she 
 executed them with a dexterity which showed 
 that she was quite accustomed to her position. 
 She brought her mistress a Venetian hand-mir- 
 ror, and at her command added a touch of 
 rouge to her cheeks and of powder to her hair. 
 
 As she waited upon the marchioness she lis- 
 tened with interest to the conversation of the 
 artist, who was speaking of another sitter of 
 his, Maurice de Saxe, a soldier whom he wished 
 to recommend to the king. 
 
 " He is a German and a Protestant," replied 
 the marchioness, "and those considerations are 
 both against him." 
 
 " He is your devoted servitor, madame," re- 
 plied Latour, " an avowed worshipper of beauty, 
 and he will be France's servitor, too, if the king 
 will accept his allegiance. It is not worth while 
 to let such a military genius fall into the hands 
 of Frederick of Prussia." 
 
 At the mention of Frederick the Great, Pom- 
 padour's brow clouded. " That German boor
 
 156 WITCU WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 has written certain things of me that I can 
 never forgive," she said angrily. "Voltaire 
 has told me. There is nothing that I would 
 not do to have my revenge upon him. He de- 
 spises women and mocks at them, but there are 
 three women in Europe now who, if they put 
 their heads together, will humble him. One 
 has written me calling me cliere cousine, the 
 other shall be gained." Winnie knew that the 
 marchioness spoke of herself, of Maria Theresa, 
 of Austria (who had made overtures for an 
 alliance against Germany), and of Catherine of 
 Russia three clever women, but not to be 
 matched against Frederick the Great, as the 
 Seven Years' War afterward proved. 
 
 " This Maurice de Saxe," said Latour, bring- 
 ing the conversation back to the man for whom 
 he wished patronage, ' : is a great genius. He 
 studied military engineering and tactics here in 
 France, and the Chevalier Folard tells me that 
 he has originated a novel system of manoeuvres 
 which is going to revolutionize modern warfare. 
 If Frederick should obtain that system, you 
 three women will hardly humble him as soon 
 as you hope. " 
 
 " The king shall give this man a commission
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 157 
 
 in our army !' ' Pompadour exclaimed impul- 
 sively, and Latour smiled, for he knew that his 
 cause was won. He was a man of scant cour- 
 tesy, however, and when the marchioness said 
 playfully, " You must make me a beautiful 
 portrait in return for this favor," he said 
 shortly : 
 
 " Faites vous belle, et je vousferai un beau 
 portrait" (" Make yourself beautiful, and I 
 will make you a beautiful portrait 1 '). 
 
 Later, when the hangings of the room were 
 pushed aside and the king entered unannounced, 
 Latour rose angrily, donned his coat and wig, 
 closed his box of colors, and remonstrating 
 with his Majesty for having interrupted him, 
 departed in high dudgeon for Paris. 
 
 The marchioness laughed merrily. " We 
 must propitiate and recall him," she explained, 
 ' ' for no one paints as he does. ' ' * 
 
 * More than a passing allusion is duo to this prince of the 
 beautiful art of pastel, of whom Ilamerton writes : 
 
 " In Latour you have the master of the pastel craft, and a 
 wonderful craft it was in his hands, admirably adapted to his 
 subjects, to whom it lent a lightness and elegance which were 
 the idealization of their own. The courtly graces of the eigh- 
 teenth century, so remote from us now that they seem thirty 
 generations back instead of three, the splendors of an, aris-
 
 158 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 The marchioness ordered luncheon, and began 
 over it to discuss with the king the weighty mat- 
 ters suggested in the State correspondence of 
 the morning. It needed the utmost tact of the 
 favorite to induce the king to give the slightest 
 attention to the question whether France should 
 enter into an alliance with the other powers 
 against Germany. 
 
 " The whole matter bores me inexpressibly," 
 he said. " Why should I give it any atten- 
 tion ?" 
 
 " Because war with one or more nations de- 
 pends on your decision, sire, " Pompadour re- 
 plied. 
 
 " The Germans are our natural allies, are 
 they not ?" Louis asked. " They are nearer to 
 us geographically, and we have been at peace 
 with them a long time. If by preserving this 
 peace we must fight Austria and Russia, the 
 fighting will be done on German ground before 
 they can reach France. Their cities will be the 
 
 tocracy nearly at the end of its power, but still retaining a 
 style quite pure from democratic manners, found iu this art 
 of Latour a record of itself so delicate, that it seems as if the 
 very air of the court were preserved in the tinted dust of his
 
 MADAME DE POMPADOUR. 
 
 From a portrait by Latous.
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR 159 
 
 ones that will have the pleasure of being burned, 
 their lields devastated, and their soldiers 
 killed." 
 
 Pompadour pouted and tapped her foot. 
 " Will you make a friendship with the man 
 who has insulted me ' ' she asked. 
 
 "Not I," replied Louis ; " I do not care if 
 we do make Germany our foe for coming gen- 
 erations, as the cardinal says we will do if we 
 do not preserve this alliance. If we can only 
 contrive to keep the Germans away from Ver- 
 sailles during my life and yours, ma belle, it is 
 all I ask." 
 
 " Good," said the marchioness gayly ; " then 
 it is all settled. You will sign this treaty, 
 which will go to Vienna this afternoon, and you 
 will make a general of the Count Maurice de 
 Saxe." 
 
 The king was not altogether pleased with this 
 plan, and it was not till the battle of Fontenoy, 
 which Saxe won when too ill to sit upon his 
 horse, that he entirely gave the general his 
 confidence. The Seven Years' War, which 
 Pompadour had brought about on account of a 
 matter of pique, proved disastrous in the end 
 to France, and thoroughly estranged German
 
 160 * WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 sentiment, bearing fruit in the invasion of 
 France in onr own day,, when the invading 
 King William was crowned Emperor of victori- 
 ous and united Germany in the great hall of 
 Versailles. 
 
 Neither Louis nor the marquise would have 
 cared greatly could they have foreseen this. 
 They were thoroughly selfish, embodying, as a 
 French author has said, all the vices except 
 that of avarice. 
 
 And yet though the marchioness had realized 
 her ambition, she not only was not happy, but 
 her life could not be called one of pleasure. 
 No one toiled more laboriously than she to en- 
 tertain the king. His mind was so utterly 
 blase and world-weary, that it had lost the 
 power of finding amusement in anything. 
 
 The marchioness had been praised for her fine 
 acting and singing, and she labored for the 
 king's admiration as industriously as a prima 
 donna for fame. She never relinquished her 
 post as virtual prime minister. She fought the 
 influence of every courtier, every woman. As 
 she herself said, her life was a continual com- 
 bat, without reward and without glory, and 
 yet she had certain estimable qualities, as well
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 161 
 
 as remarkable gifts. She loved to confer pat- 
 ronage on men of letters and artists, perhaps 
 from the ambition of posing as a benefactress. 
 
 Winnie, who had absorbed some faint recol- 
 lection of Rose's little romance into her dream- 
 life, fancied that Rose was the daughter of the 
 chief chemist of Vincennes, and that she was 
 beloved by a painter of flowers. 
 
 Her father had said to her, " I have invented 
 some marvellous colors for china a rose color 
 which is simply enchanting, a turquoise blue, 
 a jonquille yellow, pure as a flame, and a sump- 
 tuous violet, only matched by the petals of 
 pansies and Bachelier paints so exquisitely, 
 so daintily, that if the king would only advance 
 the money to establish a manufactory of porce- 
 lain, we could excel that of the Prussian king 
 at Meissen." 
 
 " I will try to obtain this from the king," 
 Winnie had said to Rose, and Bachelier had 
 decorated a cup and saucer for her to show as 
 a sample of what could be done. It had been 
 fired in a little kiln at the private laboratory of 
 the chemist, and Winnie had carried the pre- 
 cious bit of china with her to Trianon and 
 waited her opportunity. It seemed to her that
 
 162 WITCH WlNNIfl AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 it had come, when the marchioness, happy at 
 having secured the alliance with Austria against 
 Prussia, lunched merrily with the king. At 
 the close of the repast she served the marchion- 
 ess her coffee in the precious cup. The lady 
 drank it without at first noticing the lovely bit 
 of porcelain. Finally, as she toyed with the 
 cup with her spoon, her attention was caught 
 by the delicate wreath of flowers about the. 
 rim. She examined it closely, and then threw 
 it from her in anger, shivering the delicate por- 
 celain upon the marble pavement. 
 
 " Why have you dared to serve my coffee in 
 a cup of this new Dresden ware ?' ' she asked 
 of Winnie. " You thought I would not recog- 
 nize it because I have never seen a piece of it. 
 I have been told, however, of the German tri- 
 umphs, and I know well that we have no artist 
 in France who can decorate like that, no manu- 
 factory which can make such fine porcelain or 
 such a superb tint." 
 
 Winnie threw herself upon her knees. " Par- 
 don, madame, it is all French. The color is 
 named for you, Rose Pompadour ; the painting 
 is by a Frenchman, who burns to devote his life 
 to the execution of your orders ; the paste is the
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 163 
 
 invention of a French scientist from French 
 earth. He asks your favor to establish a manu- 
 factory, which shall eclipse that of Dresden, and 
 carry your fame throughout the world and the 
 centuries." 
 
 The marchioness extended her hand silently, 
 and Winnie picked up the broken pieces of 
 china and handed them to her. She looked at 
 them long and earnestly. " These are exquisite 
 little figures of Loves entwined among the flow- 
 ers," she said musingly. 
 
 " It is because madame has made a captive of 
 Love himself," said Winnie mendaciously ; for 
 the artist had told her that he had introduced 
 these figures because Love had been the inspirer 
 of his work. 
 
 The marchi oness looked at her coldly. ' ' Yo u 
 have learned the flattery of the court. Tell me 
 the truth, child, what interest have you in the 
 founding of a national porcelain manufactory 
 in France?" 
 
 Then Winnie confessed her interest in Rose, 
 and how the girl's future depended upon the 
 bounty of the marchioness. Pompadour heard 
 her through, and then said gently : 
 
 " These roses are so natural, that should you
 
 164 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 plant the bits of china, I would not be aston- 
 ished if real rose-trees sprang up. Tell the 
 chemist to come to me, and I will listen to his 
 project. This clever artist shall make me a 
 table service. It shall be the first work of the 
 new manufactory." 
 
 " Ah, madame ! madame !" Winnie ex- 
 claimed, while tears of happiness came to her 
 eyes. 
 
 " Tush, child, it is all selfishness. One 
 would like to be remembered for a little good 
 as well as for much evil. Take your friend's 
 dowry to her ; it is the price of the service in 
 Rose Pompadour which I have just ordered." 
 
 The marchioness faded softly from Winnie's 
 sight. She was sitting there in the summer- 
 house a,t the Trianon, but whether in the eigh- 
 teenth or the nineteenth century she could not 
 tell. An open book lay in her lap, and she 
 read Montesquieu's description of courts and 
 courtiers. 
 
 " Ambition amid indolence, baseness amid 
 pride, the desire to grow rich without toil, aver- 
 sion from truth, flattery, treason, perfidy, 
 neglect of all engagements, contempt for the 
 duties of a citizen, fear of virtue in the prince-
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 165 
 
 hope in his weakness, and more than all that, 
 the ridicule constantly thrown upon virtue, 
 form, I trow, the characteristics of the greatest 
 number of courtiers." 
 
 " I know that it's a true picture of that age," 
 said Winnie, talking to herself. " Pompadour 
 herself was all that, but she was not so abso- 
 lutely heartless as Louis. When she knew that 
 she must die, she dressed herself in her court 
 robes and met death bravely, while he watched 
 the hearse which bore her away through the 
 pitiless storm with the light remark, * The mar- 
 chioness has bad weather for her little journey.' 
 It was kind of her to think of poor little Rose, 
 and not to send me away empty-handed. I 
 shall always remember that act with gratitude." 
 
 "What nonsense are you talking?" asked 
 Tib, for it was Tib who sat beside her quietly 
 sketching. 
 
 " Dear, dear !" moaned Winnie, " and it was 
 all a dream about the Sevres china, and my 
 hands are empty, after all." 
 
 "Why, no, they are not," Tib replied. 
 " What are you holding so tightly ? Only a 
 bit of broken china ?" 
 
 Winnie gave one careless, then an astonished
 
 166 WITCH WINNIE AT VEH8AILLES. 
 
 glance at; the scrap of porcelain which she held. 
 "It is Sevres!" she exclaimed " real Rose 
 Pompadour ; and see here is part of the mono- 
 gram of the marchioness in delicate gold letters 
 and a tiny spray of blue forget-me-not 1 Tib, 
 it's a piece of the very cup which she threw on 
 the floor before my eyes." 
 
 " Winnie, if you don't come to your senses 
 I'll send for the doctor and have a strait- jacket 
 put upon you." 
 
 " Oh, Tib, you dear old thing, of course you 
 can't understand, but if I hadn't wept for joy 
 just then my dream might have lasted a little 
 longer, and instead of holding just this little 
 scrap I would have been carrying an entire tea 
 service into the Trianon for the marquise, or 
 maybe I would have been coming out with a 
 billet de banque for Rose. Oh, why, why 
 didn't I keep on dreaming just the least bit 
 longer?" 
 
 Tib closed her sketch-box with a snap. 
 " Come home, Winnie, and go to bed, and let 
 me put some chopped ice on your head. Either 
 you are as mad as a March hare, or you are not 
 quite awake." 
 
 "That may be the case," Winnie replied
 
 HOSE POMPADOUR. 16? 
 
 docilely ; " but in that case this bit of china 
 will presently vanish into thin air; for it is a 
 part of my dream." 
 
 " Try to remember what you were doing be- 
 fore you went to sleep," Tib replied authorita- 
 tively as they walked homeward. " That bit 
 of porcelain is no figment of your imagination. 
 Did you pick it up back of the Trianon ? If 
 so, perhaps it really is a fragment of a cup that 
 once belonged to the Marquise de Pompadour.' ' 
 
 " Oh, there is no doubt about it at all !" 
 Winnie replied confidently ; " but I did not 
 pick it up here. Let me see, where did I find 
 it ? I remember now. Boulette was playing 
 with it in the garden. It must be a piece of 
 that set which his mother thought the Prus- 
 sians carried away to Germany. But they 
 could not have carried all away if Boulette 
 found this piece in the garden. Perhaps they 
 wantonly destroyed the entire set. If so, there 
 must be more pieces where this came from. I 
 must find Boulette at once and make him tell 
 me." 
 
 Unfortunately Winnie met Rose and her 
 mother as she entered the garden, and commu- 
 nicated her surmises before finding Boulette.
 
 168 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 If she had found him first, in her tactful way 
 she would at once have ascertained all that he 
 knew ; but ma dame recognized the fragment of 
 porcelain, and the two women were quite wild 
 with excitement. Madame seized Boulette by 
 the shoulders and shook him violently, promis- 
 ing him a good whipping, and ordering him to 
 tell what he had done with the china. Rose 
 also added her protestations, entreaties, and 
 threats something in this way : 
 
 ' ' Was there ever such a rascal ? Know, stupid 
 as a cabbage, that it is my dowry which you 
 have found and have hidden. Ah, you will 
 not tell where it is, then ? The malicious one ! 
 Croque Mitaine will carry you away in his 
 baggage. Ah, you do not believe in Croque 
 Mitaine f Little infidel, dare you tell me, 
 then, that the petit Jesus will not make pim- 
 X^les come on your nose, for example \ How 
 wicked he is, that one ! I will make you no 
 pan-cakes no, not I ; nor bring you any pain 
 cTepice from the fete at St. Cloud. Ah, you 
 weep ! Gourmand ! You have no heart, but 
 you have, then, a stomach. No, you will not 
 give me the china ? You do not believe that I 
 will give you the pain tfepice. You have,
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 169 
 
 then, no natural affection, no religion. Little 
 monster, we will see what the law will do ! 
 Seek, then, a gens cFarme, put him in prison ; 
 lie is worse than an anarchist he is a pig." 
 
 Boulette shrieked with terror, but made no 
 attempt to divulge any information in regard 
 to the china. 
 
 " Let him alone," Winnie interceded. " I 
 do not beHeve he knows anything about it. 
 This is probably the only piece he has. Is it 
 not so, Boulette ?" 
 
 Boulette nodded mendaciously. 
 
 "He knows not to speak the truth," his 
 mother replied ; " it is a low-born, low-bred son 
 of a canaille, the child of brigands, fit only for 
 the galleys, " and she proceeded to heap epithets 
 upon her offspring and upon all his relatives, 
 not apparently realizing 'that she included her- 
 self in these back-handed compliments. 
 
 Winnie left the group quite disappointed, 
 but after dinner she came out upon the terrace 
 with a saucer of strawberries, and beckoned to 
 Boulette, whom she saw at a window, to join her. 
 
 "See, Boulette," she said, "we will have a 
 little feast together. You set your little table, 
 and I will put a strawberry on each plate."
 
 170 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Bonlette fell into the trap at once. He started 
 on a run and vanished around the corner of 
 the house. Winnie followed and peeped around 
 the syringa-bush. Boulette was kneeling by 
 the mouth of a drain which the droppings of 
 rain-water from the roof had worn under the 
 rose-bush, and which emptied lower down from 
 the side of the terrace. 
 
 Winnie could only see his golden head above 
 the embankment, but she had no doubt that he 
 had gone to the cave where he concealed his 
 treasures. She stole back quietly to Boulette's 
 table, and when he .returned with something 
 mysteriously wrapped in his blouse, she con- 
 trolled herself admirably. Boulette withdrew 
 his hand and placed some bits of china at regu- 
 lar intervals on the table. Winnie covered 
 them with her strawberries, which Boulette ate 
 with appreciation. At the close of the feast 
 Boulette, completely won over, allowed her to 
 examine the scraps of china, and even volun- 
 tered to let her have them if she would protect 
 him from his mother and Rose. To Winnie's 
 great joy they were identical with the piece 
 which had aroused her curiosity. Boulette was 
 a shrewd little fellow, however, and seeing that
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 171 
 
 Winnie was anxious to obtain them, he inti- 
 mated that she could have more for more straw- 
 berries. A strawberry for each piece of china, 
 irrespective of its size, was Boulette's stipula- 
 tion, to which Winnie agreed with delighted 
 alacrity. She ran into the house and brought 
 out a pan of berries, while Boulette betook 
 himself to his Ali Baba's cave. Feelings Df 
 delicacy restrained her from following him for 
 a few moments, but as Boulette's absence was 
 prolonged she finally sought him. 
 
 What was her horror to find him seated in 
 the drain calmly smashing up a beautiful cup 
 with a brick. She seized the offending infant 
 by the arm, and forgetful of everything but 
 her indignation at such vandalism, boxed his 
 ears. Boulette burst into a howl of surprise 
 rather than pain. 
 
 "Mademoiselle said little pieces, big pieces, 
 all same one strawberry," he said, mucn ag- 
 grieved, and Winnie recognized the method in 
 his madness. 
 
 "No, no, Boulette," she wailed; "I will 
 give you more, many more strawberries for the 
 big pieces. Where are they ? You haven't 
 broken them all up, surely ?"
 
 172 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 "No," Boulette replied doubtfully; "but 
 these were all only one cup, and now they are 
 so many pieces I can't count. Would you give 
 five, six, fifty strawberries for one cup ?" 
 
 " Child, child, your sister was right ; you are 
 a prodigy of iniquity. But where are the 
 rest?" 
 
 " In the hole," he replied, and stooping down 
 Winnie looked into the drain. She could see a 
 wicker basket, in the side of which was a large, 
 ragged opening, which Boulette had widened 
 with a stick. This stick had a hook at the end 
 of it, and he was about to show her how he was 
 in the habit of thrusting it in and rattling it 
 about until the hook caught in the handle of a 
 cup, which he would then drag out. Many of 
 the other pieces had evidently been broken in 
 this process, and he had not been able to re- 
 move saucers or plates. Winnie took away his 
 stick and led him into the house, where she left 
 him in the custody of Mrs. Smith. This was 
 quite as much for his own safety as for that of 
 the china, for she feared for Boulette when his 
 mother and sister knew the extent of his mis- 
 behaving. The family gathered around the 
 rose-bush, which it was found necessary to dig
 
 ROSE POMPADOUR. 173 
 
 up with great caution, as its roots had inter- 
 laced themselves about the basket. They un- 
 derstood now why Rose's grandfather had 
 busied himself with planting that rose bush on 
 the day when the Prussians were approaching 
 Versailles, for this was no make-believe of 
 Van's, like the hidden pearls. The former 
 owner of the ^ouse had really buried here his 
 precious china, and the rose was simply to 
 mark the spot. 
 
 Thanks to Boulette's effective prodding, not 
 one of the twenty-one pieces -had escaped quite 
 uninjured. Rose wrung her hands in despair, 
 and her mother was loud in her denunciation 
 of Boulette. But for him the service might 
 have been sold for enough to give Rose her 
 dowry, and now no one would give a penny for 
 that trash. 
 
 Winnie calmed her, and even changed her 
 mourning into joy by assuring her that Mrs. 
 Van Silver would find a winter's amusement 
 in mending the pieces, and offering her on the 
 spot the five hundred francs which the lady 
 had left for just such an opportunity. She con- 
 ditioned the purchase on Boulette's free par- 
 don. " The child was utterly ignorant of the
 
 174 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 harm he was doing," she pleaded; "besides" 
 and this argument had its force " instead of 
 your being able to obtain more, had it not been 
 for his explorations, you would never have 
 known of the existence of the china." 
 
 " There is sometMng uncanny about the 
 whole business," Adelaide said. "Really, 
 Winnie, it seems as if you had been ' dreaming 
 true ' this time, for, as the marquise told you, 
 the roses on the china were so natural that 
 when planted a real rose-tree apparently sprang 
 from them, and if she had not founded the 
 Sevres manufactory Rose would not have ob- 
 tained her dowry."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MESDAMES DE FRANCE, THE DAUGHTERS OF 
 LOUIS XV. 
 
 -GUIS XV., one of the most 
 worthless kings who ever 
 wore a crown, was blessed 
 with a lovely wife and 
 with a large family of 
 good and loving children. 
 Marie Leczinska was a 
 Polish princess before she 
 became Queen of France. 
 Her marriage was consid- 
 ered a very glorious one, 
 but it brought her little 
 happiness except in her 
 children. The dauphin was an admirable and 
 affectionate prince, his sisters were sweet and 
 dutiful girls, loving not only their estimable 
 mother, but lavishing respect and tenderness on 
 their father as well. They were the queen' s only
 
 176 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 joy and consolation, and they prompted the 
 only pure affection which Louis XV. ever en- 
 tertained, bringing out all that was best in his 
 nature ; so that it may be truthfully said that 
 these young girls formed an oasis of purity, 
 affection, and joy in the midst of a desert of 
 heartlessness and corruption. 
 
 Louis XIV., with all his extravagance, his 
 bombast, and despotism, was yet what he most 
 desired to be, le Grand Monarque. He made 
 his reign an epoch of splendor, and he left pal- 
 aces and gardens to the nation such as France 
 had never possessed. It was true that this was 
 done by means of taxes ruinous alike to pri- 
 vate property and to the State, but France has 
 something still to show for this expenditure, 
 while under Louis XV. the taxes were con- 
 tinued, and the money was squandered on his 
 own vices and those of the nobles. The king 
 knew that such a state of things could not con- 
 tinue, but if they could only hold together 
 throughout his little, selfish life, it was all he 
 cared for. " After us the deluge" was the 
 motto of the time. 
 
 In the midst of all this whirlpool of vice the 
 queen walked stately and dignified, gentle and
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS XV. 177 
 
 kind to her worst enemies, hiding her grief, ex- 
 tending a cheerful courtesy to all ; so that even 
 her husband, who so greatly wronged her liv- 
 ing, gave her when she died the best eulogy 
 that a wife ever received, in the remark : " This 
 is the first time that she ever gave me pain." 
 
 Tib loved to paint the court ladies of this 
 period, and especially the portraits of the 
 daughters of Louis XV. by Nattier. They hung 
 in the Attique Chimay, and are very charming 
 in their quaint hooped petticoats and long, 
 straight stays. Whenever, in their readings, 
 any mention was made of the mesdames of 
 France, as the French princesses are called, 
 Tib eagerly jotted it down ; and one day she 
 surprised her friends by saying that she had 
 combined her gleanings in a study of the period, 
 using Adelaide's conceit of the tear of the aloe, 
 and fancying Adelaide herself transplanted by 
 its magic Adelaide Armstrong no longer, but 
 Madame Adelaide, the haughty and talented 
 daughter of Louis XV. 
 
 TIB'S STORY. 
 
 When Adelaide touched her eyelids with the 
 amulet, she imagined that only the period
 
 178 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 would be changed, but that she would still find 
 herself in the palace of Versailles. What was 
 her surprise to see that she was sitting on the 
 side of a cot bed in a plain dormitory contain- 
 ing a number of other such beds. The walls 
 were bare of any decoration excepting a great 
 black crucifix at the end of the room. Three 
 other young girls, whom she recognized at once 
 as the princesses Madame Yictoire, Madame 
 Sophie, and Madame Louise were in the room. 
 Sophie was studying in the embrasure of a 
 window ; Victoire, curled up comfortably on 
 one of the cots, with all the pillows from the 
 other beds tucked about her, was eating an ap- 
 ple ; Louise was looking at the pictures in an 
 illuminated missal. 
 
 " Why are we not at Versailles ?" Adelaide 
 asked, rubbing her eyes. " This prison-like 
 place is not fit for the daughters of the King of 
 France. " 
 
 " That is the twenty-seventh time you have 
 made that remark to-day," Victoire replied, 
 " and it is as true as the question is unanswerable. 
 Mother said that we were to be educated at the 
 convent of Fontevrault, because the court was not 
 a proper place in which to bring up young girls. "
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS XV. 179 
 
 " Then, why is it that our sisters, the twins 
 Elizabeth and Henriette, are not here also ?"' 
 
 " I suppose because they are no longer young 
 girls, but yoimg ladies. As for myself, I would 
 not mind staying here if they would only give 
 us enough to eat. I am hungry all the time. 
 I stole these apples while we were taking our 
 exercise. Think of that ! A princess of France 
 reduced to steal, when at Versailles we have all 
 the potager of La Quintinie and the orangery 
 as well at our disposition. Mother would have 
 boxes sent us if she knew how we were treated. 
 I have written her, but 1 believe my letters 
 have been confiscated. Either that is true, or 
 else she has sent us things, and the nuns have 
 eaten them." 
 
 " Hush ! do not say that," said Sophie, look- 
 ing apprehensively around ; " you do not know 
 who may be listening." 
 
 " Pooh ! who's afraid ?" exclaimed Adelaide. 
 " They shall treat us properly, or the king shall 
 know it." 
 
 A stern woman dressed in a religious garb 
 entered as Adelaide spoke and fixed her keen 
 eyes upon the princess. Adelaide tossed her 
 head haughtily, but said nothing. The nun
 
 180 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 turned slowly from her and scrutinized the 
 other girls. Sophie was trembling so violently 
 that she could scarcely hold her book. Vic- 
 toire, who had been hurriedly hiding her apples 
 in the bed-clothes, was choking in the vain at- 
 tempt to swallow a large morsel which she had 
 just bitten off. Little Louise alone walked up 
 to the stern woman quite unafraid, and placed 
 her hand caressingly in that of the nun's. 
 "Sister Celeste," she said, "I thank you for 
 lending me your pretty missal. May I not have 
 another to look at ?" 
 
 The nun placed her arm kindly around Louise, 
 but did not answer her. She had discovered 
 Victoire's predicament, and ordered her to 
 show what she was hiding. The girl delivered 
 up her stolen fruit and burst into tears. 
 
 "Madame Victoire," said Sister Celeste 
 sternly, " you have committed two, nay three 
 sins : theft, disobedience to your superiors, 
 and gluttony. Go to the chapel and pray for 
 forgiveness until you are told that you may 
 come away. " Victoire turned white, but she 
 dared not disobey. 
 
 " You dare not send me to the chapel," Ade- 
 laide muttered sullenly.
 
 TEE DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS XV. 181 
 
 " I shall send you when I think you deserve 
 it," replied Sister Celeste ; but each, while she 
 glared at the other, was afraid to go any far- 
 ther. The nun left the room; Sophie, al- 
 though she knew that the nun had gone, re- 
 mained, trembling and silent, but Louise ran to 
 Adelaide and said : 
 
 " Why did you let her send Victoire to the 
 chapel ? You know that it terrifies her out of 
 her senses to go -there. The dead nuns are 
 buried under the floor, and she has to kneel on 
 the stones that bear their names, and some- 
 times, she says, she hears them moaning in 
 their graves." 
 
 Sophie gave a little cry of horror, but Ade- 
 laide replied shortly : " That is absurd. They 
 are dead, are they not ? They have no longer 
 any lungs or breath to moan with. All they 
 could do would be to rattle their bones in their 
 coffins, and no good nun would be so wanting 
 in respect as to frighten a royal princess in that 
 way. But it is an indignity, and I will go to 
 the mother superior and demand that Victoire 
 be recalled." 
 
 Adelaide had reason to hope for success in 
 this mission, for in spite of her domineering
 
 182 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 manners the mother superior was fond of her 
 and granted her many favors. On one occasion 
 Adelaide's dancing-master had attempted to 
 teach her a fashionable dance called the " Men- 
 uet Rose." " I do not think rose a pretty col- 
 or," Adelaide had said. " I will not learn the 
 dance unless you change its name to the Men- 
 net Bleu." 
 
 The dancing-master had argued that he had 
 not named the dance, that it was so called at 
 court, and that no one would know what was 
 meant if she said that she danced the menuet 
 lieu. 
 
 Adelaide was on her high horse and refused 
 to take her steps. 
 
 The dancing-master, feeling his dignity af- 
 fronted, appealed to the mother superior, and 
 was surprised to receive the following decision : 
 
 " As it is always regarded as an honor for an 
 author to receive royal patronage, you will con- 
 vey to the author or contriver of this minuet 
 that Madame Adelaide has honored him with 
 her patronage and favor in giving him her per- 
 mission to name this dance the ' Menuet Bleu 
 de Madame Adelaide,' and that it shall always 
 be danced at her festivals under that name, no
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS XV. 183 
 
 matter what it may be called at other places 
 and by other persons." 
 
 Adelaide had carried her point in regard to 
 the minuet, as she always did with the indul- 
 gent mother superior ; but on this particular oc- 
 casion she was disappointed to find that the 
 mother was not in the convent, and Sister Ce- 
 leste, who was next in authority, would not 
 listen to her. 
 
 " Then I shall go to the chapel and keep 
 Victoire company," Adelaide exclaimed in 
 pique, and she sped away, greatly incensed. 
 
 The chapel was in a lonely part of the con- 
 vent garden, close to the outer wall, and it was 
 growing dark the shrubs and clipped trees in 
 the gathering dusk took on weird shapes ; but 
 Adelaide was not at all frightened until, on 
 opening the chapel-door, she saw that Victoire 
 was lying on the floor in a fainting-fit. She 
 ran to her, placed her head upon her lap, chafed 
 her hands, and called upon her frantically. 
 After a time Victoire opened her eyes. " Oh, 
 sister!" she exclaimed, "the spirits were not 
 only moaning, they shrieked and called to me." 
 
 "No, no, Victoire," Adelaide replied sooth- 
 ingly ; " you imagined the cries ; it could have
 
 184 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 been nothing but the grating of the rusty 
 weather-cock or the hoots of some owl in the 
 forest." 
 
 " Listen, listen ! there are the cries again ;" 
 and Victoire clung to her sister spasmodically 
 as a, human voice was heard groaning, and 
 finally shrieking half -articulate sentences, in 
 which prayers for mercy were broken by de- 
 moniac laughter. The sounds seemed to come 
 from the vaults below, and at times drew nearer, 
 and at others died away. 
 
 " Come, Victoire, back to the convent witli 
 me. You shall not stay longer in this terrible 
 place. " 
 
 " Did Sister Celeste say that I might leave ' ' 
 
 " No ; but what difference does that make ?" 
 
 "Then I dare not go." 
 
 " I will go and make her come and listen to 
 these terrible sounds." 
 
 " No ; do not leave, oh sister ! do not leave 
 me." 
 
 Adelaide was puzzled, but when the cries re- 
 commenced she commanded the evil spirits to 
 be silent in as loud and authoritative a tone as 
 she could muster. Instead of obeying her, the 
 voice broke forth into wild imprecations, and
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS XV. 185 
 
 there was plainly to be heard a rattling of 
 chains. Victoire shrieked in her turn, but 
 Adelaide was still unafraid, though equally 
 superstitious. " The spirit does not like to be 
 spoken to so harshly," she said. " The nuns 
 were reading us the story of David the other 
 day, how he exorcised the evil spirit that had 
 taken possession of Saul by playing on his 
 harp. Let us see if the nuns have left their in- 
 struments in the little gallery. If they have, 
 I will do the David act." 
 
 Adelaide climbed into the musicians' gallery, 
 and found that the great bass viol had been left 
 in its place. She was an expert musician, play- 
 ing all instruments, as Madame Campan tells us, 
 from the cor de cJiasse to the jew's-harp ; and 
 presently the chapel echoed with sounds only 
 a little less lugubrious than the cries which had 
 excited Victoire' s terror. But while she played 
 the unhappy spirit was quiet. Whenever she 
 paused to rest, it was heard again querulously 
 complaining, and she sawed away, playing 
 everything which she could think of, from 
 chants to jigs, and improvising when her reper- 
 tory was exhausted. 
 
 It had grown quite dark now, but finally a
 
 186 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 light was seen twinkling through the garden. 
 The mother superior had returned. Little Prin- 
 cess Louise had found her, and had persuaded 
 her to send for her sisters. The terrific cries 
 were afterward explained to be those of a 
 maniac who was confined in a hut built outside 
 the garden- wall, but close to that of the chapel. 
 But, in spite of this knowledge, Yictoire never 
 recovered from the fright which she had re- 
 ceived. She was very amiable, but to the last 
 day of her life was timid and superstitious. 
 Their life apart from the world was having its 
 effect on the two younger girls as well. Sophie 
 was growing up with an aversion to society : 
 she loved to be alone, and was silent and un- 
 communicative, while Louise was fast becoming 
 a real devote. She loved the nuns and enjoyed 
 hearing the legends of the saints and martyrs. 
 Though naturally cheerful and gentle, she had 
 a great admiration for heroism, and complained 
 that she was only a princess and could never do 
 anything remarkable. Adelaide alone was 
 driven by the religious life into a spirit of re- 
 volt. She was an excellent scholar, and mas- 
 tered her tasks with great care, but she defied 
 all discipline ; and when a royal command was
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS XV. 187 
 
 brought to the convent that the princesses 
 should be sent to Versailles for the wedding 
 festivities of their sister Elizabeth, who was to 
 be married to the Infant, the son of Philip V. 
 of Spain, Adelaide gravely bade good-by to the 
 mother superior and the nuns, assuring them 
 that she would not return. 
 
 She was delighted to find herself once more 
 at Versailles. The stately wedding ceremonies 
 pleased her immensely ; and while Madame 
 Sophie, with her unconquerable shyness, when- 
 ever she was obliged to walk down the long 
 galerie des glaces, lined with courtiers, always 
 looked from one side to another, like a startled 
 hare, to avoid meeting directly the gaze of any 
 one, Adelaide paced haughtily along, staring 
 at the noblest with the utmost arrogance. On 
 one occasion she took it upon herself to repri- 
 mand a priest whom she thought celebrated 
 mass with too lordly a manner. " Remember 
 your position," she said ; " such airs would be 
 only suitable to a bishop. ' ' The king, her father, 
 was amused by her domineering manner. ' ' She 
 carries herself as though she were le Grand 
 Monarque. She shall not go back to the con- 
 vent if she does not please to do so."
 
 188 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 The three other princesses returned dutifully, 
 but Adelaide promised them that they should 
 soon be released. Her first move in the direc- 
 tion of their liberty was to persuade her father 
 to have their portraits painted by the artist 
 Nattier, as a surprise for their mother. " If 
 their portraits are here," she argued wisely, 
 " they are so pretty that they will be their own 
 best advocates, and my father will grow to love 
 them and long for them." These portraits still 
 attract the admiration of the visitor to Ver- 
 sailles. We know how they pleased the queen 
 from a letter which she wrote to the Duchesse 
 de Luynes, October 12th, 1747 : 
 
 " The king surprised me by showing me the 
 portraits of my daughters from Fontevrault. 
 I did not know that they had been painted. 
 The two eldest are really beautiful, but I have 
 never seen anything so agreeable as the little 
 one. She has an affecting expression very re- 
 mote from sadness. I have never seen anything 
 so singular ; she is touching, sweet, spiritual." 
 
 In time the portraits and Adelaide's own en- 
 treaties effected the return of her sisters. In 
 the mean time, she devoted herself to her elder 
 sister, Henriette, a lovely princess, beautiful
 
 HENKIETTK UE BOURBON CONTI.
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS XV. 189 
 
 alike in face and in character. Nattier lias 
 painted her portrait also, and represented her 
 leaning against a tripod on which half-extin- 
 guished torches are smoking. It is possible 
 that the artist was thinking of the princess's 
 life when he planned this detail of the picture, 
 for her vital flame only flickered for a short 
 time after the portrait was painted. Bonhomme 
 writes of her : " Delicate, tall, and slender, 
 there was something dreamy and inspired in 
 her person. Her mild, . pure features, aristo- 
 cratic in their outline, charmed and yet inspired 
 respect ; her smile was melancholy, and her 
 whole appearance, in which gloom seemed con- 
 stantly warring against brightness, bore the im- 
 press of fatality. Looking into her great, 
 dreamy eyes, which seemed to reflect the dor- 
 mant limpidity of great lakes, one divined what 
 abysses of tenderness and devotion were hidden 
 underneath. " 
 
 She was passionately attached to her twin- 
 sister, and missed her sadly when she went 
 away to Spain. Adelaide would have loved to 
 have taken Elizabeth's place, but this was not 
 possible. Adelaide soon guessed, too, that heT 
 sister's melancholy had still another cause.
 
 190 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 She was tenderly beloved by the young Due de 
 Chartres, a brave, accomplished, and amiable 
 young man. Madame Henriette loved him in 
 return, but Louis XV. did not favor their mar- 
 riage for political reasons. The Due de Char- 
 tres would, on the death of his father, become 
 the Due d' Orleans. The first noble of France, 
 if he married the princess, Madame Henriette, 
 who was a distant cousin, he might some day 
 aspire to the throne of France. It was throw- 
 ing too much power, too great a temptation 
 into the hands of the Orleans family. Louis' 
 advisers, especially the nobles of the houses of 
 Conde and Conti, who were jealous of Orleans' 
 ascendency, advised him against this alliance. 
 The Prince de Bourbon Conti had still another 
 reason for not wishing the marriage to take 
 place. He wanted the Due de Chartres for his 
 own son-in-law. He had a very beautiful and 
 very coquettish daughter, who bore the same 
 name as that of the princess. If the young 
 duke fancied the name of Henriette, was not 
 Henriette de Bourbon Conti as musical as Ma- 
 dame Henriette de France * He counselled the 
 king against making the house of Orleans too 
 powerful, fart b wp fri heart eager- to ally it
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS XV. 191 
 
 with the house of Bourbon in a way that should 
 make it possible for a descendant of his own to 
 conspire for the throne, as really happened in 
 the succeeding reign, when Philippe Egalite, 
 Due d' Orleans, son of this very union, was 
 Louis XV I. 's bitterest foe. 
 
 The young Due de Chartres obtained an audi- 
 ence with Louis XV., and manfully asked him 
 for the hand of his daughter. The king made 
 his refusal as kind as possible, but it was un- 
 alterable, and the loving princess faded gently 
 away. She was present at the marriage of the 
 Due de Chartres to her beautiful rival. The 
 marriage was not a happy one, and the duke 
 must have often regretted that he did not re- 
 main constant to the memory of that first pure 
 affection. 
 
 Elizabeth returned to France, and visited at 
 Versailles with her Spanish husband, to the 
 great joy of her sister Henriette. It was her 
 last happiness, for she died four years later, 
 and Elizabeth came again to weep over her best- 
 loved sister. They loved each other all their 
 lives with an affection unusual even between 
 sisters, and they were not divided in death, for 
 the Infanta, on her next visit to her family,
 
 192 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 was taken with smallpox, and dying, was buried 
 in St. Denis, close beside her sister. 
 
 After the death of his twin daughters the 
 king's heart opened more toward his remaining 
 four. He gave them the old apartments of 
 Madame de Montespan, just beneath his own. 
 There was a secret staircase between his own 
 room and that of Madame Adelaide, and the 
 king frequently descended in the evening and 
 made coffee, while Adelaide would arrange a 
 little supper for him. On such occasions she al- 
 ways pulled a bell-rope in her own room, which 
 communicated with a bell in Madame Victoire's, 
 who sent the invitation on to Madame Sophie, 
 who, in turn, rang for Madame Louise, and the 
 princesses would gather in Adelaide's room for 
 an informal evening with their father. It was 
 the best trait that Louis XV. possessed, this, 
 slight affection for his daughters. He gave 
 them nicknames. Adelaide, who was punctil- 
 ious in matters of dress, he called in derision, 
 Oraille (Ragamuffin) ; Victoire, who was fat 
 and lazy, as well as fond of good eating, he 
 name CocTie (Piggy) ; Sophie, who was so shy 
 that a breath might blow her away, was Gldffe 
 (Snippet) ; and Louise, whom he really loved
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS XV. 193 
 
 best of all, was Loque (Trash or Good-for-noth- 
 ing). This was in mockery of her well-known 
 desire to do something sublime. All of the 
 girls accepted their names as proofs of their 
 father's fondness, and most nobly did Rag- 
 amuffin, Piggy, and Snippet repay it. The 
 king allowed them to have a reader, a young 
 girl of fifteen, who later became famous as Ma- 
 dame Campan. She was very accomplished, 
 but modest as well, and she writes that she 
 never forgot her first interview with the king. 
 Louis was passing through the room with a 
 train of nobles, on his way to a hunt, and no- 
 ticing the little governess, he stared at her, and 
 remarked : " They say that you are very 
 learned, that you speak five or six foreign lan- 
 guages. Is it true ?" 
 
 " Oh, no, sire, only English and Italian." 
 
 " Do you speak those fluently ?" 
 
 "Yes, sire." 
 
 " Quite enough," replied the king " quite 
 enough to drive any husband mad ;" and the 
 entire party left the room laughing loudly, 
 much to the confusion of the little reader. 
 
 She was needed by the princesses, for though 
 Adelaide, who was fond of study, and had become
 
 194 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 what was considered at that time a prodigy of 
 learning, the others had been sadly neglected at 
 the convent, and were very ignorant. Madame 
 Louise had made the nuns read to her, and could 
 scarcely read herself. Sophie had grown more 
 and more reserved and taciturn ; only a thunder- 
 storm, of which she was excessively afraid, could 
 induce her to seek the society of other people. 
 
 The queen, though sweet and amiable, was 
 not herself highly educated. She was fond of 
 art, and attempted to study painting, but had 
 no talent, and her teacher finally contented 
 himself with designing a series of screens, 
 sketching in the decorative figures, and allow- 
 ing the queen to fill in the outlines with color. 
 All the shading, the drawing of the faces and 
 hands, were done by the teacher. He even 
 directed the queen at her work, telling her what* 
 colors to choose, and went over the result when 
 her lesson was over, correcting her mistakes. 
 And yet the queen imagined that she had done 
 it all, and left the paintings to a friend in her 
 will, as she knew they would be prized as speci- 
 mens of her own work. 
 
 After the queen died, Louise confided to her 
 father her heart' s desire. It was that she might
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS XV. 105 
 
 be permitted to take the veil as a Carmelite 
 nun. The king deliberated some time, and at 
 length gave his consent. It was a secret be- 
 tween the* father and his youngest daughter. 
 Madame Louise went away as though to take a 
 simple drive, but she never returned, and the 
 news was brought to her sisters, after all was 
 over, that she had taken the irrevocable vows 
 as a nun. She had always loved the convent 
 life, and she felt that in abandoning the world 
 and all its pomps she had at last done some- 
 thing heroic. 
 
 Adelaide was very indignant that she had 
 not been informed of this step when it was only 
 contemplated, and raged in her old royal way. 
 " Marriage and death and the convent have 
 taken my sisters away from me," she said. 
 '"In which way will you leave me f ' 
 
 " We will never leave you," said Victoire 
 and Sophie, and there were tears in Victoire' s 
 kind eyes, and Sophie grew unwontedly caress- 
 ing. " We will never leave either you or our 
 father." 
 
 They were true to their promise. When the 
 terrible smallpox, of which he died, attacked 
 the king, Carlyle tells us that " Mesdames the
 
 196 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 princesses alone waited at the loathsome sick- 
 bed. The three princesses, Graille, Chiffe, and 
 Coche, as he was wont to name them, are as- 
 siduous then, when all have fled. The fanatic 
 princess Loque, as we guess, is already in the 
 nunnery, and can only give her orisons. Poor 
 Graille and sisterhood, withered ancient women ! 
 In the wild tossings that yet await your fragile 
 existence be this always an assured place in 
 your remembrance, for the act was good and 
 loving ! To us also it is a little sunny spot in 
 that dismal howling waste where we hardly find 
 another. " 
 
 Tib imagined that Adelaide did not weep even 
 at this terrible death-bed, or later, when Sophie 
 died in convulsions of terror from a demonstra- 
 tion made by the gravediggers of Paris just be- 
 fore the Revolution. The shadow of a great 
 storm was gathering around them : it was an 
 escape for timid Sophie to be called before the 
 worst. Tib imagined that Madame Adelaide's 
 heart grew more tender than history gives it 
 credit ; that, like the kindly Victoire, she grew 
 at length to love the young queen, Marie Antoi- 
 nette, whom at first she had misunderstood and 
 disliked Madame Victoire had loved her from
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS XV. 197 
 
 the first indeed, and had given her as one of 
 her wedding presents the key to that secret 
 staircase, so that Marie Antoinette might visit 
 them informally and privately, as their father 
 had been accustomed to do. Marie Antoinette 
 was much touched by this attention, and fre- 
 quently visited her husband's aunts, though 
 their constant advice to her to maintain more 
 etiquette could not have been wildly enter- 
 taining. ' ' Embroidery, small scandal, pray- 
 ers, and vacancy" made up the round of their 
 existence, says one caustic historian ; though 
 Madame Adelaide sometimes took up her vio- 
 lin and played for the queen's amusement ; and 
 we may be sure that the petits soupers of Ma- 
 dame Yictoire were not less toothsome than 
 when a younger appetite may have made them 
 seem so. They must have warned her, too, of 
 the Due d'Orleans, son of the woman who sup- 
 planted their sister. 
 
 Louis XVI. was fond of his aunts, and gave 
 them a villa at Bellevue when they grew weary 
 of the palace. Later,, when urged to flee while 
 there was yet time to escape, he refused to do 
 so until he could first provide for their flight. 
 They were safely out of the country in Rome
 
 198 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 when their nephew and his lovely wife were 
 caught in that great maelstrom which drew 
 them down to their death ; and there and then 
 Tib imagined the iron must have at last entered 
 Madame Adelaide's proud heart, and that at 
 last she wept.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 
 
 F there is ever an en- 
 chanted garden on earth 
 it is Le Petit Trianon. 
 It is hardly a garden 
 properly so called, but 
 an exquisite little 
 park, so artfully art- 
 less, so skilfully plan- 
 ned in the naturalistic 
 style by its first de- 
 signers the architect 
 Mique, the jminter 
 Hubert Robert, the sculptor Deschamp, and the 
 gardener Antoine Richard that it does not 
 seem to have been planned at all, but to be a 
 bit of Eden left over from the Paradise. 
 
 Modern research tells us that this design was 
 due, far more than the world has suspected, to 
 Marie Antoinette herself. When the king gave
 
 200 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 her Le Petit Trianon it had only an Italian 
 garden and the wild park beyond. The queen 
 did not alter the little palace or the Italian gar- 
 den, but she busied herself at once with the 
 park. She was weary of formality, of the mag- 
 nificence and art of the great vistas, of the rows 
 of gilded statues, the tremendous spouting 
 fountains, of the clipped trees, of the formal par- 
 terres, and of the long allees. There must be 
 nothing here to suggest the palace out of doors. 
 When she came to Trianon it was to get near 
 to nature's heart and away from royalty and 
 etiquette. It was this supreme desire of her 
 soul rather than any fancy for a new fashion in 
 gardening which led her to plan a so-called 
 "English garden," a bit of ground which 
 should imitate the beauties of nature as Nature 
 herself sometimes revealed them in the parks 
 of England. 
 
 The ground was not diversified or picturesque 
 to begin with, but the queen's talented coterie 
 of assistants planned together harmoniously to 
 turn the little river in graceful windings, to 
 throw up rocky ledges and dig fern -tapestried 
 ravines, to plant trees just as they might have 
 posed for Watteau's or Boucher's Fetes Cham-
 
 TJIE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 201 
 
 petres. They threw in a meadow here, a cas- 
 cade there, a wild ramble with a scramble over 
 rocks and across rustic bridges to a hill-top, 
 from which a wide-stretching view could be ob- 
 tained of the country always the wild, unin- 
 habited country ; they framed the picture with 
 apparently illimitable forest, and finally, since 
 there must be lodges in this wilderness, they 
 made them as picturesque, as rustic, and as 
 simple as possible. 
 
 Nothing can be more charming than the 
 "hamlet," the tiny village of a half dozen 
 thatch-roofed cottages, where Marie Antoinette 
 and her ladies played at peasant life. It was 
 such an innocent, sweet play. If only the in- 
 furiated populace who would have no more roy- 
 alty in France could have left her here, in one 
 of these huts, with her husband and children, 
 how gladly would she have given up all the 
 rest! 
 
 But no human life can be devoted wholly to 
 any play, however innocent in its seeming, and 
 fulfil a noble career ; and it was because the 
 kings of France had given themselves up to 
 selfish indulgence, instead of doing the work 
 laid upon them by their high position, that
 
 202 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Louis XVI. and his lovely wife were called to 
 expiate their sins. 
 
 Winnie had been studying the life of the un- 
 fortunate queen, and had been working of late 
 in her state bed-chamber, in the grands apparte- 
 ments at Versailles, copying her portrait which 
 hangs there, one of the many painted by Ma- 
 dame Vigee Lebrun. 
 
 Though her head is . loaded by the immense 
 cushion over which her powdered hair is drawn, 
 and by the more enormous velvet hat, with its 
 topping plumes, the face is sweet and very win- 
 some. Madame Lebrun's friendship for Marie 
 Antoinette may have led her to soften the Aus- 
 trian features, but the expression of gentleness 
 and sweetness must have been there, for it illu- 
 mines every one of her portraits. Winnie had 
 studied the painting so faithfully that she could 
 see it plainly with her closed eyes every trait, 
 every tint were there. She held in her hand 
 Madame Lebrun's souvenirs, and had been 
 reading all the personal reminiscences of the 
 gracious and thoughtful acts which the queen 
 lavished on her artist friend. 
 
 She had read the story of the necklace, of the 
 simple aiici straightforward way in which the
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 203 
 
 virtuous queen walked in the midst of plots and 
 pitfalls, calumny and lies ; between the insen- 
 sate hatred of the people, who visited upon her 
 the sins of the monarchs of preceding reigns, 
 from whom she was not even descended, and 
 the cold, repellent suspicion of the aristocracy, 
 who refused to accept the gentle stranger as 
 one of them. Winnie could not quite forgive 
 Mesdames Tantes Adelaide, Victoire, and 
 Sophie grown from positions of dependence to 
 stately old princesses, for their unkindness to 
 their niece, as she came to them a homesick 
 little foreigner. 
 
 It seemed to Winnie that no one ever went 
 more undeservingly to her doom, and her heart 
 was hot with a great revolt. 
 
 " Oh ! why was there not some one loving 
 and clever enough to save her ? If I had lived 
 then I would have found some way to contrive 
 it. I would have taken her place and died for 
 her." 
 
 The tears started hot and blinding with the 
 earnestness of her feeling, and on the impulse 
 of the moment she opened the bonbonniere and 
 touched her eyelids with the amulet. She had 
 experienced its magical power often enough to
 
 204 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 know what she was doing. She was deliber- 
 ately stepping back a century ; she would see 
 Marie Antoinette as Madame Lebrun had seen 
 her, and she would not desert her. 
 
 Her tears ended as always before in laughter. 
 She was laughing heartily at what she hardly 
 knew, but she was still standing there in the 
 Trianon, with the Tower of Marlboro ugh just be- 
 fore her and the Temple of Love, with its deli- 
 cate, circular colonnade of Corinthian columns 
 at her left. Ladies in the costume of the period 
 were strolling aboiit, and one was speaking to 
 her. Winnie recognized the pretty face with 
 the dark curling hair escaping from the muslin 
 turban ; it was Madame Vigee Lebrun, and she 
 was about to call her by her name and to say, 
 " I knew you from your portrait in the Louvre, 
 the one which you painted, of yourself, with 
 your little girl in your arms," when suddenly 
 all that faded out of her remembrance, and she 
 knew why she was laughing. Madame Lebrun 
 had taken her for the queen, and had asked 
 her when she would return to the palace and 
 give her another sitting for her portrait. 
 
 This was what had struck her as so amusing, 
 that any one who knew the queen so well as
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 205 
 
 Madame Lebrun, who had painted her again 
 and again, should have mistaken a young girl 
 in a simple sprigged percale dress, with a gauze 
 fichu and a straw hat trimmed with blue lute- 
 string ribbon, for her Majesty,, Marie Antoi- 
 nette, Queen of France. It was too absurd, and 
 Winnie laughed again ; then feeling that she 
 was hardly courteous, she explained : " I beg 
 your pardon, but 1 am not the queen, I am 
 only " and to her own after surprise she did 
 not say, " Winifred De Witt, an American art 
 student," but the words seemed to form them- 
 selves, and she felt them to be perfectly true 
 and natural as she uttered them " only Gay 
 d'Oliva, at your service, a poor girl of Paris. 
 I came out to Versailles this morning with some 
 friends because it is a fete day, and I heard 
 that the queen held a fete here at Trianon, in 
 imitation of a village fair, and that she admitted 
 any well-behaved and neatly dressed girls to see 
 the divertissements. I wanted to see the queen 
 myself, and had no idea of being taken for her. " 
 "You shall see the queen," said Madame 
 Lebrun, " but it will seem to you like looking 
 in the glass, for you are as alike as two peas. 
 She is in the dairy now making butter with the
 
 206 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Princesse Lamballe, but she will come out pres- 
 ently to open the fete. See, there come the 
 dauphin and Madame Royale driving her flock 
 of ten goats." The merry children drove the 
 little flock into a fold just outside the dairy, 
 and a tall, graceful woman came out, bearing a 
 small pail poised coquettishly on her head, and 
 a three-legged milking-stool under her arm. 
 She placed the stool beside one of the goats, 
 seated herself and attempted to milk it, but 
 the goat was mischievous, and shaking its bells, 
 capered about the small enclosure. The chil- 
 dren added to its wildness by chasing it with 
 shouts of laughter, which presently brought 
 the queen to the door of the dairy. Her shapely 
 fingers were loaded with butter, which she trans- 
 ferred unconsciously to the shoulders of her 
 children as she caressed them. 
 
 ' ' Goats are the most mischievous of ani- 
 mals," said Madame Lebrun to the queen, 
 " and I have often wondered how the painter 
 Drouais managed to keep one quiet long enough 
 to paint it in that portrait of his Majesty's royal 
 brother and sister, I mean the painting of the 
 Comte d'Artois and the Princesse Clotilde as 
 children."
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 207 
 
 "Oh! the Comte d'Artois is equal to any 
 feat," said the queen, "and I have no doubt 
 he held the goat still by main force, or charmed 
 it into obedience." 
 
 The queen returned to the dairy as she spoke. 
 Madame Lebrun followed her, and Winnie, or 
 Gay d'Oliva, as we must now call her, waited 
 for a time outside, and then, as neither the queen 
 nor the artist appeared, she strolled away, in- 
 terested in the little hamlet. It presented a 
 gala appearance, with the pretty court ladies 
 running up and down the rustic exterior stair- 
 cases, or appearing on the balconies, or tripping 
 across the greensward, dressed in their China- 
 shepherdess costumes, their short skirts dis- 
 closing the daintiest of chaussures. Gay d'Oliva 
 viewed it all with a sort of stupid wonder, not 
 touched with the sympathy and admiration 
 which Winnie had fancied she would feel before 
 just this scene. 
 
 When the Princesse Lamballe left the fold, 
 quite worsted in her encounter with the goats, 
 her milking pail half filled with earth, her 
 pretty sprigged gown torn, and her face blotted 
 with spatters of mud, as well as with tiny black 
 patches, Gay d'Oliva grinned maliciously. It
 
 208 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 served her right, she thought ; if a great lady 
 so demeaned herself, let her take the conse- 
 quences. The princess wore a black velvet band 
 about her fair throat, that "hind's neck," as 
 Carlyle called it, from its slender length and 
 the arch with which it carried the stately head, 
 whose eyes were like those of a gentle fawn. The 
 band had the effect of detaching the head from 
 the body, and indeed the aristocratic face, with 
 its powdered hair crowned with a garland of 
 pink roses, did not seem to belong with this 
 milkmaid's costume. Gay d'Oliva was to see 
 the same head with the same elaborate coiffure 
 borne upon a pike by a howling mob before 
 many months. She admired its owner more 
 when that terrible time came than now, for it 
 was well known that the princess had had 
 abundant opportunity to escape, and had met 
 her death because she would not leave the 
 queen. 
 
 Not far from the cascade there was an imita- 
 tion mill, its great wheel lumbering slowly 
 round ; and Gay strolled curiously toward this 
 picturesque bit of stage scenery. The miller's 
 wife had dusted herself with flour to look more 
 exactly her part, and leaned out of a window
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 209 
 
 to watch one of the princes of the blood, who 
 represented the miller, unload a bag of wheat 
 from a donkey. The bag was very small, and 
 behind it was perched the Duchesse de Polignac, 
 costumed like a farmer's wife. " See, I have 
 brought a bag of chestnuts from our grove for 
 your children, " she said laughing. The chest- 
 nuts were marons glace, from one of the most 
 fashionable confectioners of Paris, and the bag 
 was of satin embroidered with gold. 
 
 Gay turned away quite disgusted with this 
 child's play. A little farther on the meadow 
 was transformed to represent a country fair. 
 Booths were ranged around, joined to each 
 other by garlands of flowers, and at each pre- 
 sided some noble lady of the court. Here Ma- 
 dame Elizabeth, the sister of the king, was pre- 
 tending to sell sausages and little meat pies 
 decorated with paper flowers to the real peasants, 
 who were now flocking into the grounds. In 
 reality the mock charcutiere gave away the 
 toothsome little packages to every one who ap- 
 proached her booth, and in consequence was 
 very soon sold out, and took her place among 
 the dancers at the Grange. 
 
 At another table the Comtesse de Chalons
 
 210 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 was dispensing gingerbread to the children. 
 Monsieur de Vandreuil was beating a great 
 drum in front of the merry-go-round. The 
 Comtesse de Polastron sold long pipes and to- 
 bacco to the courtiers for a compliment or an 
 impromptu poem, or gave them away to the 
 peasants. 
 
 The elegant Madame Coigny presided over a 
 lottery, awarding to dukes and counts such em- 
 barrassing prizes as pigs and geese, which they 
 were obliged to carry away with them, There 
 was a game of rings arranged under a Chinese 
 pagoda, and the musicians of the French Guards, 
 dressed as Chinese mandarins, played to attract 
 patrons to the game. 
 
 The pretty Duchesse de Guiche told fortunes, 
 and presently the queen herself took her place 
 at the cafe, surrounded by twenty-one arbors, 
 with little rustic chairs and tables, each one 
 bearing over its arched front the name of a 
 royal house. The royal barmaid served prince 
 and peasant alike with beverages of their own 
 choosing, the only return expected being that 
 they should drink her health. The king came 
 in, in the guise of a hunter, and indeed he had 
 really been hunting in the neighboring forest,
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 211 
 
 and had brought back a fine bag of game, which 
 he laid at the queen's feet, where he threw him- 
 self, quite wearied by his rough exercise, and 
 amused by the parade which now defiled by 
 the cafe. First came a procession representing 
 the stock in trade of a bird fancier, and ar- 
 ranged by Carlin, the harlequin of the Comedie 
 Italienne, and by Dugazon, of the Comedie 
 Franaise. Hidden inside great birds of wicker 
 work were concealed various actors of these 
 theatres, who strutted about in the most fan- 
 tastic attitudes, and finally mounted the pa- 
 vilion and gave an amusing spectacle. 
 
 Then came a band of strolling players and 
 musicians, who ensconced themselves in the 
 same pavilion, and drew the plaudits of the 
 crowd. Through their peasant disguises, those 
 who knew them recognized in the flutist the 
 Due de G-uines, and in the violinist the Comte 
 de Polastron ; but who was this agile tight-rope 
 dancer who pirouetted so gracefully on the 
 slender cord and executed such intricate steps 
 between eggs placed at close intervals ? The 
 whisper ran from mouth to mouth that only a 
 professional performer could dance like that, 
 and that it must either be the expert, the Sieur
 
 212 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Placide, or that other king of the sawdust 
 arena, " Le Petit Diable." 
 
 But no, the queen recognizes him, and has 
 thrown him a flower, and the king is good- 
 naturedly applauding and shouting, "Bravo, 
 Charles ! " It is his brother, the Comte d' Artois. 
 Some time before he had brought the troupe of 
 professional acrobats to Trianon to play before 
 the queen, and she had greatly admired the 
 feats of the gymnast, Le Petit Diable. From 
 that time his friends were greatly puzzled by 
 the mysterious conduct of the young Comte 
 d' Artois. Every morning he refused himself 
 to every one and gave himself up to some 
 secret employment. Some said that he was 
 practising the black art with the sorcerer Cag- 
 liostro, some that he was in love with some un- 
 known lady ; others hoped that he was becom- 
 ing serious and giving his time to study. Now 
 the secret was out. He had been taking lessons 
 of Petit Diable in tight-rope dancing, and had 
 equalled his master. He had spent all this 
 time and pains to secure a smile of admiration 
 from Marie Antoinette. He was the only mem- 
 ber of the royal family except the king and 
 Madame Elizabeth who was fond of her, and
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 213 
 
 the friendship of this light-headed youth could 
 bring her no good in the eyes of the old noblesse 
 or of the populace. Audacious though he was, 
 and clever in keeping his foothold in other 
 ticklish places, whether in play at Trianon or 
 afterward as the King Charles X., he was al- 
 ways the same volatile, nimble-heeled mounte- 
 bank. 
 
 Madame Lebrun joined Gay d'Oliva where 
 she stood watching the tight-rope dancer with 
 spellbound admiration. " He is clever, is he 
 not ?' ' said the artist. " The comte had always 
 a talent for doing admirably all sorts of useless 
 things. It is a trait which runs in the family. 
 You should see the locks which the king makes 
 at his forge, most charmingly ciselees. He 
 has made some for the queen' s apartment. " 
 
 Alas ! these locks, ornate as they were, could 
 not keep out the Parisian mob, and there camo 
 a time when it would have been more to the 
 purpose if the king had learned to pick locks 
 rather than to forge them, for the bolts of the 
 Temple, unornamented though they might be, 
 were mercilessly strong. 
 
 The performance in the pavilion was over. 
 The Due de Guines and the Comte de Polastron
 
 214 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 were led off to the Grange to play for the 
 dancers, and the queen was opening the ball 
 with a minuet. But the Comte d' Artois had not 
 noticed that she had left, and mistaking Gay 
 d'Oliva for her Majesty, bowed low before her, 
 and kissing the flower which had been thrown 
 him, murmured that this was his happiest day 
 since the fete which his brother had been priv- 
 ileged to give her Majesty at Brunoy, when he 
 had taken the part of one of the enchanted 
 knights. 
 
 Gay regarded him with frank surprise, and 
 Madame Lebrun burst into laughter. " She is 
 like the queen, is she not ?" she said to the 
 discomfited count, who made all speed to take 
 himself off as soon as he had discovered his 
 mistake. 
 
 " You must sit for me, mademoiselle. I am 
 painting a portrait of the queen," explained 
 Madame Lebrun, " but her Majesty is so occu- 
 pied that she cannot give me as many sittings as 
 I would wish. Come to my studio in the Hotel 
 Tubert, and I will pay you well as model." 
 
 Gay accepted ; she was poor and not over 
 fastidious as to how she earned her livelihood. 
 It was amusing to find that she resembled the
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 215 
 
 queen, and she was to have another adventure on 
 this account this afternoon. As she was leav- 
 ing the Trianon she noticed a gentleman, who 
 seemed desirous of not being noticed, skulking 
 in the shrubbery near the gate. He wore a 
 slouched hat and a long cloak, but he lifted the 
 one and threw the other aside as she passed 
 him. 
 
 Gay knew from the obsequiousness of his 
 bow that he, like so many others, had taken 
 her for Marie Antoinette, and she laughed again 
 at the absurdity of the mistake as she flitted 
 out of the park. As she did so she brushed 
 against a lady dressed in a shabby genteel fash- 
 ion, as though she were one of the hangers-on 
 at the court, who had not as yet been fortunate 
 enough to secure the favor of royalty. The 
 lady uttered an exclamation, first of deep apol- 
 ogy, followed by one of surprise. 
 
 " Pardon, a thousand pardons, your Majesty ! 
 But no, phantom of the magicians ! who are 
 you, then 2" and she turned and ran after Gay 
 so briskly that she caught her before she had 
 walked far toward Versailles on the public 
 road. 
 
 " Who are you that could deceive the Cardi-
 
 216 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 nal de Rohan and me as well ?" and her sharp 
 eyes pierced Gay d* Oliva through and through. 
 " You are not the queen, but you are very like 
 her. I do not wonder that the cardinal, lover 
 though he is, was mistaken," and the strange 
 lady laughed maliciously. "Yes, it was his 
 eminence, I saw his red stockings under his 
 cloak ; the concierge concealed him there, he 
 had been waiting an hour for the queen to pass 
 out. He is more doting than ever, but she will 
 not notice him. He will get nothing for his 
 pains. It was a good joke, and if I ever have 
 access to the queen's ear I will amuse her with 
 it. Did you notice how bald his head was 
 when he bowed ? Ah, there is no fool like an 
 old fool !" and the lady bowed in a manner ex- 
 actly imitating the cardinal. 
 
 Gay felt a trifle confused and foolish. She 
 did not understand the sequence of events as 
 she would have done could she have looked on 
 at the scene in her own person as Winnie, in- 
 stead of taking part in it with only the limited 
 intelligence of the girl of the people. 
 
 As Winifred De Witt she would immedi- 
 ately have recognized Cardinal Eohan, and have 
 remembered all the intrigues of the necklace ;
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 217 
 
 but Gay d'Oliva knew nothing of the story in 
 which she was to be an important actor. We, 
 however, will interrupt Winnie's dream to take 
 advantage of our standpoint and understand 
 the situation as it may be studied to-day in the 
 histories of that time. 
 
 His Eminence Cardinal Prince Louis de 
 Rohan was in disgrace at court. While a 
 younger man he had been ambassador to Vienna, 
 where he had maintained great state, being 
 served by " four and twenty pages of noble birth 
 all in scarlet breeches" and a great retinue of 
 followers. Here he set up as a man of fashion 
 and a wit, and it was this last pretension which 
 wrought his woe, for he had the recklessness to 
 write in a despatch, "Maria Theresa stands, 
 indeed, with the handkerchief in one hand, 
 weeping for the woes of Poland, but with the 
 sword in the other, ready to cut Poland in sec- 
 tions and take her share. ' This was considered 
 very funny, and was repeated by Louis XV. 
 and laughed at by the court. Marie Antoi- 
 nette, then only dauphiness, heard it, and was 
 deeply offended by this disrespect to her royal 
 mother. When she became queen, and the car-
 
 218 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 dinal returned from Vienna and presented him- 
 self at court, she refused to see him, and the 
 king sent him a brief announcement that " he 
 would be asked for when wanted." 
 
 For days, months, years he waited, and was 
 not asked for ; the inference was plain, he was 
 not wanted. But for a prince, a cardinal to 
 languish in such neglect was ruin. He bent 
 every energy, he intrigued, bribed, gave dinners, 
 toadied to the favorites of the queen, wrote 
 unending letters, all to no purpose, and at last 
 suborned the gatekeeper, and hiding in the 
 garden of the Trianon endeavored to obtain a 
 personal interview with the queen. In vain. 
 She saw him indeed as she drove rapidly by on 
 her return to Versailles with some of her ladies, 
 and recognized him from his red stockings, but 
 a mocking peal of laughter was the only atten- 
 tion vouchsafed him. 
 
 Louis de Rohan was doubtless furious at such 
 treatment, but he had sunk the man in the' 
 courtier ; he could forgive any insult, swallow 
 any indignity, crawl and fawn and truckle if 
 only he could succeed at last. 
 
 Every one knew of the cardinal's infatuation 
 and despair, and among those to whom it was
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 219 
 
 an open secret was an adventuress, the Coun- 
 tess (?) Jeanne de La Motte, who with her hus- 
 band were hangers-on of the court, and lived in 
 an attic in the Hotel Belle Image at Versailles, 
 looking eagerly for some way of making their 
 fortunes either by fair means or foul. The 
 La Mottes were terribly poor, but sharp-witted. 
 Cardinal de Rohan was rich, and gullible ; the 
 countess had met him in former days, for he 
 had been a friend of her foster-mother, and had 
 treated her kindly. Had he been in favor, he 
 would doubtless have spoken a good word for 
 her and obtained some lucrative official position 
 for her at court. 
 
 How provoking that the only grandee who 
 was well disposed to her should be in disgrace ! 
 Cardinal Rohan could do nothing for her. 
 Wait, not so fast. What would not Cardinal 
 Rohan give to the individual who could get 
 him into favor with the queen? If she could 
 accomplish that her fortune was made ; and so 
 the Countess La Motte struggled all the more 
 desperately to obtain the ear of influential per- 
 sons at court. She supported herself now by 
 dressmaking. How many intrigues she sti tched 
 into the gold lace with which she bedecked
 
 220 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 the court dresses of the fine ladies, her patron- 
 esses ! 
 
 Doubtless at first she really intended to aid 
 the cardinal, and only anticipated the power 
 she intended to gain and to wield in his behalf 
 when she called on his eminence, and informed 
 him that success had at last come to her, that 
 through the influence of powerful friends she 
 now had her place at court, her apartment in 
 the palace, and the friendship of the queen. 
 
 The cardinal believed her, and begged her to 
 speak a good word for him. This the countess 
 good-naturedly promised to do. She would 
 even carry his letters to the queen, and there- 
 upon there began a famous correspondence, 
 Cardinal Rohan writing and delivering to the 
 Countess La Motte above two hundred letters, 
 none of which of course ever reached their des- 
 tination, though the countess pretended that 
 they had all been favorably received by Marie 
 Antoinette. At first the correspondence was 
 extremely one-sided, the countess explaining 
 that the queen preferred to send her answers 
 verbally, for fear that letters might be inter- 
 cepted. She assured the cardinal, however, 
 that he was forgiven for his old offences, and
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 2*1 
 
 fully restored in her favor, but not as yet in 
 that of the king. Moreover, there were certain 
 cabals in the ministry which rendered it impol- 
 itic for the queen to allow him to be presented 
 as yet publicly at court ; he must be content 
 with her secret friendship. The cardinal was 
 overjoyed, and professed himself willing to 
 wait indefinitely for his public restoration to 
 favor, and in the mean time burned to serve 
 her Majesty in any way. 
 
 The countess replied that the benevolent 
 queen often received petitions f o'r charity which 
 she longed to grant, but that her revenue was 
 narrow, her royal spouse being excessively 
 cramped, not to say stingy, and if the cardinal 
 would act as her almoner and relieve these 
 cases of necessity, she hoped some day to be 
 able to repay him. The deluded cardinal was 
 only too delighted to lend the queen money for 
 her charities, and the wicked Countess La 
 Motte lived upon this money for many months. 
 It was given whenever asked for, and the coun- 
 tess saw that if she could only really obtain the 
 permission of the queen for his presentation at 
 court, the cardinal would repay her most gen- 
 erously.
 
 222 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES; 
 
 Unfortunately the only resident of the palace 
 with whom the Countess La Motte had any in- 
 tercourse was a duchess whose ball dresses she 
 remodelled. The duchess cared no more for 
 the countess dressmaker than for her cook, and 
 there was no hope of reaching the queen's ear 
 through her ; but while sewing in the duchess' 
 apartment one of the queen's valets, named 
 Desclos, had frequently brought her patroness 
 notes from his royal mistress. The countess 
 eyed these notes greedily. If she could only 
 gain possession of one of them, she might imi- 
 tate the queen's handwriting and carry still 
 farther her deception of the cardinal. 
 
 Accordingly Countess La Motte exercised her 
 utmost fascination over the valet, who, much 
 flattered, became at first an acquaintance and 
 later her accomplice. Desclos was willing to 
 help, but he must be paid. It was not so easy, 
 after all, for the countess to imitate the queen's 
 autograph, but the count had a friend in the 
 army, a skilful forger of notes and counterfeiter 
 of handwriting, named Villette, and the aid of 
 this rascal was now called in. Desclos gave 
 the countess some of the royal stationery bear- 
 ing the monogram of Marie Antoinette in gilt
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 223 
 
 and her seal, and on this note-paper Villette 
 wrote the letters which the Countess La Motte 
 dictated. The fraud was becoming more artis- 
 tic, and for the time the cardinal was satisfied. 
 His letters, with all their gallantry and devo- 
 tion, hardly veiled his ambition. He was Grand 
 Almoner of France, Prince of the House of 
 Rohan, Bishop of Strasburg, Cardinal, Knight, 
 Abbot, Principal of the Sorbonne, of immense 
 income, brilliant, fascinating. There was only 
 one more honor to be obtained, the office of 
 Prime Minister, in whose power the king him- 
 self was but a puppet. He had studied the 
 careers of Richelieu, of Mazarin ; nothing less 
 would satisfy him. It was in the power of the 
 queen to raise him to this position if he could 
 but turn her hatred to admiration. It was as- 
 tonishing to him that the queen should not ad- 
 mire and love him, the favorite of all other 
 ladies. More ardent became his letters, more 
 eagerly he begged for public recognition and 
 restoration to favor before the court. 
 
 This was the very favor which the countess 
 could not bring about, but with the help of the 
 royal valet, Desclos, something might be done. 
 When the queen passed from her own apart-
 
 224 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 ment in the morning down the long Galerie des 
 Glaces, those courtiers who had the entree of 
 the palace were allowed to assemble in an ad- 
 joining apartment, called the Galerie de Vceil- 
 de-boeuf (from a huge oval window supposed to 
 resemble a bull's eye). The valet managed to 
 station Cardinal Rohan here in a position where 
 he could see the queen as she passed slowly 
 down the grand gallery of the mirrors. He 
 was told that in token of her regard Marie An- 
 toinette would honor him with public recogni- 
 tion on this occasion. What Rohan did not 
 know was the habit of the queen to always 
 look into the Galerie de rosil-de-bosuf as she 
 walked by and to bow courteously to the nobles 
 in waiting there. The queen had a very gracious 
 way of saluting her friends. It is said that she 
 could so glance from face to face, meeting the 
 eyes fixed upon her with her own kindly glance 
 and winsome smile, that twenty people would 
 swear that each inclination of her stately head 
 was meant for him personally. 
 
 According to her custom, the unsuspecting 
 queen looked into the waiting-room, her eyes 
 met those of the cardinal without any percep- 
 tion of his identity dawning upon her, she
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 225 
 
 smiled and bowed indiscriminately to him and 
 to all who crowded forward for the favor, but 
 the overjoyed Rohan believed that she had ex- 
 pected to see him, that her glance had sought 
 him out, and that this public recognition meant 
 a return to favor. Intoxicated with joy, he 
 pressed forward to speak to her, but the queen 
 had passed by, and the major-domo lowered his 
 wand and waved him back. It was enough, 
 privilege enough for the first time, and the 
 cardinal hurried away unrecognized by that 
 crowd of greedy, self-seeking men, each too 
 much absorbed in his own ambitions to notice 
 a man who had been so long a stranger at court 
 that his face was unfamiliar. 
 
 The countess was succeeding so wonderfully 
 that she began to believe in her own genius and 
 in her lucky star which rendered it impossible 
 for her to fail ; but with these new accomplices 
 came the need for more money, and she deter- 
 mined to play for larger stakes. The sums with 
 which the cardinal supposed he was from time 
 to time obliging the queen were no longer suffi- 
 cient for the countess' desires ; moreover, the 
 count, her husband, was gambling, and was in- 
 cessantly urging her for money, while the car-
 
 226 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES, 
 
 dinal was now growing impatient for a private 
 interview with the queen. It was at this junc- 
 ture that the countess met a desperate man leav- 
 ing the palace after a disappointing interview 
 with royalty. It was Boehmer, the jeweller, 
 who had constructed a fabulously beautiful 
 and valuable diamond necklace a necklace for 
 which he had spent years in collecting the 
 stones, and which he had ruined himself to 
 purchase. He had borrowed money on every 
 hand, the necklace was mortgaged over and 
 over, but it was a wonder of the jeweller's craft. 
 His hope, the ambition of his life, had been that 
 the king would purchase it for the queen. 
 Louis had shown it to his wife, and if she had 
 manifested any desire for it, it would doubtless 
 have been hers ; but Marie Antoinette knew the 
 bankrupt condition of the treasury, and would 
 not allow him to give her the glittering toy. 
 " Your people need bread, sire," she had said 
 simply ; " you must not purchase stones." 
 
 The affair was much talked about ; few praised 
 the noble-hearted queen or pitied the frenzied 
 jeweller. They were both considered fools by 
 the light-minded courtiers. Cardinal Rohan 
 himself mentioned the gossip to the countess
 
 THE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 227 
 
 on the occasion of a call which he made her 
 shortly after Boehmer's disappointment. 
 
 " I am grieved that the king should not have 
 purchased that trifle for his lovely wife," he 
 said ; " but since she did not care for it " 
 
 " But she is dying with longing for it," the 
 countess contradicted, "and the king is too 
 avaricious, too indifferent to her wishes to pur- 
 chase it for her." 
 
 " Are you sure of this ?" Cardinal Rohan 
 asked. 
 
 " Her Majesty told me so herself," said the 
 countess. " She longs to buy the necklace, 
 and would be able to pay for it in instalments, 
 but Boehmer will not be satisfied except by 
 a large amount paid down." The countess 
 spoke warily ; she was angling for an enormous 
 catch ; would the bait attract and the line hold? 
 
 " I might be able to assist her Majesty," the 
 cardinal exclaimed eagerly, " but I must have 
 more than her assurance received at second- 
 hand that such assistance would be agreeable 
 to her. Tell the queen that there is nothing I 
 will not do to serve her if she will tell me what 
 she desires with her own lips." 
 
 The countess' eyes beamed with triumph. At
 
 228 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 last she could give the cardinal the boon he de- 
 sired. She assured him that Marie Antoinette 
 had confessed her love for him, and would prove 
 it by seeing him as often as he wished. 
 
 What was it that had emboldened the Coun- 
 tess La Motte to this supreme effrontery, to 
 dare to sport with the character of an irre- 
 proachable queen, to promise what she knew it 
 was impossible for her to obtain ? 
 
 It was simply the memory of Gay d'Oliva's 
 face, as she had seen it at the gate of the 
 Trianon. Somewhere in Paris there existed 
 the queen's double, a girl so exactly resembling 
 Marie Antoinette that, if she could be bribed to 
 act the part, the cardinal himself might be de- 
 ceived. The countess believed that every one 
 was as wicked as herself. She had bought 
 Desclos and Villette ; Rohan and she were each 
 trying to buy the other, and she was certain 
 that this poor girl also had her price, and it 
 was now hep constant occupation and that of 
 the count to search for her. 
 
 Winnie had but lately read the story in his- 
 tory, she had also recently read with interest 
 the souvenirs of Madame Lebrun, whose por- 
 trait of the queen she had copied. It is, there-
 
 TUE QUEEN'S DOUBLE. 229 
 
 fore, not surprising that in her dream- life she 
 combined .the two, and while she imagined 
 herself Gay d' Oliva, and moved, unconscious of 
 any previous knowledge of how it was all to 
 turn out, through the drama, acting the part 
 with much the same feelings which her proto- 
 type may have experienced, she also sustained 
 relations to Madame Lebrun, and acted in other 
 historical events in which the real Gay d' Oliva 
 had no part.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 
 
 E will now turn from the 
 pages of history to fol- 
 low Winnie's dream- 
 life. After her visit to 
 the fete at the Trianon 
 Winnie imagined that 
 she presented herself 
 at Madame Lebrun's 
 studio, and served the 
 talented artist fre- 
 quently as a model, 
 taking the queen's 
 poses and frequently wearing the state robes. 
 
 As her hand caressed the luscious pile of the 
 rich velvet, or her bosom rose and fell under the 
 mock pearls with which Madame Lebrun sup- 
 plied the place of the royal jewels, her little 
 heart swelled at times with envy of the queen. 
 Why should she, Gay d'Oliva, every whit as
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 231 
 
 beautiful as the queen, be poor, while her royal 
 twin-sister revelled in luxury ? Madame Lebrun 
 told her so much, however, of Marie Antoi- 
 nette's kindness of heart, that her mental atti- 
 tude changed somewhat, and she half believed 
 that the life at the Trianon was really the 
 queen's ideal of happiness and not mere acting 
 for effect. But Madame Lebrun told her of 
 other fetes which were not so simple and inex- 
 pensive, where a fortune had been squandered 
 in a day to minister to an idle whim. 
 
 Such was the fete at Brunoy given in 1776, 
 and repeated in 1780 by Monsieur the Comte de 
 Provence, brother of the king. The court had 
 quitted Versailles to go to Fontainebleau, and 
 according to usage broke the journey by re- 
 maining some days at Choisy. Choisy was 
 near Brunoy, the residence of Monsieur, and as 
 a gallant brother-in-law and munificent prince, 
 he prepared a festival for the queen, which 
 Madame Lebrun assured Gay d'Oliva showed 
 more of esprit than any fete which had been 
 given in France. There were parades and 
 comedies, dances and recitations, tableaux, 
 games, a banquet, and a magnificent display of 
 fireworks.
 
 232 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 But the part which Madame Lebrun thought 
 was arranged with most taste was the spectacle 
 of the enchanted knights. After the dinner 
 Marie Antoinette and her suite descended to 
 the park. In the first bosquet the surprises 
 began. Fifty knights in complete armor were 
 discovered reclining on the grass in picturesque 
 attitudes, their armor suspended from the neigh- 
 boring trees. 
 
 From behind the trees came the sound of 
 music, and a mysterious voice recited their 
 history. They were the companions of Charle- 
 magne, who, since the beauties who had in- 
 spired their valorous deeds had disappeared 
 from the earth, had themselves slept an en- 
 chanted sleep. 
 
 At the approach of the queen, however, these 
 worthies awoke, sprang to their feet, grasped 
 their lances and shields, for the coming of so 
 much beauty had rendered back to them their 
 ancient desire for deeds of prowess. 
 
 Every one followed them to the next bosquet, 
 an arena richly decorated in the manner of the 
 lists prepared for a tourney in mediaeval times. 
 Marie Antoinette was led to a dais, whose steps 
 were occupied by the elite of Paris dressed in
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 233 
 
 the costume of the time of Charlemagne. The 
 trumpets sounded, and fifty pages led in fifty 
 horses, half of the number being jetty black 
 and half pure white with light blue housings, 
 in honor of the queen, whose colors were white 
 and light blue. The knights formed two op- 
 posing parties, and went through all the evolu- 
 tions of a tourney of the time of the Knights 
 of the Table Round, displaying masterly horse- 
 manship, in which again the Comte d'Artois 
 excelled. Of course in the end the knights 
 who rode the white horses won in every en- 
 counter, and Madame Lebrun explained how 
 the knights who bestrode the black horses with 
 the scarlet housings wore chain armor, like 
 Saracens, and allowed themselves to be soundly 
 beaten by the queen's champions. Gay 
 d'Oliva's head was quite turned by all this ro- 
 mancing. How fine it would be to take the 
 queen's part just for one day, to stand in a pal- 
 ace garden and hear knights vow allegiance or 
 minstrels sing her praises ! But she elevated 
 her saucy nose and asserted that she would 
 rather have seen the tables turned and the 
 black knights treat the queen's party to a 
 sound trouncing. Madame Lebrun was sincere
 
 234 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES 
 
 in her admiration of the queen, and sang her 
 praises continually while she painted until Gay 
 d'Oliva was won over and admired her almost 
 as much as she envied her. Whenever the en- 
 thusiastic little artist praised the queen, it 
 seemed to the dull mind of the model that it 
 was for some quality which she possessed in 
 common with her. Had not Madame Lebrun 
 asserted a hundred times that their hair was of 
 the same shade, that their eyes were of the 
 same Austrian turquoise, that Gay's carriage 
 was every bit as aristocratic as that of her Maj- 
 esty ? Why should Marie Antoinette have 
 knights to do combat in her honor, and stroll 
 in those enchanted bosquets of Versailles, while 
 she, her twin in every respect but that of birth, 
 earned a scanty livelihood by wearing the royal 
 robes ? She had asked the question aloud, and 
 Madame Lebrun had told her it was because 
 the queen was so good that she deserved her 
 happiness ; and Gay d'Oliva desired more than 
 she could express to see the queen again and 
 talk with her. Perhaps the queen would take 
 pity on her, and do her some kindness on ac- 
 count of their strange likeness in feature and 
 unlikeness in fortune. Even in her moments
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 235 
 
 of greatest envy she would not have done the 
 queen an injury, and she grew to almost love 
 her mysterious twin. It was just at this period 
 in Winnie's magical experiences that the Com- 
 tesse de La Motte reached the point in her 
 machinations when she could do nothing fur- 
 ther with the Cardinal Rohan, without yielding 
 to his demand for a personal interview with the 
 queen. Remembering her glimpse of Gay 
 d'Oliva at Trianon, the countess and her hus- 
 band had searched all over Paris for the queen's 
 double, but had not found her. At last in an 
 evil hour the conspirators found their tool. In 
 Winnie's dream this second meeting came about 
 in this way. 
 
 It seemed to her that she was posing as usual 
 for Madame Lebrun, whose brother had been 
 reading aloud to them that part of the " Travels 
 of Ancharsis" which describes the Greek din- 
 ners. Madame Lebrun had invited a little com- 
 pany for that evening to hear a reading of the 
 poet Lebrun, and the description of the various 
 kinds of food used by the Greeks suggested to 
 her ingenious mind the idea of a Greek supper. 
 Throwing down her palette and brushes, she 
 exclaimed : " We will try some of these dishe^
 
 236 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 to-night." Calling her cook, she explained to 
 her how to make one Greek sauce for the fowl 
 and another for the eels. " And now, " she said 
 to Gay d' Oliva, ' ' no more painting this after- 
 noon, but you must help me drape the studio 
 and costume my guests as they arrive in imita- 
 tion of one of Poussin's paintings.'' 
 
 The Comte de Paris, who had apartments in 
 the same house, was a collector of Etruscan 
 vases, and gladly lent all that madame needed 
 to set her polished mahogany table with the 
 required pateras, wine jugs, pitcher for water 
 cooled with snow, beakers, and cups deep or 
 shallow, of classical form, and decorated with 
 Bacchanalian processions. 
 
 There were tall standard lamps and incense- 
 burners, and a bronze hanging lamp threw a 
 strong light on the table and the guests who 
 reclined about it. Each of these, as he or she 
 arrived, was appropriately draped by Madame 
 Lebrun and Gay d' Oliva to represent Athenians. 
 When Lebrun arrived, they shook the powder 
 out of his hair and arranged it d la Anacreon ; 
 a purple mantle was thrown around him, and 
 a laurel wreath placed on his head. The Mar- 
 quis de Cubieres, who came next, entered into
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 237 
 
 the spirit of the affair, and sent his servant 
 back to his house for a guitar which he had 
 mounted as a golden lyre, and on which he 
 accompanied the others later in the evening 
 while they sang Gliick's chorus to the God of 
 Paphos and of Gnidus. Each of the ladies 
 was carefully costumed in draperies of which 
 Madame Lebrun had a quantity in her studio. 
 She was particularly happy in her treatment of 
 her daughter and of Gay d'Oliva, whom she 
 arranged as servitors wearing garlands of roses 
 and bearing tall vases of antique shape. Besides 
 the eels and the fowl, they had salad, a cake 
 of honey, grapes of Corinth, and a bottle of 
 old Cyprian wine, but the entertainment was 
 chiefly an artistic, literary, and musical one. 
 
 This simple impromptu affair was greatly ex- 
 aggerated by report, and it was rumored and 
 currently believed that Madame Lebrun had 
 given a banquet that had cost thousands of 
 dollars. 
 
 As Winnie stood in her dream, holding her 
 amphora on her shoulder, she saw enter a 
 sprightly little lady with a foxy face and the 
 shifting glance. It was the Countess La Motte, 
 who had called uninvited, and was making
 
 238 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 profuse apologies to the hostess for intruding 
 upon a formal dinner party. To judge from 
 her face, Madame Lebrun seemed to think that 
 the apologies were needed, but she was too 
 courteous not to welcome her unbidden guest, 
 and the countess, seizing an opportunity when 
 they stood a little apart from the others, began 
 volubly to explain the object of her visit. She 
 had heard that the artist was a favorite of Marie 
 Antoinette ; could she not, would she not pro- 
 cure her an audience ? Madame Lebrun 's coldly 
 polite manner became icy. She was sorry that 
 it was quite beyond her power to grant the 
 countess this favor. 
 
 " If not for me, then possibly for a friend of 
 mine, who is willing to make your fortune, dear 
 madam e, if you will grant him this slight 
 favor." 
 
 " And this friend is ?" Madame Lebrun 's 
 voice trembled with indignation, but she kept 
 it under control. There was suppressed eager- 
 ness in the countess' answer : 
 
 " His Eminence, Cardinal Rohan." 
 
 " Still more impossible. Your request, ma- 
 dame, shows how little you know my princi- 
 ples or those of the queen."
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 239 
 
 " A fig for those of the queen !" exclaimed 
 the countess in pique ; and then as she noticed 
 for the first time the figure of Gay d'Oliva, she 
 turned deadly pale, and caught Madame Le- 
 brun's arm, exclaiming : " I am lost ; she has 
 heard me ! Why did you not tell me she was 
 here incognito as your guest ?" 
 
 All her effrontery was gone ; she could not 
 muster enough to stammer an apology, until 
 reassured by Madame Lebrun's laughing reply. 
 
 " You would have been well punished if it 
 were as you think, but this girl is not her Maj- 
 esty. She is only a little model of mine who is 
 helping me by serving at my little dinner. 
 Pray be seated ; Anacreon is about to give us an 
 ode." 
 
 The countess allowed herself to be draped 
 and to recline at one end of the table, but she 
 gave no attention to the poem, and never took 
 her eyes from the handmaiden. Gay d'Oliva 
 in her turn felt herself fascinated by that basil- 
 isk stare, and when the countess slipped into 
 her hand her card, on which was written, " Come 
 to my house at ten to-morrow morning, " Win- 
 nie nodded gravely to the strange, evil-looking 
 little woman, in token that she would comply
 
 240 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 with her request. Something told her that she 
 ought not to go. There was a subtle premoni- 
 tion of evil, which should have served as a warn- 
 ing, but Gay disregarded it. 
 
 The countess did not entirely disclose her 
 plans. The queen had seen Gay d' Oliva at the 
 fete at Trianon, and wished her to do a service 
 for her. 
 
 The girl's eyes sparkled, and the countess 
 saw that she had touched the right motive. 
 
 She was to drive with the countess out to the 
 park at Versailles, and there act a part in a sort 
 of tableau or comedy. 
 
 Gay was delighted. Was there to be another 
 fete ? Were there to be many spectators ? 
 Was the part difficult to learn ? 
 
 The countess answered only the last ques- 
 tion. The part was not at all difficult. She 
 was simply to hand a rose and a letter to a no- 
 ble gentleman, and to say as she gave the rose, 
 " You know what that means." 
 
 "What shall I wear?" Gay asked. " My 
 best gown is only a white percale, moucJiete 
 with little dragon-flies, and trimmed with bows 
 of red ribbon. Court ladies do not dress like 
 that."
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 241 
 
 "The court ladies? No; but the Queen 
 does sometimes at Trianon." Has no one told 
 you that you resemble the queen ?" 
 
 " Yes ; Madame Lebrun has said so many 
 times. She says that when I stand so, and 
 look over my shoulder like this, it is her very 
 glance as she looks at the courtiers in waiting 
 in the Galerie de T ceil-de-bceuf." 
 
 " A la bonheur, stand so, and look so at 
 your lover, and you will captivate him, as well 
 as please the queen." 
 
 Gay d' Oliva drove out to Versailles with the 
 countess. It was a quiet, moonless night. 
 There was a bal masque in the theatre of the 
 chateau, which had been floored above the seats 
 for the dancing, and was brilliantly lighted. 
 The court were there, and the carriages of those 
 who had come from a distance were in waiting 
 outside the grille. Within the gardens lay 
 shadowy and silent. The fountains had not 
 been turned on, and the marble statues were 
 like the enchanted knights of the Brunoy fete. 
 The countess left her carriage with the others 
 in the outer court and followed a party of 
 guests who were shown toward the theatre to 
 the right of the entrance. She had slipped on
 
 242 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 a little black velvet mask, and had thrown a 
 sort of scarf called a Therese around Gay's 
 head. 
 
 Once inside the palace she turned abruptly 
 down a corridor leading toward the left, and 
 came out upon the Parterre cP Eau. " The 
 comedy is not, then, to be acted in the the- 
 atre ?' ' Gay asked. 
 
 "No; in the garden," whispered the coun- 
 tess, and gripping Gay d'Oliva's hand, she 
 added, " Run quick while that sentinel has 
 his back turned to us." 
 
 Wondering why they should make their en- 
 trance in this secret way, the girl still obeyed, 
 and they hurried across the Parterre du Midi 
 and down Mansart's grand staircase of the 
 Orangery to a shadowy bosquet of hornbeam, 
 now called the Bosquet de la Reine. "Are 
 we to rehearse the play before the arrival of 
 the company?" Gay asked; "and shall we 
 not need lights ?" 
 
 " You will need no more light, and there will 
 be no company," the countess replied. "No 
 one told you that it was to be a play. It is a 
 trick which the queen wishes to play on a cer- 
 tain courtier. You look more than ever like
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 243 
 
 the queen in this uncertain dusk. There, take 
 the pose, throw off the Therese. Here are the 
 letter and the rose. Don't forget that you are 
 to say, ' You know what that means,' but say 
 nothing else. Do not contradict him if he 
 takes you for the queen ; it is a part of the 
 trick, and it will amuse her Majesty greatly if 
 you carry out your part well." 
 
 " But it is not like the queen's kindness of 
 heart or her dignity to deceive a gentleman in 
 this way," thought Gay. 
 
 For the first time a gleam of light shot 
 through her dull intellect. This was no trick 
 of the queen's, but of this strange, malevolent- 
 looking woman, and it could mean no good to 
 the queen. She was so startled by the thought, 
 that she stood stupidly rooted to the ground. 
 The countess had vanished ; the hedges were 
 like walls ; she could not remember the way she 
 had come ; and suddenly there was a step, a 
 stifled voice behind her, and as she turned with 
 just that posture which Madame Lebrun had 
 told her was the queen's very own, there was a 
 gentleman on his knees before her, sobbing, 
 stammering neither he nor she knew what. 
 She let fall the rose which the countess had
 
 244 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 placed in her hand, and the cardinal for she 
 recognized him had pressed it to his lips. 
 " Oh, fly !" she cried in real distress, as she 
 tried to wrench away her hand. " I am not : 
 but she had not time to make her avowal, for 
 the countess rushed upon them in real or feigned 
 alarm" On ment, vite, vite away!" 
 
 They regained the countess' carriage and 
 drove to the city. On the way Gay taxed the 
 lady with the conspiracy, which she acknowl- 
 edged, and attempted to bribe Gay to continue 
 the deception. 
 
 11 You will come to it," the countess replied 
 triumphantly at Gay' s repeated refusals, " for I 
 can give you now more than you have any idea 
 of. You have saved me, you have made all 
 our fortunes. Though you do no more, you 
 have done enough." 
 
 It was true. The wicked adventuress stood 
 on the threshold of success. The cardinal had 
 been completely deceived, and was ready to 
 undertake the purchase of the necklace. Vil- 
 lette forged the queen's signature to a contract, 
 in which Rohan purchased the necklace from 
 Boehmer for her, the queen to repay the cardi- 
 nal in instalments. There remained now only
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 245 
 
 the trifling difficulty that the cardinal was ob- 
 stinate about placing the necklace in the queen's 
 own hands, and that Gay could not be induced 
 to again impersonate the queen. The countess 
 promised readily that her Majesty would re- 
 ceive the present without being at all certain of 
 how she would manage this little detail, but 
 hoping to win Gay d'Oliva over. 
 
 Although the countess had a handsome house 
 in Paris, she had kept a small apartment in the 
 Place Dauphin at Versailles, and here the car- 
 dinal came in February, 1775, accompanied by 
 a servant bearing the precious necklace in its 
 casket. He was trembling with excitement. 
 " Where is the queen ?" 
 
 " She will come," La Motte promised smooth- 
 ly ; "I have her royal word." 
 
 A few moments later, and Villette, disguised 
 as a footman, threw open the door, announcing, 
 " On the part of the queen." 
 
 It was Desclos in full royal livery who en- 
 tered, bearing a note from the queen on a silver 
 salver. The king had demanded the presence 
 of her Majesty at the ball. She was grieved not 
 to keep her appointment with the cardinal, but 
 she sent a receipt for the necklace bearing her
 
 246 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 royal autograph. She commissioned Desclos, 
 her private messenger, to receive the necklace, 
 and she would make an early opportunity to 
 thank her friend, the cardinal, in person for his 
 great kindness. The Countess La Motte was 
 white with suspense ; the crucial moment had 
 arrived. Would the cardinal fall into the 
 trap 1 It seemed to her now bungling and im- 
 probable ; but Rohan, as excited as she, carried 
 away by his hopes and joy, was an easy victim. 
 He placed the casket in the valet's hands un- 
 questioningly, and bowed himself away. 
 
 The necklace was divided between the accom- 
 plices. It would have seemed that this was 
 the moment for La Motte to fly to foreign lands 
 and enjoy her ill-gotten gains ; but no ; there 
 was no happiness for her outside of the French 
 court. It was for the privilege of living in this 
 charmed circle that she had intrigued so long 
 and had finally committed this crime. Must 
 she cut herself off from the only reward she 
 desired in order to escape detection ? Her hus- 
 band fled to England, and there disposed of 
 many of the jewels piecemeal ; but the countess, 
 rendered reckless by her success, remained, or- 
 dered dresses instead of making them, enter-
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 247 
 
 tained in her handsome house in Paris, and be- 
 gan to figure in society. The Cardinal Prince 
 Rohan was a frequent guest at her dinners, and 
 was sponsor for her respectability. It began 
 to be rumored under the breath of the gossips 
 that the cardinal was no longer out of favor, 
 that he would shortly be presented at court, 
 for the cardinal himself no longer wore the air 
 of hungry anxiety, but a complacent air of tri- 
 umph. Boehmer, the jeweller, was also happy, 
 for he believed that the queen had purchased 
 the necklace through the cardinal. When the 
 time came for the promised first of the four 
 payments of 400,000 francs, and no word was 
 received from Marie Antoinette, Boehmer al- 
 lowed himself to send a reminder to the queen, 
 who commissioned Madame Campan to inquire 
 what he meant. Boehmer sent the queen a 
 written statement of the affair, and at the mo- 
 ment when the cardinal was about to celebrate 
 mass he was arrested. Boehmer and the Coun- 
 tess La Motte were also arrested. Then began 
 the weary trial. The scandal was out. Mali- 
 cious tongues in the court and among the peo- 
 ple talked about it on every hand. Marie An- 
 toinette was believed to have coquetted with
 
 248 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 the cardinal and to have robbed him, the jewel- 
 ler, and the public treasury. Libellous pam- 
 phlets were published giving scurrilous and 
 lying accounts of the entire affair. It was in 
 vain that the truth was announced ; it was not 
 believed. The count and countess and the car- 
 dinal were considered martyrs to the queen's 
 malignity, sacrificed in a vain attempt to prove 
 her innocent. 
 
 As for Gay d'Oliva, no one believed in her 
 existence. Rumor asserted that it was the 
 queen herself who had given the cardinal re- 
 peated rendezvous in the park and elsewhere. 
 It was the queen who had been recognized in 
 the dress of a simple girl slipping into the studio 
 of Madame Lebrun, and remaining there for 
 hours at a time in no one knew what company. 
 It was the queen who had been seen at the hotel 
 of the Countess La Motte, which was also open- 
 ly frequented by Cardinal Rohan. It was the 
 queen who had been recognized by the gate- 
 keeper at Versailles running with the countess 
 out of the palace at a late hour at night, and 
 driving rapidly away toward Paris, followed 
 closely by the cardinal in his own coach. 
 
 Gay heard these stories and tried to contra-
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 249 
 
 diet them, but was laughed at openly. " That 
 is a pretty romance that you are retailing, but 
 too clever to be of your own invention. How 
 much did the queen pay you to try to deceive 
 us with such an extravaganza ?" 
 
 She could obtain no credence at the trial, no 
 attention to the statement which she tried to 
 publish. 
 
 This wicked plot, in which she had been an 
 almost innocent accomplice, was the queen's 
 ruin. Good people believed her vile and gave 
 her up to her doom, and her enemies gloated 
 over her defamation. 
 
 How events thickened after this and clashed 
 against each other, like the mad waves in 
 the rapids approaching a tremendous cata- 
 ract ! 
 
 Winnie reviewed mentally all the history of 
 the beginning of the French Revolution, from 
 that visit of the work-people of Paris, who 
 marched out to Versailles in joyous good humor 
 to congratulate the king and queen on the 
 birth of the dauphin in October, 1781, to that 
 other procession of the same women of the 
 Ilalles, who strode over the same road to bring 
 their sovereigns to their death.
 
 250 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 It seemed to Winnie that she, Gay d'Oliva, 
 was in that first company of the different guilds 
 headed by bands of music. The dauphin had 
 been ardently longed for, and all Paris had 
 gone wild with joy. The different trades vied 
 with each other in their display. The chimney- 
 sweeps carried a chimney, perched on the top of 
 which was the smallest and grimiest ramonneur 
 in all Paris. The chairmen carried a richly 
 gilded sedan chair, in which a nurse sat danc- 
 ing a baby supposed to represent the little 
 prince. The cobblers bore a little pair of boots 
 on a cushion. The tailors had made a presenta- 
 tion suit of the uniform of the regiment which 
 he would command. The pastry cooks paraded 
 sugar temples in imitation of the Temple of 
 Love in the Trianon. Every guild had some 
 gift or trophy to offer, some banner with appro- 
 priate motto, some orator with a congratulatory 
 speech, some loyal ditty roared in chorus. The 
 artificial -flower makers brought sheafs of royal 
 fleur-de-lys. The locksmiths made the king a 
 present of a lock with a secret combination. 
 This was a tactful bit of flattery to his inge- 
 nuity, for the king puzzled out the mechanism, 
 and when he touched the proper springs a tiny
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 251 
 
 statue of the dauphin of exquisite metal-work 
 issued from the key-hole. 
 
 The seamstresses had made a layette or outfit 
 of clothing for the royal baby, which the em- 
 broiderers and lacemakers had decked with the 
 most artistic examples of their skill. The sil- 
 versmiths presented him with a porringer, the 
 gardeners brought garlands of flowers and pan- 
 niers of fruit, the street-sweepers vowed that 
 they would sweep all enemies from his path. 
 The fishwomen were most loyal in their protes- 
 tations. " Sire," said their spokeswoman, " we 
 are sure that our children will be as happy as 
 ourselves, for this child must be like you. You 
 will teach him, sire, to be good and just like 
 yourself. We take upon ourselves the duty of 
 teaching our children how to love and respect 
 their king." 
 
 It was Winnie's part in the pageant to pre- 
 sent the queen with a pink pearl on the part of 
 the sellers of shellfish a pearl which they pre- 
 tended had been found in an oyster on the birth- 
 day of the dauphin, and without doubt typified 
 the rosy infant who lay like a jewel on his 
 mother's breast. What universal love and de- 
 votion, what a delirium of enthusiastic admira-
 
 252 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 tion for the queen ! All Paris was illuminated. 
 The Hotel de Ville was decorated with royal 
 colors, the populace danced in the streets, and 
 before the high altar of N^otre Dame the monks 
 chanted, " Unto us a child is born !" 
 
 But there were presages of ill omen even at 
 this joyful time. The gravediggers had insisted 
 on having a part in the celebration, and, carry- 
 ing spades and flambeaux, escorted an empty 
 coffin. It was done in merry-hearted thought- 
 lessness, but Madame Sophie, always timid and 
 apprehensive, had been induced to come to the 
 balcony just as this gloomy cortege stopped 
 before it, and the shock was so great that she 
 fell in a fit, from which she never completely 
 recovered. She died a few weeks later, full of 
 gloomy forebodings, predicting the end of the 
 old regime. 
 
 It came so quickly Winnie had but a con- 
 fused idea of what happened to Gay d'Oliva 
 or in the political world during the next eight 
 years, but on almost the anniversary of that 
 birthday celebration, on October 6th, she found 
 herself tramping toward Versailles with the 
 same women of the Halles. 
 
 How different it all was ! There were no joy-
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 253 
 
 ous cheers of loyalty, but muttered curses and 
 horrible menaces. There was starvation in the 
 gaunt faces of the women and murderous re- 
 venge in their bloodshot, half-crazed eyes. 
 They carried no gifts and trophies now, only 
 weapons and missiles. Gay found that one of 
 the fishwomen had placed in her hand not a 
 pink pearl, but a ragged, rusty knife which 
 had been used for opening shellfish. 
 
 There was a change in her own feelings, too. 
 She knew that she was hungry, that she be- 
 longed to a class oppressed, taxed, made to sup- 
 port an ancient system of aristocracy, and that 
 the hour had struck in which this intolerable in- 
 justice to be was to be done away. The women 
 with whom she was marching believed no longer 
 that their king was kind and good or their 
 queen as lovely in character as she was in face. 
 They called them vile, heartless tyrants, who 
 must be exterminated, or tyranny itself could 
 not be crushed. They reached the grille lead- 
 ing from the Place d'Armes through a court- 
 yard to the park, and, killing the guards, 
 swarmed through into the gardens. Then the 
 memory of what had happened when Gay was 
 last here swept in upon Winnie's consciousness.
 
 254 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 There was the grand terrace with its marble fig- 
 ures representing the rivers of France guarding 
 the sleeping fountains. There was Mansart's 
 superb staircase embracing the Orangery and 
 leading down to the Bosquet de la JZeine, where 
 Rohan had waited his fancied rendezvous with 
 the queen. As she stood gazing toward this 
 shadowy bosquet with a fascinated stare, the 
 hag at her side exclaimed with a curse, ' ' Yes, 
 that is where this wicked Jezebel received her 
 lover, and took from his hand the diamonds 
 that cost France so many millions and were 
 paid for with our bread ; but to-night the 
 woman who stood there to do that wicked deed 
 shall receive the just retribution for her crime." 
 
 "The woman' who stood there to do that 
 wicked deed shall receive the just retribution 
 of her crime.' 1 '' The words burned into Win- 
 nie's soul as though written with a pen of flame. 
 Suddenly all the heroism of her soul, wakened 
 by remorse, leaped to glorious resolve. That 
 woman who had compassed the queen's down- 
 fall would save her now, even though the price 
 were her own life. 
 
 "What was done with Jezebel?" the hag 
 shrieked. " When she showed her painted face
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 255 
 
 at the palace windows they threw her down 
 upon the stones of the courtyard, and the dogs 
 tore her in pieces. Let the queen show herself. 
 The queen ! The queen !" 
 
 Winnie' s new resolve gave her lightning-like 
 directness and speed. She ran to the marble 
 courtyard, where she saw the rioters were forc- 
 ing an entrance. From this courtyard the mar- 
 ble staircase led to an upper landing, on the 
 left side of which were the king's apartments, 
 on the right the apartments of the queen. The 
 first room in each suite was a hall for the 
 guards, through which one must pass to reach 
 the antechambers. 
 
 Up the marble staircase Winnie darted and 
 into the hall of the queen's guards with the 
 very first of the mob. We read* that the guard 
 on duty before the door leading from this hall 
 to the queen's antechamber was struck down, 
 the crowd seizing him and hurling him down 
 the staircase. At the foot, the ragpicker Jour- 
 dan ran up, and with an axe still dripping with 
 the blood of another victim, cut off his head. 
 Another guard sprang to his comrade's place. 
 
 * Imbert St. Amand's " Marie Antoinette and the End of 
 the Old Regime."
 
 256 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 The mob rushed upon him and tore him from 
 before the door, but did not succeed in killing 
 him, for he fought his way through them val 
 iantly, and escaped the hands that strove to 
 throw him down the staircase by darting across 
 the landing into the hall of the king 1 s guards, 
 who closed the door behind him. Meantime, a 
 third guard, not on duty, Monsieur de Sainte 
 Marie, had concealed himself in the embrasure 
 of one of the windows, and might have remained 
 there quite out of danger ; but seeing that one 
 sentinel had been killed, that the second, who 
 had tried to take his place, had been torn from 
 his post, and had only saved his life by fleeing, 
 he sprang from his place of concealment, and 
 in the instant that the attention of the rioters 
 was occupied with the other two guards opened 
 the door into the queen's anteroom, and called 
 to two of her ladies who were watching there : 
 " Save the queen ; they want to kill her !" So 
 much history tells us ; it does not say that Gay 
 d'Oliva played any part at this supreme mo- 
 ment ; but when Monsieur de Sainte Marie 
 opened the door, Winnie sprang through it. 
 She had dropped the knife, and as he caught 
 her arm, her face, all an agony of intense
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 257 
 
 earnestness, gave weight to her words, " I 
 alone can save her ; let me in." The guard 
 dropped her arm, closed the door, and bracing 
 his back against it loyally and with perfect 
 calmness faced death. The two ladies in- wait- 
 ing ran to the queen and hurried her through a 
 secret passage to the king's bedroom, and Win- 
 nie was left alone. 
 
 " What shall I do to give her time to es- 
 cape f had been her thought, and the answer 
 had already come to her. " I will show my- 
 self at the window to the mob howling for 
 her below. They will take me for the queen. 
 The rioters in the next room will break 
 through and throw me out upon stones, like 
 Jezebel, and they will go away satisfied, think- 
 ing they have killed the queen. ' ' She ran to the 
 jalousies, or shutters, but as she fumbled with 
 the brass latch on which Louis XVI. had en- 
 graved the monogram of his wife, she remem- 
 bered that she was in rags, and that her extraor- 
 dinary resemblance to Marie Antoinette would 
 not be remarked in this garb of poverty. She 
 ran into the queen's dressing-room, tore open 
 the wardrobes, dressed herself in feverish haste 
 in a velvet gown. Quick, a lace fichu, and
 
 258 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 there was a coiffure ready curled and powdered 
 and surmounted with an aigrette quivering 
 with diamonds. With trembling fingers she 
 lighted every wax taper in the room, then 
 threw open the shutters and drew herself up to 
 her full height in the old familiar regal pose. 
 The flashing lights reflected and re-reflected 
 from the hundreds of crystal pendants of the 
 girandoles, and multiplied by the mirrors which 
 surrounded her on every side, threw her figure 
 into strong relief. She had expected yells of 
 execration from the mob below. Instead utter 
 and ominous silence. She looked down in sur- 
 prise. Not a torch, not a figure, all of that 
 mass of surging, furious creatures had vanished 
 as by magic. Only the whole terrace silent, 
 shadowy, vacant. 
 
 What did it all mean ? Had they gone home 
 appeased ? Was it only a wild dream \ Her 
 heart bounded with sudden hope, then sank 
 with sickening despair as she heard the muffled 
 roar, like that of wild beasts in the arena, on 
 the other side of the palace. They were still 
 yelling for the queen, but now they were under 
 the king's windows. Please Heaven the queen 
 had escaped them by this time and was safely
 
 THE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 259 
 
 in hiding in the rooms of some of her loyal ser- 
 vants ; but that mob would not go until they 
 were satisfied, and Gay ran down the marble 
 staircase and across the court to where the 
 crowd were standing, crying out : " Do with 
 me what you will ; I am the queen." 
 
 No one heard her or saw her, for every eye 
 was fixed on the balcony in front of the king's 
 window, and her cry was drowned in a mighty 
 shout, " The queen ! the queen !" 
 
 For there, proud as a daughter of the Caesars, 
 pale but heroic, with folded arms, her head 
 held high, and her glance searching the faces 
 before her, and finding there the answer which 
 she expected Death, stood the real queen. 
 La Fayette stood protectingly at her side, rais- 
 ing his hat in her honor and displaying the 
 tricolor cockade on its side. 
 
 Yain attempt to conciliate their fixed deter- 
 mination ; the populace yelled, " Let her come 
 with us to Paris -let them all come ! To Paris ! 
 to Paris !" 
 
 The royal coach was brought to the gates. 
 In vain Winnie pressed forward ; the crowd 
 would not make way for her. A woman of the 
 Halles alone noticed her, and she only to tear
 
 260 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 the diamonds from her hair, exclaiming, 
 " Thief, is this a time to trick yourself out 
 with stolen finery ? We want blood, not dia- 
 monds." 
 
 " I am the queen, I am the queen !" Winnie 
 cried unavailingly. " Take me to Paris ; make 
 way that I may reach the carriage." 
 
 "Take her to the madhouse," said a man 
 near by, and one of La Fayette's guards, who 
 had come with him from the town of Versailles, 
 on hearing the uproar, and whom the crowd 
 had permitted to enter the palace, issued from 
 the gate and pushed her aside with the flat of 
 his sword, shouting, " Their Majesties drive to 
 Paris !" Jostled rudely from side to side, the 
 breath beaten out of her, with no strength left 
 to utter a word, Winnie saw the carriage con- 
 taining the woman she had tried to save drive 
 away, with La Fayette riding with drawn sword 
 at its side, striving to protect his sovereigns 
 from insult, though he knew that he could not 
 save them from death. The mob closed in 
 around them and after them, carrying the arms 
 which they had captured from the royal guards ; 
 a long line of wagons, which another deputation 
 of the rioters had filled with flour from the
 
 2 HE DIAMOND NECKLACE. 261 
 
 markets of Versailles, led the van, surrounded 
 by women waving branches and shouting, " We 
 are bringing back the baker, the baker's wife, 
 and the baker's little boy !" 
 
 They were gone in the early morning ; the 
 shouts grew fainter, and Winnie stood alone in 
 her velvet dress, torn by rude hands, smirched 
 with the dust of the courtyard, on which she 
 had been thrown and dragged. The palace, 
 with its magnificent galleries, representing the 
 pomp of rule of the last three Louis ; the formal 
 gardens, standing for the etiquette of the great 
 court ; lovely Trianon, the scene and symbol of 
 the queen's happy, domestic life all silent and 
 deserted, and equally lost to the innocent vic- 
 tims, so unjustly made to render expiation for 
 the sins of their forefathers. 
 
 Hot, scalding tears burst from Winnie's eyes 
 and fell upon the velvet robe, which turned 
 with talismanic touch into her own modern cos- 
 tume. Her hour of dream-life was over. The 
 gardens and the palace were still there, but Gay 
 d'Oliva had changed to Winnie Be Witt and 
 the nineteenth century had rolled back to its 
 sovereignty. 
 
 Winnie was no more reconciled than before
 
 262 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 her phantom life to the fate of the unhappy 
 king and queen. If Lonis XIV., who impov- 
 erished the nation to satisfy his inordinate van- 
 ity, and Louis XV., who wasted its resources 
 still further in vulgar vice, could have ridden 
 with that bodyguard to render an account for 
 their robberies, she would not have questioned 
 the justice of fate ; as it was, she could only 
 recognize the inexorableness of that mysterious 
 law that visits " the iniquity of the fathers 
 upon the children, unto the third and fourth 
 generation. "
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 
 
 EACH of the girls shared 
 Winnie's feeling of revolt 
 and indignation that, 
 among all the friends 
 whom Marie Antoinette 
 had benefited, there was 
 no one to help her in 
 her time of need. 
 
 Tib had been reading 
 the recollections of Ma- 
 dame Cam pan, and was 
 much interested in the 
 
 part giving an account of the attempt to escape, 
 and the capture at Varennes. Dumas' s ' * Cheva- 
 lier Maison Rouge" enlarges on legends of at- 
 tempts at rescue, and she had seen in a book 
 entitled " The Lost Prince," by the Rev. John 
 H. Hanson, a serious consideration of the tradi- 
 tion that the dauphin had been sent to Canada
 
 264 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 and given to the Indians. This tradition is not 
 seriously credited in Canada, though many 
 persons are now living who have conversed 
 with its hero, a singular man known as Eleazer 
 Williams, whose age corresponded to that of 
 the dauphin, and who had been brought up by 
 the Indians. 
 
 He was not a " conscious" impostor ; but if 
 not the dauphin, was self -deceived, for he lived 
 a quiet, self-sacrificing life as a missionary to 
 the Indians, and made no attempt to push any 
 claim to the throne of France. 
 
 Tib spoke of this unpretending Pretender one 
 afternoon as they were visiting the market, 
 which now occupies the site of the gloomy prison 
 of the Temple. " Would it not be a comfort to 
 believe," she said, " that the delicate boy, in- 
 stead of being murdered by slow degrees by 
 that brutal Simon, really escaped to the woods 
 of Canada ? If by the magic of the aloe's tear 
 I could step back a century, it is there that I 
 would look for him." 
 
 A few days later Tib laid her manuscript un- 
 der the student-lamp. " I have taken a long 
 journey on Solomon's flying carpet," she said. 
 " I touched my eyelids with the amulet, and
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 265 
 
 found myself under the pines beside the sing- 
 ing rapids west of Montreal. I knew instinc- 
 tively that the city across the river was not the 
 Montreal that I once visited in my normal life, 
 but a stockaded town, little more than a fort. 
 I looked at my own clothes, and was not sur- 
 prised to see that they were those of an Indian 
 girl. My identity came to me all at once. I 
 was the betrothed of Thomas Williams, the 
 grandson of Eunice Williams, who had been 
 captured in her childhood during a raid made 
 by the French and Indians upon the town of 
 Deerfield, in Western Massachusetts. Grand- 
 mother Eunice, as we called her, sat beside me 
 quietly fishing with a long line in the rapids. 
 The Indians had built a sort of platform out 
 over the river, and we were accustomed to come 
 to this point to fish. There was a good catch 
 of eels and various kinds of fish in the basket 
 at our side, and I had begun to wind up my 
 line, quite satisfied with my afternoon's sport, 
 but Grandmother Eunice had no notion of stop- 
 ping. She was an athletic, well-preserved old 
 woman, more Indian-like in her dress and ways 
 than any squaw that I knew. 
 
 " She was only eight years old when her cap-
 
 2C6 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 tors brought her to Caughnawaga. She had 
 soon forgotten her parents, and grew up con- 
 tentedly, marrying an Indian, and never caring 
 to return permanently to civilization, though 
 she went back to Deerfield several times to visit 
 her family, and they used every inducement to 
 persuade her to remain. 
 
 ' ' I looked upon Grandmother Eunice with 
 much veneration and greater curiosity, because 
 she had once had the privilege of civilized life, 
 and had given it up for love of a wild one. It 
 was an instance which had been repeated in the 
 next generation, for her daughter Sarah had 
 married an Englishman, a college-bred man and 
 a physician, the son of the Bishop of Chester. 
 He had been on a man-of-war which was cap- 
 tured by the French off Nova Scotia in the war 
 of 1755-60 ; but his captors had treated him 
 with leniency, and had allowed him to make 
 botanizing expeditions in the woods. At 
 Caughnawaga he had met Sarah, and had fallen 
 in love with her so utterly, that he too had will- 
 ingly given up all possibility of return to home 
 and friends for her sake, for these were the con- 
 ditions which Grandmother Eunice demanded. 
 He had never quite become a savage, however,
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 267 
 
 but devoted his life to the study of botany and 
 of Indian medicaments, and was greatly es- 
 teemed by the tribe as a medicine-man. He 
 sent home to his father a book which he had 
 written and illustrated with drawings of plants, 
 which the bishop caused to be published in 
 England, and which would have given the au- 
 thor fame if he had chosen to go back and 
 claim it. 
 
 " ' There are some flowers,' he used to say, 
 ' marked in the botanies as " escaped from cul- 
 tivation," which are known as wild flowers to 
 the searchers of the woods, and are as hardy 
 and as happy as any of the natural denizens of 
 the wilderness. Such garden plants, Mother 
 Eunice, are you and I run wild, until it is im- 
 possible to transplant us back again to the clois- 
 ter garden.' 
 
 " But just as one generation will long for what 
 the other could not abide, so the son of Sarah 
 and the botanist, my lover Thomas, though 
 brought up among the Indians, loved always to 
 hear his father tell of the cathedral at Chester, 
 and the quaint old town, with its walls and tim- 
 bered houses, and the bishop's library of many 
 books. His father had no English books, but
 
 268 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 he had taught Thomas to read and to write 
 from French ones. But when Grandmother 
 Eunice knew this she took alarm at once. She 
 professed herself afraid that the youth would 
 lose his soul, but she really feared that we 
 would lose him altogether, that the love of a 
 civilized life would grow upon him and that he 
 would leave us. She therefore persuaded his 
 father to allow him 'to go with the younger Ind- 
 ians on their hunting excursions into the forest 
 during the summer, when the fleets of canoes 
 set out for the upper lakes. Many a son of the 
 French seigniors went with the young Indians 
 on these excursions to hunt the beaver, and be- 
 came so enamored of the wild life of the woods 
 that they became coureurs des bois, as savage 
 as the savages. But Thomas did not care 
 greatly for the amusements of the young braves 
 marauding expeditions against hostile tribes, 
 drunken orgies, or even games of la crosse. 
 It is true that he built himself a hunting lodge 
 at Ticonderoga, where he went every season, 
 but he told me that this was because it was not 
 far from a Dutch trading-post, where he could 
 exchange his beaver skins for various articles 
 of civilized life, and that his hunting lodge was
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 269 
 
 more like the habitation of a white man than 
 our wigwams at Caughnawaga. He had even 
 been as far as Albany, and had exchanged the 
 booty of an entire season, not for Dutch brandy, 
 but for a Dutch clock, which was a never-end- 
 ing source of interest to him and a companion 
 to his solitude. He returned to us after the 
 hunting season was over more gentle and stu- 
 dious than ever. He had picked up a little 
 English, and brought some papers and books, 
 which he insisted that his father should teach 
 him to read. 
 
 " Our tribe, though a branch of the Iroquois, 
 w T ere allies of the French, and converted, or 
 ' Praying Indians. ' They had settled on the 
 rapids near Montreal, in order to be near their 
 white friends, and Thomas went often to the 
 city ; consequently Grandmother Eunice was 
 more troubled and perplexed than ever. She 
 went to Father Sebastian for advice, and he at 
 once took Thomas into his especial care and 
 service. Father Sebastian Jourdain was a 
 Jesuit ; he preached at our chapel and visited 
 our village often to baptize the infants, confess 
 the older people, hear the children's catechism, 
 marry the young people, and say mass for the
 
 270 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 dead. But though there were several hundred 
 of our people, we were not the only souls under 
 his care. He had a long cote or strip of land 
 bordering the river in his parish, and was pad- 
 dled from seigniory to seigniory by his attend- 
 ant ; and it was this service which Thomas now 
 undertook. He carried Father Sebastian's 
 portable chapel for him, when they left the 
 canoe set it up in the castle of some baron or 
 cabin of a simple habitant, and with a coarse 
 linen surplice thrown over his buckskin shirt 
 and leggins assisted Father Sebastian as altar 
 and choir-boy. Father Sebastian told him the 
 names of the lords of these chateaux, and how 
 the lands were parted among the officers of a 
 certain regiment of such high-sounding names 
 as Chamblee, St. Ours, Contrecceur, Vercheres, 
 Varennes, Longueil, Sorel, and others, and how 
 the king had made of some barons and of others 
 knights. And the chivalric stories which he 
 told him of these men interested him so much 
 that Father Sebastian yielded to the youth's 
 pleading and told him tales of France, not 
 alone of the time of Bayard, sans peur et sans 
 reprocJie, but of Louis XIV., the Magnificent, 
 who with Madame Maintenon was so much in-
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 271 
 
 terested in the founding of Canada and the 
 Christianizing of the Indians. 
 
 " ' So they thought of us,' Thomas would tell 
 me, ' over there in their beautiful palace of 
 Versailles, which Father Sebastian says sur- 
 passes in beauty all we are able to think. They 
 thought of us, and the king sent pious priests 
 to tell us of Jesus. How I wish we could do 
 something for him or for his descendants to 
 show our gratitude ! But of course they have 
 every thing now.' 
 
 " Father Sebastian not only entertained and 
 amused Thomas with stories, he also instructed 
 him, and Thomas became passionately devoted 
 to his patron, for whom he would have lain 
 down his life had it been required. In propor- 
 tion as Thomas's love for the priest increased, 
 I grew jealous of him, for his absences from me 
 grew longer ; and when Father Sebastian, after 
 his custom, went into retreat at the seminary 
 at Montreal, Thomas went with him and studied 
 at the priests' school. 
 
 " It was because we were betrothed and that I 
 was lonely in his absence that I loved to come 
 to Grandmother Eunice's fishing platform and 
 talk with her.
 
 272 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 " ' Tell me,' I begged, ' all you remember of 
 your coming to live among us/ I had heard 
 the story often before, but it was one which I 
 never tired of hearing or she of telling. 
 
 " ' It was a sorry morning in February,' was 
 the way in which she always began the recital, 
 ' in the gray of the early twilight, at the hour 
 when cold is strongest and sleep soundest, being 
 the hoar and season wherein the old do com- 
 monly die. I was awakened from my sleep by 
 sounds of horror, and knew that our town of 
 Deerfield was under a surprise of the French 
 and Indians. I fled out into the snow, where 
 I was presently overtaken and led into the 
 church, with upward of an hundred of my towns- 
 people ; and when a dividence of the captives 
 was made, I found myself fallen to the share 
 of an Indian, who was very kind to me ; for 
 though the greater part of the prisoners were 
 made to walk and to carry packs, he took me 
 upon his shoulders. 
 
 " ' When we were come to the Connecticut 
 River the Indians made toboggans, and on one 
 of these I rode. My mother was killed upon 
 the journey, but I knew it not, nor did I see 
 my father nor my brothers and sisters, for we
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 273 
 
 belonged to separate masters. When we reached 
 the mouth of the White River, the Sieur Hertel 
 de Rouville, who commanded the expedition, 
 ordered that the French soldiers should sepa- 
 rate themselves from the Indians. The Indians, 
 therefore, took the captives along Lake Cham- 
 plain to Chamblee, in Canada, where was a 
 French fort, while the army continued up the 
 Connecticut. When our doleful procession 
 crept into the fort of Chamblee there was great 
 confluence of the kind-hearted settlers to ran- 
 som us from the Indians, and many were so 
 rescued ; but my master would not sell me, and 
 there setting in a thaw, we paddled down the 
 Richelieu, passing seigniories of great lands, 
 with here and there a house, or rather castle, of 
 liewn stone and squared timber. And so we 
 came at last to Caughnawaga ; and here the wel- 
 come I received was daughterly, and the Indian 
 children were kind to me, and taught me their 
 games, and I grew up with them ; and now and 
 then came the old priest Father Etienne and 
 taught me my catechism, and sometimes the older 
 Indians would take me in their canoes or bring 
 me honey or sugar of maple and beads from Mon- 
 treal, and gayly painted quills, with which the
 
 274 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 squaws taught me to embroider, or told me 
 stories of talking animals ; and sweet and happy 
 were my days in the whispering forest and be- 
 side the singing river ; so that though my white 
 friends made great pother for me, and though 
 all the rest of my family were ransomed and 
 returned to New England, and I also had leave 
 to go, and great and notable embassies passed 
 between our two nations in regard to me, so 
 that even the Indians were afraid to detain me, 
 and Father Etienne himself was fain to let me 
 go, yet would I not, for I had found true happi- 
 ness in the life of innocence, which is near to 
 nature's heart.' 
 
 " ' If this is the happiest life,' I said, ' why 
 is it that Thomas loves to go to Montreal and 
 to talk with French priests ? ' 
 
 " Grandmother Eunice sighed, and dropping 
 her lines, laid her hand on my arm. 
 
 " 'I love you, Marie,' she said, 'and I used 
 foolishly to think that you might help us keep 
 our boy in the Indian life, which is a life of in- 
 nocence. I used to tremble and fear when I 
 saw him reaching out for books, for 1 feared he 
 would escape from us to the homes of the 
 whites, who lead a life of devils. Do we not
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 275 
 
 know that this is so from their revels in the 
 woods, where they corrupt the Indians by sell- 
 ing them brandy and incite them to murder and 
 other deadly sins ? ' 
 
 " ' But Thomas's father is a white man,' I re- 
 plied, * and so was yours. And they surely 
 did not lead the life of devils ? ' 
 
 " ' Thomas's father abjured that life for ours,' 
 Grandmother Eunice replied ; * and of my own 
 father, the so-called Rev. John Williams' here 
 she crossed herself' I only know what I have 
 been told by reverend priests, that he was a 
 pestilent heretic, to whom great privileges of 
 joining the true church were offered during his 
 captivity, but who obstinately refused them all. 
 It would have been a killing grief to me if 
 Thomas had run away to New England, as I 
 once feared he might, to seek our relatives 
 there ; for though they would doubtless have 
 received him with joy and triumph, and have 
 offered him a home such as they pressed upon 
 me when I went back to visit them, yet it would 
 have been a lure of Satan.' 
 
 " * Thomas will never go back,' I said proudly. 
 ' You need not fear that, Grandmother Eunice, 
 for he has promised to marry me next St. Mar-
 
 276 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 tin's Day and take me to his lodge at Ticon- 
 deroga, and I will keep him true to Indian ways 
 and to the life of innocence. ' 
 
 " But Grandmother Eunice sliook her head. 
 ' There is a higher life than that of innocence 
 and nature,' she said, ' and it is this life of 
 obedience which has been calling Thomas all 
 this time, and I have misunderstood the call, 
 and have been troubled when I should have re- 
 joiced. The life of obedience is ' often hard to 
 the flesh, but it is the safest ; for, as Father 
 Sebastian has often explained to you, " In com- 
 manding it is possible to err, in obedience it is 
 impossible;" for if we do wrong the fault is 
 our superior's and not ours. My father and 
 Thomas's grandfather, the Bishop of Chester, 
 were both preachers in their mistaken, wilful 
 ways, and did much to spread abroad errors. 
 We should be glad if Thomas has inherited 
 their talents, but not their delusions, and is 
 called to preach the true faith.' 
 
 " ' When did you learn that Thomas had de- 
 cided to be a priest ? ' I asked angrily, for when 
 he was last at Caughnawaga Thomas had not 
 told me that he had so decided, but only that 
 Father Sebastian wished him to become one.
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 277 
 
 "'Father Sebastian told me,' Grandmother 
 Eunice replied. ' When he comes again he 
 will tell you himself ; but it is always well to 
 be prepared. If you love Thomas, you should 
 be as proud and glad as I am ; besides there are 
 plenty of young men who would be glad to 
 marry you. Thomas cannot care much for you 
 if he wishes to be a priest. Show him when he 
 comes that you can easily console yourself. 
 There is Anto'ine Deerfoot, the best la crosse 
 player in the tribe. He is pining for you. I 
 should think you would be proud of such a 
 lover. Thomas is a squaw-man, he cannot run 
 or play la crosse. There is tt> be a game this 
 afternoon. If you go it will put new vigor into 
 Antoine's legs. He will run as he never ran 
 before. ' 
 
 " 1 did not go to the game that afternoon, but 
 Grandmother Eunice's words made a deep im- 
 pression upon me, and I determined that I would 
 not allow Thomas to be stolen from me in this 
 way. I was so angry with Grandmother Eunice 
 that I did not offer to carry her basket of fish, 
 but ran ahead of her to the village and sulked 
 by myself. The next day I wandered idly out 
 to the river again. As I sat watching the water-
 
 278 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 fowl that flew above the river I noticed a canoe 
 pushing toward our village. Even before I 
 could recognize its occupants I could tell by its 
 straight course that it was propelled by a skil- 
 ful paddler, and one who was familiar with the 
 rapids and the landmarks on our bank. Pres- 
 ently I noticed that the seated figure in the 
 stern was dressed in black, and then I knew 
 that he must be Father Sebastian, and that 
 Thomas was coming home. I ran swiftly down 
 to the landing-place, but there were others 
 there before me, and among them Dr. Williams, 
 Thomas's father. He did not look at his son 
 at first, but placed his hand on the priest's arm. 
 ' You have come in good time,' he said. ' I 
 have spent the night at the bedside of my wife's 
 mother. She is dying, and has called for you 
 and for Thomas. Come.' We followed the 
 doctor down the trail to Grandmother Eunice's 
 cabin, which was a little better and a little 
 apart from the other wigwams. My heart 
 smote me when I saw the heavy basket of fish 
 at the door. I followed the others into the 
 room and knelt beside the bed. Thomas set up 
 the portable altar and lighted its two tapers. 
 The priest bent over Grandmother Eunice and
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 279 
 
 tried to receive her dying confession, but she 
 could not utter a word, and he gave her absolu- 
 tion without it. Her restless gaze wandered 
 constantly from Thomas to the priest. 
 
 " ' She wishes to give you her blessing,' Fa- 
 ther Sebastian said, and Thomas knelt beside 
 me, and the priest placed her hand on his head. 
 Then with a spasmodic movement she drew her 
 hand away, and in so doing it rested for an in- 
 stant on my head also, and at the same instant 
 with a fluttering sigh she was gone. 
 
 "Thomas's eyes were filled with tears. 'I 
 wish she could have spoken to me,' he said. 
 ' I wonder what she would have said ! ' 
 
 " ' Just what she was repeating all night in 
 her delirium,' his father replied. '"Tell 
 Thomas to obey Father Sebastian. The life of 
 obedience is the happiest life." 
 
 " ' I will always obey you,' said Thomas sol- 
 emnly ; ' but I think, reverend father, that she 
 wished to say more th,an that. She knew that 
 I loved Marie here ; her hand passed from my 
 head to Marie's. I believe that she wished you 
 to marry us.' 
 
 " ' I will marry you,' said Father Sebastian. 
 ' Take each other by the right hand. '
 
 280 .WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 if Thomas marries me,' I said, 'lie 
 cannot live the life of obedience, he cannot be a 
 priest. ' 
 
 " ' There are other ways in which to lead that 
 life,' said Father Sebastian. ' Thomas has 
 just sworn to obey me. When I need some one 
 for any service requiring particular devotion I 
 will call upon him, but I am convinced that his 
 vocation is not that of a priest.' 
 
 " So by the side of that dead woman we were 
 married, and our bridal joy was shadowed by 
 our mourning for her, and by the vague fear 
 and wonder whether, after all, if she could have 
 spoken she would not have forbidden the mar- 
 riage when Father Sebastian called upon any 
 who knew of any just impediment to speak. 
 
 " After our marriage we went away to Thom- 
 as's lodge at Ticonderoga, and I was surprised 
 to find what a comfortable home he had provided 
 for me. It was a log- house, unlike most of the 
 cabins, two stories in height, and the upper 
 story was higher and better finished than the 
 lower. This upper story he had set apart for 
 Father Sebastian, and the priest had made him 
 a visit here the previous summer, and had par- 
 tially furnished it. There was a French fort
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 281 
 
 not far away on the lake, easily reached by an 
 hour's paddling, but Father Sebastian cau- 
 tioned Thomas not to tell any of the soldiers 
 the situation of his lodge. This was for my 
 sake, as it was safer for me that these lawless 
 men should not know that there was a young 
 Indian girl near them. But Father Sebastian 
 had visited the fort, and was the friend of the 
 commander, young Rene de Longueil, the son 
 of the baron of whose chateau, south of Mon- 
 treal, flanked with four great round towers of 
 hewn stone, and built by his ancestor, Charles 
 Le Moyne, Frontenac wrote : ' Son fort et sa 
 maison nous donnent une idee des chateaux de 
 France fortifies. ' 
 
 "Thomas frequently went to the fort and acted 
 as guide to the officers on their hunting excur- 
 sions. There was a half-breed Indian trader, 
 Peter Yanderhuyden, who sometimes came to 
 our lodge, and was our only visitor except 
 Father Sebastian. Peter smuggled us Dutch 
 goods from Albany, so that though apparently 
 in the very centre of the forest primeval we 
 were in connection with both the Dutch and 
 French cities. 
 
 " Every summer we went to our lodge and
 
 282 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 stayed until the hunting season was over, when 
 we returned to Caughnawaga. Each season 
 Father Sebastian visited us and brought some- 
 thing for his apartment, until it became more 
 comfortable and even more luxurious than the 
 seminary at Montreal. He extended his mis- 
 sionary labors, and Thomas paddled him up the 
 great lakes, where he had regular stopping- 
 places at the block-houses of the coureurs des 
 bois. These wild men did not ordinarily wel- 
 come the fathers, but they had some mutual un- 
 derstanding with Father Sebastian, and were 
 eager for his coming, and held long parleys with 
 him. Thomas thought that these were rather 
 political than religious, for he brought them 
 their mail, letters and papers from France, and 
 many of the wildest of these young men were 
 the sons of nobles who had settled along the 
 Richelieu, and had taken to the woods and to 
 trading brandy for beaver-skins with the Ind- 
 ians because there was no other career open to 
 them, and their fathers could obtain only such 
 paltry rents for their ]ands from the habitants, 
 that they could not maintain them. But though 
 they were so enamored of their wild life that no 
 amount of privation would induce them to re-
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 283 
 
 turn to France, which was now distracted with 
 revolution, they were very loyal subjects of the 
 king, and eager to hear the latest news from 
 Paris. 
 
 " So the years went by, and we had sons born 
 to us, and our life was always the same, but 
 never monotonous ; and at length we began to 
 be conscious that afar off events of importance 
 were transpiring which might affect even us. 
 
 ' ' Thomas said that when he took the father up 
 the Eichelieu to the chateaux of the seigniors, 
 where formerly there had been little interest in 
 his coming, and his sermons had been listened 
 to only by women and children, now there was 
 always a gathering of the masters, and espe- 
 cially of the officers of the regiments. 
 
 " Father Sebastian went down to Quebec to at- 
 tend a council at the bishop's, and when he re- 
 turned there was another council at the gov- 
 ernor's house in Montreal, to which he went, 
 though he sat only in the antechamber. Later 
 Thomas heard him tell the father superior at 
 the seminary that he mistrusted the intendant, 
 and thought he ought not to have been taken 
 into the plot, as the intendants were gens de 
 robe, or lawyers, and that class had always been
 
 284 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 the servants and spies of the prevailing govern- 
 ment, with no true loyalty to the king at their 
 heart, and naturally, for they did not belong to 
 the old noblesse. So we came to know that 
 there was a plot of some kind on foot.* 
 
 " This might be true of the outward seeming 
 and of the majority of the settlers, but there 
 were hearts in Canada which beat with the same 
 passionate throbs, and brains which schemed at 
 the same problems, and swords that were ready 
 to be drawn for the same cause as those in 
 France. 
 
 ' ' Thomas kept his ears open and his eyes about 
 him as he took the father from place to place, 
 and at length he learned much and suspected 
 more, and told me one night that the king was 
 in deadly peril, and that a small ship had been 
 fitted out by his friends in Canada, and had 
 sailed for France to rescue the royal family 
 
 * Parkman says of this period : " When France was heav- 
 ing with the throes of the revolution ; when new hopes, new 
 dreams, new thoughts good and evil, false and true tossed 
 the troubled waters of French society, Canada caught not the 
 faintest impulsion of its roused mental life. The torrent 
 surged on its way, while in the deep nook beside it the sticks 
 and dry leaves floated their usual round, and the unruffled 
 pool slept in the placidity of intellectual torpor."
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 285 
 
 and to bring them to Canada ; but this secretly, 
 as the government of Canada must outwardly 
 act in accordance with the government at home. 
 
 " When we set out for Ticonderoga that season 
 the father sent with us two canoes, manned by 
 Indians of our village, and laden with supplies 
 which we were to bestow in his apartment in 
 our lodge. ' And it may be, ' said the father, 
 * that I shall bring you guests before the season 
 is over,' And he looked earnestly at Thomas ; 
 and seeing in him some sign of intelligence, 
 though he answered never a word, Father 
 Sebastian added : ' And you will know how, 
 my Thomas, both you and your good wife, 
 Marie, to receive these guests according to their 
 rank, and to keep them hidden from their ene- 
 mies ; for this is perchance the service to which 
 you have vowed obedience a service as sacred 
 as the priesthood.' 
 
 " When Thomas told me this I was filled with 
 exceeding awe and joy. * But how can we con- 
 tent the king and queen here ? ' I asked my 
 husband ; and he told me that the father had 
 told him that, even when they were living in 
 the beautiful palace of Versailles, the king 
 loved best to hunt in. the forest, and the queen
 
 286 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 to flee away from the court and live in a 
 thatched hut as rude as our lodge, and that she 
 had often said that it would have pleased her 
 to have brought up her children near to na- 
 ture's heart, in a life of innocence like our own. 
 
 " So all that summer I prepared for our guests 
 and garnished their apartment, and one day, 
 near the close of the season, Father Sebastian 
 came, but he came alone. There were tears in his 
 eyes, and we asked him nothing until he had 
 set up his altar in the upper chamber and had 
 said mass before it. Then, as we sat about our 
 fireside after supper, he spoke plainly and told 
 us all. How the ship had sailed to France, and 
 had even gone up the Seine, and had delivered 
 its cargo of peltries, but it had arrived too late, 
 for the king was dead, killed by his wicked 
 enemies, and the good queen and her children 
 were close prisoners in the tower of the Tem- 
 ple ; and so the ship had returned effecting 
 nothing. 
 
 " 'But,' said Father Sebastian, 'there must 
 have been a traitor's heart or tongue some- 
 where, or they would have effected the escape 
 of the queen and her family.' And then he 
 bent his face upon his hands and wept, and
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 287 
 
 smitten by the same grief which wrung that 
 loyal heart, I wept with him, and my tears, as 
 ever in our dream experiences, broke the spell. 
 As they fell the scene changed. The forest 
 primeval faded away, and I was no longer the 
 Indian girl Marie in the Canadian wilderness, 
 but, without at first realizing any connection 
 between this dream and my late one, I now fan- 
 cied that 1 was Martlie de Jourdain, once a 
 maid of honor to Marie Antoinette, now an 
 emigre in the little town of Coblenz, the head- 
 quarters of the Royalist party. 
 
 " How eagerly I listened to every scrap of 
 news from Paris ! How my heart sank as the sit- 
 uation grew more and more desperate I The royal 
 family had been carried from Versailles to Paris 
 by the mob before I had left France. The king 
 had been urged to fly, but had insisted on re- 
 maining and on trusting himself to the loyalty 
 of his subjects, until it was too late to escape. 
 He had, however, favored the flight of his aunts, 
 Mesdames Adelaide and Victoire, and that of 
 his younger brother, the Comte d'Artois, and 
 of the Prince de Conde. 
 
 " His brother next him in age, the Comte de 
 Provence, remained in Paris as long as he could
 
 288 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 safely do so. He pretended to liberal, almost 
 republican opinions, and truckled to the con- 
 vention and to the people. He saw the coming 
 of the revolution with satisfaction, for he had 
 no real love for his brother, and was willing 
 that he should be dethroned, feeling sure that 
 the fickle French pendulum would soon swing 
 back again to monarchy, and he schemed most 
 adroitly to keep on good terms at once with the 
 people and with the nobility. It was a delicate 
 role, but he was sufficiently astute for the part 
 he had determined to play. He did not, like 
 the Due d'Orleans, avowedly rank himself with 
 the enemies of his brother. This would have 
 been to ruin his own cause with the Royalist 
 party ; but even to the Royalists he made no 
 secret of his opinion that his brother was a 
 fool, and that his misfortunes were due to his 
 own mismanagement. Louis XVI. distrusted 
 him, and the result showed that he had reason 
 to do so. As soon as the Comte de Provence 
 saw that he could not control the revolutionary 
 movement, and that he was himself in danger, 
 he joined the exiles at Coblenz, and placed him- 
 self at their head, establishing a court there, an- 
 nouncing himself as the representative of his
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 289 
 
 brother, who, as a virtual prisoner, he claimed, 
 could not be regarded as the King of France. 
 This action grieved Louis XVI. , as it tended to 
 weaken his authority, and to lead the Royalist 
 party to look to his brother rather than to him 
 for their orders. Already the miserable little 
 band of emigres were divided into two parties, 
 those who believed in the Comte de Provence . 
 and those who did not ; but even among those 
 who trusted him the majority still gave the 
 allegiance of their hearts to their imprisoned 
 king, and hoped for his restoration. We had 
 our spies in Paris, and received almost daily 
 bulletins as to the events which transpired and 
 the condition of the king and queen. We knew 
 that they were imprisoned in the Temple, and 
 though it was considered one of the strongest 
 prisons since the fall of the Bastile, there were 
 still adventurous spirits who hoped for -their 
 rescue, and there were schemes for undermining 
 the walls, and signals attempted from windows 
 commanding the platform on which the royal 
 family were allowed to walk. Letters were 
 written them in cipher and in sympathetic inks, 
 few of which reached their destination ; money 
 was lavishly poured out in bribes, and some
 
 290 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 devoted spirits rashly returned to Paris, at the 
 peril of their lives, to attempt their rescue. Of 
 the sympathetic plots in Canada, of which I 
 had known in my first dream experience, I was 
 aware now from letters from my brother, the 
 Jesuit Father Sebastian. If he knew of these 
 plots, the king was not deluded. After the at- 
 tempted escape and capture at Varennes Louis 
 XVI. knew that his doom was sealed, and pre- 
 pared himself for death. He hoped that his 
 queen and his family might be spared, and even 
 in the gloomy prison of the Temple devoted 
 himself to the education of the dauphin, spend- 
 ing three hours each day in hearing his lessons 
 in arithmetic, geography, and history. The 
 arithmetic was suppressed by the guards, under 
 the pretence that the king was .teaching the 
 prince to communicate with his friends by writ- 
 ing in cipher. The king took an especial inter- 
 est in teaching him French history, and some- 
 times spoke to him of the possibility of his 
 reigning. 
 
 " The dauphin was very affectionate and gen- 
 tle, passionately attached to his parents, and of 
 precocious sensibility and intelligence. Before 
 his imprisonment he had a garden of his own
 
 NEAR TO NATURE' 8 HEART. 291 
 
 at Versailles, where it was his greatest pleasure 
 to make bouquets for * Mamma Reine. ' This 
 custom he had continued at the Tuilleries, and 
 on finding some sparse grass and wild flowers 
 growing in one of the bastions of the tower, he 
 even made her a bouquet in the Temple. He 
 had had a little pet dog named Moufflet, and 
 on one rare occasion he had been naughty, and, 
 sure that this was the best way to touch his 
 heart, Moufflet was shut up in a closet as an ac- 
 complice. Immediately the little prince ran to 
 his mother and- begged that he might be allowed 
 to take Mpufflet's place. ' For, indeed,' he 
 said, 'it is I and not Moufflet that have been 
 naughty.' I remembered this occurrence, and 
 related it one day in the presence of the Comte 
 de Provence ; but his only reply was that his 
 nephew had now all the imprisonment he could 
 possibly desire. 
 
 " There was an artist named Bellanger, who 
 was employed by the Comte de Provence, who 
 was a very gallant gentleman, and passionately 
 devoted to the king. He came sometimes to 
 visit my mother and myself, and we talked to- 
 gether of the desperate situation in which Louis 
 XYI. was now placed. I remember his passion-
 
 292 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 ate despair when the news came of the trial and 
 condemnation of the king, and his frenzy at 
 the still more heart-rending tidings of his death. 
 It was at this time that a letter came to me 
 from my brother Sebastian, telling me of his 
 frustrated hopes of having the royal family 
 secretly conveyed to Canada. 
 
 " ' My God ! ' exclaimed Bellanger, ' if I had 
 known of this in time I would have managed 
 their escape. It is not too late now to work for 
 the queen and for the rest. From this moment 
 I devote myself to their rescue. ' 
 
 " The Comte de Provence had affected great 
 grief on the news of the execution of the king, 
 and had issued a proclamation, of which the 
 following extract is a part : 
 
 " 'Louis Stanislaus Xamer de France, Uncle 
 of the King, Regent of the Kingdom, to all 
 those to wJiom these letters shall come, greet- 
 ing : 
 
 " 'Penetrated with horror on learning that 
 our dear and most honored brother and sover- 
 eign lord, the king, Louis XVI., has died under 
 the parricidal steel which the ferocious usurpers 
 of the sovereign authority in France have
 
 THE DAUPHIN, Louis XVII.
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 293 
 
 brought upon his august person, we declare 
 that the dauphin, Louis Charles, born March 
 27th, 1785, is King of France and Navarre, un- 
 der the name of Louis XVII., and that by the 
 right of birth, as well as by the disposition of 
 the fundamental laws of the kingdom, we are 
 and will be Regent of France during the mi- 
 nority of the king, our nephew and lord. 
 
 " ' Invested in this quality, we do pledge our- 
 selves 
 
 (( < First^ to the liberation of the king, Louis 
 XVII., our nephew, 
 
 " ' Second, of the queen, his august mother ; 
 of the princess, his sister, our very dear niece ; 
 of the Princess Elizabeth, his aunt, our very 
 dear sister all detained in the severest captiv- 
 ity, etc. 
 
 " ' To which end we command all French and 
 subjects of the king to obey the commandments 
 which they shall receive from 'us. 
 (Signed) " ' Louis STANISLAUS XAVIER.' 
 
 " From this proclamation it would have seem- 
 ed that the escape of the royal family was the 
 dearest object of the heart of the Comte de 
 Provence ; but when Bellanger explained his
 
 294 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 plans to him, and asked his co-operation, he did 
 not immediately give it, but counselled him to 
 caution, and forbade his saying anything to any 
 person whomsoever relative to the scheme until 
 he should give him leave. At the same time 
 he assured Bellanger that he approved o.f the 
 plan, and would assist him in it as soon as the 
 time was ripe. With this promise that our 
 efforts would one day be called for, Bellanger 
 and I set to work and matured our plans. We 
 invented a system of writing in cipher by which 
 we could communicate with each other. My 
 brother and I had been in the habit of adding 
 to our letters anything of a private nature by 
 writing it in milk between the lines. This writ- 
 ing was not visible until the letter had been 
 toasted over the fire, when the characters came 
 out in brown. We had begun this when my 
 brother was in his novitiate and I at the board- 
 ing-school of St. Cyr, when our letters were in- 
 spected by our superiors. Since that time we 
 had never failed to hold the letters which we 
 received from each other over the fire, to ascer- 
 tain whether there was any message other than 
 appeared. I therefore wrote him after this 
 fashion, asking whether it would be possible
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 295 
 
 for the ship which had been sent out for the 
 king's rescue to come again, and for informa- 
 tion as to when and where we might expect her. 
 We could do little else except to make plans, 
 for the injunction of the Comte de Provence 
 kept us from carrying them out ; but our mu- 
 tual secret drew us closely together, and natu- 
 rally our fellow-exiles fancied that Bellanger 
 was paying his court to me. His friends one 
 day congratulated him and asked when the 
 betrothal was to be announced, and this put an 
 idea into his mind which otherwise might not 
 have occurred to him, as he was so deeply ab- 
 sorbed in the one great object to which he had 
 devoted himself that it left no room in his heart 
 for any other passion. But he saw at once that 
 if we were married we could work together to 
 far better advantage, and this was the way in 
 which he proposed to me. I was piqued that 
 he should care for our marriage only as a mask 
 for our plotting, and told him that if this was 
 his only motive he need not feel it his duty to 
 so sacrifice himself. 
 
 " ' Nay, Mar the,' he replied, ' 'twere no sac- 
 rifice to me, but an honor to which I could not 
 hope to aspire, were it not that I believe you
 
 296 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 capable of marrying even so insignificant a per- 
 son as myself for the sake of your loyalty to 
 the royal family.' 
 
 " With that I told him that he was greatly 
 mistaken, for I would marry for no such reason, 
 but for love only. With that he took up his 
 hat silently and was about to leave, when a 
 sudden glimmering of the truth seemed to 
 strike him, and running to me, he caught me in 
 his arms, crying, ' Then love me a little, 
 Marthe ; love me a very little. ' 
 
 " ' Nay, but with my whole heart,' I replied ; 
 and my mother coming in, gave us her blessing, 
 and shortly after we were married, the Comte 
 de Provence giving me a portion at my wed- 
 ding. But in our new joys and interests we did 
 not forget the great object which had united us. 
 
 " From Royalist spies in Paris we learned the 
 disposition of the rooms in the Temple in which 
 the royal family were imprisoned. The build- 
 ing consisted of a great tower, flanked by turrets 
 at each of the corners. It had been built by 
 the Knights Templars as a treasury ; its walls 
 were nine feet in thickness. The ground floor 
 was devoted to the officers on service in the 
 Temple. The next, a first story, as it is called
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 297 
 
 in France, was a guard-room for the sentries. 
 The second story consisted of four rooms, and 
 had been occupied by the king, the dauphin, 
 and their attendants ; the third story by the 
 queen, Madame Elizabeth, the sister of the 
 king, and the Princess Royal. A spiral stair- 
 case in one of the turrets at a corner of the 
 tower communicated with each story, so that 
 one could reach any floor without passing 
 through the others. At first the royal family 
 were allowed to be together during the day, 
 and to walk on the platform on the roof of the 
 tower, and occasionally in an enclosed garden 
 at its foot ; but their treatment became more 
 and more rigorous as the days of terror ap- 
 proached. It was on January 21st, 1792, that 
 the king was beheaded. In the spring we heard 
 that the dauphin's health was suffering, in June 
 that he had been separated from his mother, 
 though still in the Temple, and had been given 
 to the brutal guardianship of the shoemaker 
 Simon. 
 
 " Every insult and every cruelty which this 
 wretch could devise was visited on the deli- 
 cate child. He was beaten, kicked, taunted, 
 cursed, starved, made to perform the most
 
 298 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 menial services, to drink brandy, and tortured 
 in body and mind ; but though usually obedi- 
 ent, nothing could induce him to sing the re- 
 publican songs in which his parents were in- 
 sulted. Simon's pet epithet was ' Damned 
 wolf's cub ! ' but he called him by many other 
 names too vile and profane to repeat. When 
 the prince had been given into his care he had 
 asked what was expected of him, and was in- 
 structed not to kill the child outright, but to 
 murder him by degrees, to gradually quench 
 his intellect and undermine his constitution, so 
 that his imbecility, depravity, or death should 
 have the appearance of having taken place from 
 natural causes. 
 
 ' l Simon set himself to his task with demoniac 
 skill. It was as though Satan himself had as- 
 sumed human form to ruin the boy body, 
 mind, and soul. While the prince was in this 
 triple peril the trial of the queen began, and 
 we saw that whatever was to be done for their 
 rescue must be done quickly ; and Bellanger 
 again approached the Comte de Provence, but 
 was again put off. On October 16th, 1793, the 
 queen died under the guillotine with dignity 
 and courage. Madame Elizabeth and many of
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 299 
 
 France's noblest followed. All Europe shud- 
 dered, and public opinion even in France un- 
 derwent a change. It was felt that matters had 
 gone too far. La Vendee rose and pronounced 
 Louis XVII. king, with no reference to any re- 
 gency, demanding his release. Robespierre, 
 perhaps with some vague premonition that his 
 time for doing mischief was short, and dissatis- 
 fied with the slow torture of Simon, dismissed 
 him and ordered the dauphin to solitary con- 
 finement. For more than six months he re- 
 mained in a cell. ' His food was handed him 
 through a revolving aperture, which did not per- 
 mit his seeing the person who delivered it. 
 During the whole of that period the door of his 
 apartment was never opened. No gleam of 
 sunlight, no breath of fresh air came to the 
 little victim.' In loneliness and darkness and 
 filth, the passionate grief, fear, and agony grad- 
 ually died into hopeless apathy, resembling 
 idiocy. 
 
 "At length Robespierre fell, the moderate 
 party triumphed, and endeavored to atone for 
 the past. Prison doors were thrown open and 
 prosecutions ceased. Barras, commandant of 
 the National Guard, appointed a humane man
 
 300 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 named Laurent keeper of the Temple. He was 
 horror-stricken when he saw the terrible condi- 
 tion of filth and misery in which the poor child 
 was lying. A few days more and he would 
 certainly have died ; but Laurent carried him 
 from his loathsome cell, washed him tenderly, 
 laid him upon sweet, clean linen in an airy 
 room, gave him nourishing food and kind treat- 
 ment. As he found that he could not restore 
 the child to health by these measures, he de- 
 manded a physician, and on May 6th, 1795, 
 Dr. Dessault, one of the most eminent doctors 
 of Paris, was appointed to attend him. 
 
 "The Comte de Provence had a friend and 
 ally in Paris, the Marquis de Fenouil, who pass- 
 ed for a Republican, and had some influence with 
 the government. It was he who sent the Comte 
 de Provence bulletins of the progress of affairs. 
 He wrote him that he had seen Dr. Dessault, 
 and that he was very hopeful as to the recovery 
 of the dauphin, and intended to petition that 
 he should be allowed to take him to the coun- 
 try for change of air and exercise. At the same 
 time the Vendean party were using all their 
 influence to have the prince surrendered to their 
 chiefs. If, said the marquis, . Dr. Dessault,
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 301 
 
 who was truly devoted to saving the life of the 
 prince, could only be induced to report his con- 
 dition as worse than it really was, the conven- 
 tion might be persuaded to conciliate the chiefs 
 by giving him up, as it would be more to their 
 credit that he should die in their care than in 
 that of the republic. 
 
 " ' In any case,' the Marquis de Fenouil wrote, 
 ' the cause of the dauphin was never so hope- 
 ful as now. Even if not sent into Vendee, in 
 which case he will be immediately declared 
 king, and rally all the Royalist party to his 
 support, under Dr. Dessault's treatment, he 
 will undoubtedly recover. Opinion is changing 
 even in Paris ; there will undoubtedly soon be a 
 restoration, and your highness will be estab- 
 lished at Versailles as regent.' 
 
 " Bellanger was with the Comte de Provence 
 when this message arrived. He was strongly 
 excited. ' Now is the time for your scheme, 
 my good Bellanger !' he exclaimed. 'Explain 
 your plan in detail to me. I am ready to give 
 you every assistance.' 
 
 " Bellanger was a little surprised that, while 
 the fate of the dauphin was so desperate the 
 comte should have been so indifferent to his
 
 302 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 rescue, and as soon as there seemed to be a pros- 
 pect of his release, should desire that he should 
 be transported to Canada ; and he took the lib- 
 erty to represent to the comte that if the report 
 of the Marquis de Fenouil was true, it might 
 be interfering with the interests of- Louis XVII. 
 to attempt his rescue at this time. But the 
 Comte de Provence explained to Bellanger that 
 the Marquis de Fenouil was an enthusiast, who 
 allowed his desires to bias his judgment ; that 
 there was no probability whatever that the re- 
 public would willingly surrender the dauphin 
 to his friends, when their interests demanded 
 his death ; moreover, that the opinion of Dr. 
 Dessault that his recovery was probable would 
 very likely cause his assassination, and that 
 instant advantage should be taken of any tem- 
 porary leniency to secure the escape of the 
 dauphin. Bellanger' s loyalty was so deep that 
 he easily believed in that of the regent, and 
 convinced by his plausible arguments, we at 
 once set ourselves to carrying out our long- 
 cherished plans. Unfortunately no ship was 
 to be expected from Canada. That attempt 
 having once proved abortive, would not be 
 made again ; but my brother wrote that he had
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 303 
 
 trusty Mends who would receive the dauphin 
 in a safe place of hiding in the wilderness. He 
 counselled our taking as few persons as possible 
 into our confidence, as he feared that the first 
 plan had miscarried through some traitor. The 
 Conite de Provence also forbade us to commu- 
 nicate our designs to any persons not expressly 
 approved of by the Marquis de Fenouil. The 
 comte gave Bellanger a letter to the marquis 
 and provided him liberally with money. He 
 was to proceed to Paris and mature his plans 
 for the abduction of the dauphin, while I was 
 to wait at Brussels, ready to follow him when 
 I was needed. We had found out the times of 
 sailing for America of several ships from differ- 
 ent ports, and had determined to take the one 
 leaving next after the accomplishment of our 
 purpose. 
 
 " As soon as Bellanger arrived in Paris he re- 
 ported to the Marquis de Penouil, and was told 
 that a circumstance had occurred very favorable 
 to our plans. Laurent, the keeper of the Tem- 
 ple, had asked for an assistant, and the marquis 
 had managed so adroitly that a man entirely 
 devoted to the interests of the Comte de Pro- 
 vence, Gomin by name, had been appointed to
 
 304 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 this post. The marquis had another accom- 
 plice, named Debierne, whom he sent to Go- 
 min, under the pretence of carrying playthings 
 to the prince, but who informed Gomin of a 
 design of carrying the young king into La 
 Vendee. Gomin entered into this scheme with 
 delight, and promised his aid. 
 
 " Debierne went to Gomin again, taking him a 
 carrier pigeon, by which he could send the mar- 
 quis a letter in case he needed to communicate 
 with him, as he was not allowed to leave the 
 Temple, except at rare intervals, and had no 
 means of communicating with his friends. 
 Laurent, though uniformly humane, was a Re- 
 publican, incorruptibly honest, and so devoted 
 to his duty that no assistance could be counted 
 on from him. It was therefore an unexpected 
 piece of good fortune that he wearied of his 
 post, desired to return to his family, and peti- 
 tioned to be discharged. The marquis was un- 
 able to secure the appointment of a Royalist in 
 his place ; but Etienne Lasne, a soldier of the 
 National Guard, who received the position, was 
 a man of convenient principles, yielding to the 
 bribes, which (owing to the generosity of the 
 Comte de Provence) it was possible to offer. The
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 305 
 
 discipline of the Temple immediately relaxed. 
 ' Hitherto the keys could only be used in the 
 presence of both 4;he keepers ; they were now 
 placed at the disposal of either of them.' Go- 
 inin oiled all the locks and hinges, so that they 
 moved noiselessly, and was accustomed to play 
 upon the violin, so that any unusual noise, as 
 of persons ascending or descending the stairs, 
 would not be likely to be heard by the sentries 
 in the guard-room. Bellanger held several con- 
 ferences with Lasne, and it was decided that 
 the only way to abduct the prince and protect 
 his keepers would be to substitute in the place 
 of the dauphin another child as nearly resem- 
 bling him as possible. ' Only,' said Lasne, 
 'let the child left here in the dauphin's -stead 
 be one so ill that he will die in a few days. 
 Then his death can be attested, and he can be 
 safely buried before any one who knows the 
 prince can detect the exchange.' 
 
 " Gromin suggested that the body of a dead 
 child be obtained from some hospital, and the 
 death of Louis XVII. announced as soon as he 
 was given to Bellanger. But Bellanger himself 
 objected to this, as the announcement of the 
 dauphin's death might institute examination,
 
 306 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 and lie wished time to get out of France. 
 Lasne's plan was accordingly agreed upon. He 
 assured Bellanger that it was to the interest of 
 the Republicans that the dauphin should either 
 die or be supposed to be dead, as this would re- 
 move the great rallying object of the Royalist 
 party. Lasne saw through the motives of the 
 Comte de Provence, but as he was not nearly 
 so formidable an antagonist as Louis XVII., he 
 was willing to act with him so far as getting 
 rid of the prince was concerned. Bellanger was 
 an enthusiast, and believed that when the time 
 was ripe for the restoration the comte would 
 produce the young king ; but Lasne knew that 
 it would not be easy to prove his identity after 
 the attestations of death and burial. So from 
 very different motives all worked together. 
 
 " It was decided that a child taken from a 
 Parisian hospital would be too easily traced, 
 and the task of procuring a substitute was as- 
 signed to me. I had a description of the physi- 
 cal condition of Louis XVII. He had knotty 
 swellings at the joints of the knees, wrists, and 
 elbows. These swellings were distinctly de- 
 scribed by Dr. Dessault as not scrofulous, but 
 the result of lack of exercise. He prescribed
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 307 
 
 simple friction for them, and urged change of 
 air. His most serious symptoms were connected 
 with his mental state. He was mute, almost 
 imbecile, and though he played mechanically at 
 building card houses, he took no interest in 
 anything else. 
 
 " I went to several children's hospitals, repre- 
 senting myself as a lady of means who wished 
 to adopt a child, and at length I was fortunate 
 enough to find a child dying of scrofula, who 
 in many respects resembled the prince. This 
 child was older and taller than Louis XVII., 
 but he was too ill to talk ; his face was so swol- 
 len and disfigured by disease that it was hardly 
 possible to tell how it might have looked when 
 in health, so that I hoped that if he were seen 
 in prison by any of his old acquaintances the 
 fraud might not be detected. The authorities 
 at the hospital were surprised that I wished to 
 adopt so helpless a child, but as I assured them 
 that he resembled a child whom I had lost, and 
 as the boy was a waif a foundling in whom 
 no one was interested, they were very willing 
 to give him up rather than have him die on 
 their hands. 
 
 " Poor child ! my heart warmed with pity to
 
 308 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 him in the few days that he was in my care, 
 and if there had been any possibility of his re- 
 covery, I would never have placed him in 
 prison. 
 
 "I set out for Paris in the diligence which 
 would reach the barrier at night, that I might 
 undergo a less rigorous scrutiny from the cus- 
 tom officers. There were a few other passen- 
 gers, but no one paid any attention to me or to 
 the child until we reached the frontier, when a 
 young Frenchman entered and took the seat 
 beside me. The sick boy, wearied with his 
 journey, wailed, and the young man arranged 
 his cloak upon his lap so that the poor little 
 fellow could rest more comfortably. The 
 stranger looked pityingly at the poor, swollen 
 face, and asked why I was travelling with so 
 sick a child. 
 
 " ' It is to seek medical care in Paris,' I re- 
 plied. 
 
 " The young man shook his head dubiously. 
 ' I fear, my good woman, that the physicians 
 can do little for your son, except to allay his 
 sufferings. Still, if you will take him to Dr. 
 Dessault, the most able physician in Paris, he 
 may be able to cure him. They say he has
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 309 
 
 done wonders with the little prisoner in the 
 Temple, who is likely to prove a bone of con- 
 tention for years to come, instead of good-na- 
 turedly dying, as we all hoped.' 
 
 " ' I shall try to obtain Dr. Dessault's ser- 
 vices,' I replied. 
 
 " ' Do so ; he is a friend of mine, and I will 
 speak to him of your boy. What is your name 
 and where do you expect to lodge ? ' 
 
 " * My name is Jourdain,' I replied, ' but I 
 am not certain where I shall stop. I am to be 
 met by my husband, who has secured lodgings 
 for me. Do not take the trouble to interest Dr. 
 Dessault in us. It may be that my husband 
 has secured another physician. ' 
 
 " This suggestion of the young man, friendly 
 as it was, had filled me with terror, for Dr. 
 Dessault was the last man whom I desired to 
 have see this child. He was the only man who 
 had not been brought over to our cause who 
 had access to Louis XVII., and knew him so 
 thoroughly that he could not be deceived by 
 substituting this child. Just how they would 
 manage to prevent his declaring the fraud on 
 his first visit after the abduction of the un- 
 crowned king I could not tell, but this was not
 
 310 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 for me to consider ; other subtle minds had it in 
 charge. 
 
 ' ' Arrived at Paris, I found Bellanger waiting 
 for me, as we had agreed. He was surprised to 
 see my companion, who insisted on carrying 
 the child from the diligence to the cab, and re- 
 peated to Bellanger the suggestions which he 
 had already made to me, asking again for our 
 address, that he might send Dr. Dessault to us. 
 Bellanger was much alarmed, and gave him a 
 false address, and we drove away as fast as 
 possible, looking back frequently to see if we 
 were followed, and only reassured when we 
 found that we were not. He took us to a mean 
 room, in an upper story of a house on one of 
 the small streets back of the Temple. From 
 its window we could see a portion of the para- 
 pet on the roof of the prison. It was here that 
 Gomin would display a signal a white cloth 
 if by day, and a lantern if at night when the 
 propitious time arrived for the exchange of the 
 children. 
 
 " Bellanger told me that other Royalist agents 
 would endeavor to induce Dr. Dessault to go to 
 the provinces for a few days to attend a special 
 case, that they would delay him there as long
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 311 
 
 as possible, and in his absence the exchange 
 would be made. The child that 1 had brought 
 had grown rapidly worse, and Bellanger and 
 the keepers of the prison hoped that he might 
 die, and his death and burial be attested during 
 the absence of Dr. Dessault by physicians not 
 acquainted with Louis XVII. We were some- 
 what puzzled at this stage of our proceedings 
 by hearing that the convention had agreed to 
 deliver Louis XVII. on June 13th to Charette, 
 the chief leader of the Vendean Royalists, and 
 we doubted at first whether, in view of this new 
 development, we ought to proceed with our 
 plot. But Bellanger received secret intelligence 
 from the Comte de Provence to hasten the mat- 
 ter, as he had no confidence in the good faith 
 of the convention, and as it was to their inter- 
 est that the young king should die before they 
 were forced to surrender him to his friends, he 
 might be murdered in prison. 
 
 " It was May 28th that we arrived in Paris. 
 On the 31st an agent of the Marquis de Fenouil 
 brought Bellanger a commission to act as com- 
 missary of the day and inspect the interior of 
 the prison. This seemed to be the opportunity 
 we wished, but as Bellanger was obliged to en-
 
 312 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 ter and leave the Temple by daylight before the 
 sentries, there was no opportunity to smuggle 
 a child in or out. He used his opportunities to 
 the utmost, and remained all day in the prison, 
 on pretence of making a portrait of the young 
 king, and I watched the parapet incessantly, 
 but no white cloth was displayed. He im- 
 proved his visit by becoming acquainted with 
 the little prisoner, playing at making card 
 houses with him, showing him the sketches in 
 his portfolio, and attempting to gain his con- 
 fidence, promising to come again and perhaps 
 take him for a drive. More than this he did 
 not dare to suggest, for fear the weak-minded 
 child would babble to some one not in the plot. 
 As he left the prison he passed Gomin on the 
 stairs, who said, ' Dr. Dessault has not visited 
 his patient to-day. I have just learned that he 
 is ill. Illness was never more opportune, but it 
 may not last long. Your work must be done 
 to-night. I will make a little delay at ten 
 o'clock, when we change sentries, and will keep 
 both of them for four minutes in the guard- 
 room over a bottle of wine. One will be called 
 from his post two minutes before his time, the 
 other go on two minutes later. In that four
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 313 
 
 minutes you must steal up the turret stair with 
 the new child, and slip down again with the 
 king. I will give him all the poppy syrup that 
 Dr. Dessault left here ; he will sleep soundly.' 
 " I followed Gomin's example, and gave my 
 sick child an opiate. Wrapped in an old cloak, 
 1 carried him to the quay opposite the entrance 
 to the Temple at a quarter to ten, and seating 
 myself on the ground, I held him on my lap and 
 solicited alms of the passers-by, as though I 
 were a beggar. A few moments later Bellanger 
 appeared strolling up and down the quay. At 
 precisely two minutes of ten the door of the 
 prison opened and Gomin called in the sentry, 
 leaving the door very slightly ajar. It was at 
 this instant that Bellanger should have seized 
 the child and have darted into the Temple, but 
 at that moment, as ill-luck would have it, a 
 man passed me and met Bellanger face to face. 
 It was the stranger who had helped me in the 
 diligence, and who now recognized Bellanger, 
 and stopped him to inquire for me and for the 
 child. He stood with his back to me and to 
 the prison door, and Bellanger' s face was oppo- 
 site to me. It was wild with despair. I sprang 
 up, crossed the street, and pressed my shoulder
 
 314 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 against the door ; it yielded, and I glided in- 
 side and up the stairs. 1 did not know the way 
 as well as Bellanger, but I heard the sentries 
 laughing and carousing in the guard-room, and 
 I found the door of the royal prisoner' s cell un- 
 locked. It opened noiselessly, and little Louis 
 XVII. lay before me in so profound a sleep that 
 at first I fancied him dead. I quickly laid the 
 poor little waif in his bed, and snatching up the 
 boy-king, hurried from the room and down the 
 stairs. . At the next landing I uttered a stifled 
 cry, for a man stood in front of the door lead- 
 ing into the guard-room playing noisily upon a 
 violin. The next instant I recognized Bel- 
 langer' s description of Gomin, and knew that 
 he was there to cover my flight. He nodded 
 his head rather anxiously, in a way that coun- 
 selled haste, and re-entered the guard-room, 
 still fiddling, the instant I had. passed. I 
 paused a moment at the outer door, to be sure 
 that my exit was unobserved, but Bellanger 
 stood on the step in the attitude of a sentinel, 
 and no one else was in sight. We hurried into 
 the little side street, Bellanger dashing on 
 ahead with the child, and I following more 
 leisurely. As I turned the corner I looked
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 315 
 
 back and saw the sentry on duty in front of 
 the door of the Temple, just two minutes be- 
 hind his time. 
 
 " The diligence did not leave for the north 
 until daybreak, and in the hours that inter- 
 vened we listened in agonized suspense to every 
 passing footfall, fearing that we were discov- 
 ered. All went well, however, until we took 
 our seats in the diligence, when, to our con- 
 sternation, the same young man who had as- 
 sisted me on my arrival in Paris, and who had 
 passed the prison so inopportunely, entered 
 and took his seat beside me. He seemed 
 pleased at meeting me again, and asked if I 
 had followed his suggestion in securing Dr. 
 Dessault's services for my child. I answered 
 truthfully that the boy had been under Dr. 
 Dessault's care, and was greatly improved. 
 Had it been the same child, the recovery would 
 have been indeed miraculous, for shortly after 
 Louis awaked and sat up. I had taken the 
 precaution to bandage his face. The little king 
 was silent, even more dazed by the effect of the 
 opiate than in his ordinary semi-conscious con- 
 dition, and the stranger did not notice the dif- 
 ference.
 
 316 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 " Just what his position was we never knew, 
 but he was some one in high official authority, 
 for at the frontier the officers demanded our 
 papers, and would have occasioned us great 
 annoyance, and probably detained us until they 
 could have heard from Paris, if our unknown 
 friend had not vouched for us. 
 
 "The very diligence in which we travelled 
 brought with it the news that Dr. Dessau! t 
 had died the day previous ; . that there were 
 suspicions of poisoning, and of a Royalist plot 
 to abduct the king, for a dove had been seen to 
 be released from the ramparts of the Temple 
 that morning, which was thought to be a sig- 
 nal, and a police order was issued to all officials 
 to arrest, on all the highways of France, any 
 person travelling with a child of the king's age. 
 
 " It was here, in our moment of greatest 
 peril, that the young man whom we had so 
 feared saved us from detection, for he certified 
 that he had travelled with me and with the 
 child as we came to Paris a few days previous, 
 and that the child we carried could not by any 
 possibility be the king. Just in time, too, I 
 remembered that I had in my bag the certificate 
 from the hospital of Brussels of the other child's
 
 NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART. 317 
 
 dismissal, which I now produced, and we were 
 allowed to continue on our journey. 
 
 " At Antwerp we embarked on a Dutch ves- 
 sel bound for New York, but we did not breathe 
 freely until we were far out on the great ocean. 
 My brother had sent us word to proceed to 
 Albany, and there to ask of one John Bleeker 
 for letters, which should further instruct us. 
 
 " We found the letter which we had expected, 
 telling us to leave a letter with him announcing 
 our arrival, which letter Peter Vanderhuyden, 
 a half-breed Indian, who traded between Albany 
 and Ticonderoga, would carry to him, and he 
 would come at once to meet us. This he very 
 shortly did, and received our royal charge from 
 my arms. We had brought with us no proofs 
 of his identity or insignia of royalty, other 
 than his cross of the order of St. Esprit, con- 
 ferred on him the day he was born. This Ofo- 
 min had given Bellanger, and he carried it, to 
 his great peril, sewed next to his heart. The 
 silver dove, badge of the order, and symbol of 
 the Holy Spirit, also seemed to me a fitting em- 
 blem of the dove-like character of the young 
 king. A dove had been released when he es- 
 caped, and I thought of the cry of the Psalm-
 
 318 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 1st, ' Oh, that I had the wings of a dove, then 
 would I fly away and be at rest ! ' 
 
 " When my brother received the unhappy 
 little king, it seemed to me that this prayer was 
 answered, and that in the wilderness, near to 
 nature's heart, he might find that peace, safety, 
 and happiness which is denied to the dweller 
 in the courts of the great. But tears came to 
 my eyes as I parted from my gentle charge, 
 and the tears washed away the vision, as drops 
 falling upon a slate obliterate the writing. All 
 became confused ; and then, with a start, I 
 recognized that I was neither the Royalist plot- 
 ter nor the Indian woman who was to be the 
 king's foster-mother, but simply an American 
 girl who had become intensely interested in a 
 not very authentic legend of the escape of the 
 dauphin."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF THE PALACE TWO WOMEN OF 
 THE EMPIRE SOME PICTURES OF NAPOLEON. 
 
 EVER after the royal 
 coach rolled away 
 from its doors, carry- 
 ing Louis XYI. and 
 his family prisoners 
 Paris, was Versailles 
 really a palace. 
 
 Napoleon, in all the au- 
 dacity of the first brilliant 
 days of the Empire, did not 
 dare to establish his court 
 here on the magnificent plan 
 of Louis XIV., and Louis Philippe, when the 
 Restoration brought him to the throne, felt the 
 change in the mental atmosphere of the time, 
 and inaugurated a new regime for Versailles. 
 Its history as a palace was comprised in the
 
 320 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 reigns of the three Louis ; henceforward, if it 
 was to exist at all, it must exist not as the 
 pleasant abode of royalty, but as a cherished 
 possession directly enjoyed by the French peo- 
 ple. The new king was wise enough to see 
 this, and the Palace of Versailles became a 
 tradition of the past, and the Musee of Ver- 
 sailles was born. Its magnificent gardens were 
 thrown open as a public park, its long series of 
 palatial apartments filled with paintings, illus- 
 trations of " all the glories of France," and as 
 a museum of history and art Versailles took 
 her new place in the march of progress. 
 
 The girls, as they closed their studies of the 
 history of the palace, regretted that Napoleon 
 had not identified his Empire with its historic 
 halls, that he had preferred the Tuilleries 
 and Fontainebleau for the ceremonies of his 
 court, and that Josephine made Malmaison 
 her Trianon. 
 
 It would have been interesting to have imag- 
 ined the women of the Empire Josephine, Hor- 
 tense, Madame de Stael, and Madame Recaniier 
 at Versailles. Surely, if the gentle Josephine 
 had been aided by the genius of Madame de 
 Stael, by the tact and fascination of Madame
 
 JOSEPHINE.
 
 THE LAST DATS OF THE PALACE. 321 
 
 Recamier, she might have established a court 
 here which would have been as decorous and 
 dignified as that of Madame de Maintenon, with- 
 out being as bigoted ; as accomplished and gay 
 as that of Pompadour's, without its profligacy ; 
 a continuation of all that was admirable in that 
 of Marie Antoinette, without its tragedy. But 
 Napoleon, though he knew men thoroughly, 
 proved himself their master, and was the great- 
 est military genius that the world has ever seen, 
 did not understand women, could not control 
 them, and made the supreme mistakes of his 
 life in his relations with them. 
 
 Josephine was regarded by the French people 
 and by himself as his good genius. He owed 
 his first successes to her. As far as he was 
 capable of love, he loved her ; and he must 
 have recognized in the end that his divorce was 
 " worse than a crime a blunder." From that 
 event all his misfortunes dated ; not that Jose- 
 phine was in reality his mascot, his "star," 
 but because that act was the revelation of a 
 change in the man himself. He was no longer 
 the same Napoleon, the young, unselfish en- 
 thusiast and patriot, the her6 who snatched the 
 flag from the dying standard-bearer, and led
 
 '6M WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 the charge at Arcola (see illustration), who re- 
 garded himself as nothing, his country as every- 
 thing. Now he was self-centred, blinded by 
 gigantic egotism, unable to judge clearly be- 
 tween right and wrong, or no longer caring to 
 be guided by the right, and his fall was inevit- 
 able. 
 
 Winnie regretted that the tear of the aloe 
 had no power to unlock the door of the im- 
 agination leading into the halls of What-Might- 
 Have-Been, and to show such a court at Ver- 
 sailles as Madame de Stael and Madame Reca- 
 mier might have gathered. Napoleon himself 
 must have felt what an immense aid the in- 
 fluence of these women would have been, for 
 he tendered Madame Recamier the position of 
 Dame de Palais, and tried to gain Madame de 
 Stael by offering to give her the two million 
 francs which the government owed her father, 
 the Minister of Finance, Necker. But his 
 efforts came too late ; he had offended the sense 
 of justice, the pride, and the friendship of these 
 noble-minded women, and he could not buy 
 their influence with bare bribes. Winnie found 
 their friendship at the same time one of the 
 most ideal and real of which she had ever read,
 
 THE LAST DATS OF THE PALACE. 323 
 
 and she studied the record of their lives with 
 great interest. She traced the development of 
 Madame de Stael's genius and opinions in her 
 writings, beginning with her Lettres sur les 
 Merits et le Caractere de J. J. Rmisseau, a 
 book full of enthusiasm and eloquence for the 
 new revolutionary ideas. It was the fashion, 
 just before the Revolution, for the nobility of 
 France to advocate liberal principles. It is pos- 
 sible that if the fall of the monarchy had not 
 come in a more violent manner, it would have- 
 crumbled naturally under the march of ideas. 
 Madame de Stael's political bias was for a con- 
 stitutional monarchy, but she was so advanced 
 for her period, so impassioned, and so courage- 
 ous in expressing her views, that Louis XVI. 
 and Marie Antoinette regarded her with dis- 
 trust. The memoirs of her grandson, the 
 Vicomte d' Haussonville, tell of her efforts in 
 effecting the escape of her friends during the 
 Reign of Terror, a number of whom she was 
 successful in saving. She fled from Paris to 
 her estate at Coppet, in Switzerland, only at the 
 last moment, publishing in London her Reflex- 
 ions sur le Proces de la Reine, an eloquent and 
 fearless defence of the queen. She had planned
 
 324 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 a scheme for her escape before leaving the city. 
 She entered into negotiations for buying a piece 
 of property at Dieppe, and went there twice, 
 taking with her, says her grandson, her son, 
 who was about the same age as the dauphin, a 
 man whose stature was very like the king, and 
 two women, one of whom very closely resembled 
 Marie Antoinette (Query. Could this have been 
 Gay d'Oliva ?), and another not unlike Ma- 
 dame Elizabeth. It was her intention to allow 
 the officials .en route to become accustomed to 
 seeing these persons, whose identity they had 
 established, pass and repass, and on a third 
 journey to leave them in the city and take 
 with her in their stead the royal family. This 
 was before their imprisonment, and the plot 
 might have succeeded, but the queen refused 
 to enter into it, and a few days after it was 
 proposed and rejected all escape was cut off. 
 
 Madame de Stael employed the same means 
 successfully for other noble fugitives, and her 
 home was an asylum for the emigres. 
 
 In her exile she wrote, striving to influence 
 foreign powers in behalf of the queen. Marie 
 Antoinette, in the isolation in which she was 
 guarded, probably never knew of the efforts
 
 THE LAST DATS OF THE PALACE. 325 
 
 of this noble woman, and died believing her 
 her enemy. She returned to Paris under the 
 Directory, just as Napoleon returned from the 
 Italian campaign, and first met Madame Reca- 
 mier at this time on selling her Paris residence 
 to Monsieur Recamier. The two women were 
 mutually drawn to one another, and became 
 dear friends. Madame de Stael admired Napo- 
 leon at this time, and believed in him ; but 
 Napoleon had a great repugnance for literary 
 ladies, and rudely repulsed her friendly over- 
 tures. He had, on the other hand, a great ad- 
 miration for the beauty and social power, of 
 Madame Recamier, at this time the acknowl- 
 edged queen of Parisian society. Her hus- 
 band's wealth had given her social position, 
 but her personal charm Jiad secured for her 
 her empire. Never, perhaps, was there a more 
 lovely character enshrined in a more lovely 
 form. It is said of her that she had a genius 
 for friendship. Irresistibly fascinating and 
 awakening on every hand the most impassioned 
 affection, her purity of character, her wonder- 
 ful tact, and her gentle sympathy exercised a 
 calming effect upon her adorers, and her would- 
 be lovers became her lifelong friends.
 
 326 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 " She walked within the heated glare, 
 Her presence making purer air." 
 
 She knew how to make peace between violent 
 enemies and rivals, and her salon was the meet- 
 ing-place of leading men of every shade of po- 
 litical opinion. She exercised the same attrac- 
 tion over women that she did over men, and 
 was always faithful to her friends, and the 
 brilliant Madame de Stael had Avon her deepest 
 affection as well as admiration. 
 
 But Napoleon and she played at cross-pur- 
 poses. From their first meeting it was Madame 
 Recamier's ill fortune to annoy and provoke 
 him, without any malice prepense on her part, 
 but from that malevolence which apparently 
 governs the accidental. The first occasion was 
 one of Napoleon's earliest triumphs. He had 
 returned to France the conqueror of Italy, and 
 on December 10th, 1797, the Directory gave a 
 fete in his honor in the great court of the Lux- 
 embourg. The directors, dressed in Roman 
 costume, sat at the foot of an altar, behind 
 which was placed a statue of Liberty. Around 
 this space swept an amphitheatre, in the first 
 row of which were seated the public officials, 
 and above them the invited guests. Madame
 
 THE LAST DATS OF THE PALACE. 327 
 
 Recamier had one of these reserved seats. Na- 
 poleon was surrounded by generals, and every 
 eye was fixed upon the young officer who had 
 performed such brilliant exploits. Talleyrand 
 gave a eulogy, and Napoleon replied with a few 
 forcible words which elicited wild applause. 
 Madame Recamier had never seen the young 
 hero, and, moved by curiosity, stood up to have 
 a better view of him. This action attracted 
 the attention of the crowd. Her name, already 
 famous on account of her great beauty, was 
 whispered about, and the faces of the vast as- 
 sembly tiu-ned, as by a common impulse, to 
 look at that graceful figure, whose white dress 
 outlined it like a marble statue against the 
 dark background, and whose beautiful face was 
 so rapt in its enthusiasm that she was not at 
 first aware of the sensation she was creating. 
 
 Napoleon noticed it at once. He felt that he 
 had lost the attention of his audience ; a low 
 murmur of half -suppressed admiration ran 
 around the amphitheatre ; for the moment the 
 hero of the hour was entirely forgotten. Napo- 
 leon turned sharply and swept the concourse 
 with a keen, searching glance to see who had 
 dared to divert attention from him. His glance
 
 328 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 met that of Madame Recamier' s with such a 
 harsh, angry expression, that she instantly 
 sank into her seat. She had mortally offended 
 his pride when she was simply expressing her 
 admiration. 
 
 Two years later she was invited to a dinner 
 in honor of the First Consul, given by Lucien 
 Bonaparte, who had the entree to her own salon 
 at Clichy. Again Napoleon noticed the beauti- 
 ful woman, whose entrance caused a little flut- 
 ter in the drawing-room, but this time it was 
 with courtesy, and as his brother crossed the 
 room to greet his guest, Napoleon said to him 
 playfully, " And I, too, would like to go to 
 Clichy." 
 
 Dinner was announced, and as he left the 
 room with his mother, Madame Letitia, leaning 
 on his arm he spoke to his sister, who, as Ma- 
 dame Recamier passed her, murmured some- 
 thing which that lady did not quite understand, 
 but imagined to be a compliment of Napoleon's. 
 All seated themselves at table sans ceremonie, 
 Second Consul Cambaceres taking the chair be- 
 side Madame Recamier, and Napoleon exclaim- 
 ing as he did so, " Ha ! ha ! citizen consul, next 
 to the most beautiful!" Madame Recamier
 
 THE LAST DATS OF THE PALACE. 329 
 
 noticed at the same time that, while Madame 
 Letitia sat at her son's right, the chair at 
 his left was vacant, and that, though what he 
 had just said was very complimentary to her, 
 he regarded her with the same dark look which 
 she had remarked on his face at the Luxem- 
 bourg. He spoke little at dinner, and showed 
 plainly that he was vexed, eating very fast and 
 leaving the table before the rest of the com- 
 pany. He came to Madame Recamier when 
 she returned to the parlor, and asked brusquely : 
 " Why did you not take the chair next to 
 mine ?" 
 
 " I could not have so presumed." 
 " I told my sister to request you to take it." 
 And so by a misunderstanding she offended 
 him again, for Napoleon would not believe that 
 it was not an intentional slight. 
 
 He recognized the importance, however, of 
 gaining her friendship. She was the most in- 
 fluential, the most admired woman in Paris ; 
 her salon a power which he felt he must con- 
 trol. At the same time Madame de Stael had 
 begun to write criticisms of the way in which 
 Napoleon was centralizing power in his own 
 hands, and he suddenly awoke to the con-
 
 330 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 sciousness that here, too, was a woman possess- 
 ing another kind of influence that he would have 
 done well to have gained, and that he had now 
 to deal with a dangerous enemy where he might 
 have made a powerful friend. Then came the 
 judicial murder of the Due d'Enghien, the one 
 great crime which Madame de Stael and Madame 
 Recamier could never forgive. No offer of 
 restoration of the immense fortune which France 
 owed her father could move Madame de Stael 
 after that, and though banished by Napoleon 
 and virtually a prisoner at Coppet, she was more 
 dangerous to him than a foreign army. He 
 could conquer an army, but he could not silence 
 this brilliant woman. She escaped from Coppet 
 to Vienna, St. Petersburg, London, and Stock- 
 holm. She was everywhere an influence, both 
 personally with the crowned heads, statesmen, 
 and writers of Europe, and in her writings. 
 She published her Dix Annees d'Exil, Corinne, 
 and De V Allemagne. Corinne, the novel on 
 which her literary reputation rests, is a picture 
 of Italy, marvellous for its completeness and 
 impressiveness, and exercising a great influence 
 on the literary style of the time. The work on 
 Germany, though faulty, is considered one of
 
 THE LAST DATS OF THE PALACE. 331 
 
 the best treatises on any country which has 
 ever been written by a foreigner, and awakened 
 France to an appreciation of the fact that there 
 " was something in the world which could be 
 called German civilization." 
 
 In the mean time Napoleon had become em- 
 peror, and on establishing his court he offered 
 the position of first lady of the palace to Ma- 
 dame Recamier. He had some reason to expect 
 that she might accept it out of gratitude, if not 
 from ambition, for he had yielded to her peti- 
 tion to release her father, who had been arrested 
 for political reasons, but Madame Recamier had 
 a strong repugnance to Napoleon. She dis- 
 trusted "him, and could not forgive his harsh- 
 ness in banishing her dearest friend, Madame 
 de Stael, and she declined the honor with the 
 approval of her husband. Napoleon took a 
 very mean revenge for what he chose to con- 
 sider an insult. 
 
 A little later Monsieur Recamier found him- 
 self in financial trouble, his bank would be 
 forced to suspend payment unless a loan could 
 be negotiated with the government. This Na- 
 poleon refused, making Monsieur Recamier a 
 bankrupt.
 
 332 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Madame de Stael opened her home and heart to 
 her friend, and she became her guest at Coppet. 
 Napoleon, incensed by her apparent defiance 
 in clinging to her friend, exiled Madame Reca- 
 mier also, forbidding her to approach within 
 forty leagues of Paris. But friendships are 
 not broken by persecution, and the two friends 
 were only the more united by their misfortunes. 
 Madame Recamier was at her friend's bedside 
 when she died, and met there Chateaubriand, 
 who became her lifelong friend. She returned 
 to Paris after Napoleon's downfall, and died 
 there in 1849, in her seventy-third year. She 
 preserved her charm until the end, receiving 
 her guests with the same sweetness and dig- 
 nity, though she was quite blind. Chateau- 
 briand, though aged and a paralytic, came each 
 evening, and was carried from his carriage to 
 his arm-chair at her fireside by his valet and 
 her footman. 
 
 Madame Recamier left scarcely a written 
 word. She is remembered alone for her per- 
 sonal charm and for that "genius for friend- 
 ship" which Napoleon could not gain. 
 
 Though Napoleon never established himself 
 at Versailles, the student can follow his career
 
 NAPOLEON AT AKCOLA.
 
 THE LAST DATS OF THE PALACE. 333 
 
 here better perhaps than anywhere else. In 
 the Salle des Batailles and elsewhere in the 
 musee are the great canvases, illustrative of 
 his different campaigns, painted by David and 
 Horace Vernet, the portraits by court painters 
 Gerard, Isabey, Lefevre, as well as many ideal 
 conceptions painted by later artists. 
 
 Winnie's favorites were, first, " The Battle 
 of Rivoli" (1797), by Philippoteaux. In this 
 canvas the young general, with his long hair 
 falling over his forehead and shoulders, has 
 just had a horse shot from under him and has 
 mounted another. It shows him at his best 
 period, when his features were sharp and clear, 
 his cheeks hollow, his lips mobile, and the in- 
 flexible will written on the face subordinated 
 to noble purpose. Here are David's theatrical 
 compositions of Napoleon as emperor, Gerard's 
 " Austerlitz," Horace Vernet's " Friedland," 
 " Jena," and " Wagram," the state ceremonies 
 of Regnault, Isabey, and others. 
 
 Doubtless the noblest series of Napoleonic 
 pictures is that painted by Meissonier, and of 
 these two are owned in America, and the 
 "Friedland" is in the Metropolitan Museum 
 in New York. Nothing can excel the enthusi-
 
 334 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 asm of his soldiers as they salute the emperor. 
 It is the same mad devotion which made them 
 happy to die in his sight. But the grandest 
 conception that an artist has ever given of Na- 
 poleon is Meissonier's masterpiece, "1814," 
 which represents him "gloomy, silent, with 
 face contracted with anguish, riding at the 
 head of his discouraged staff across the snowy 
 plains of Champagne." 
 
 It was that terrible Russian campaign which 
 broke Napoleon's power which interested the 
 girls more than any other period of his career. 
 Opposite a photograph of Raffet's picture, 
 " They Grumbled, but they Followed Always," 
 showing Napoleon, worn out, wearily march- 
 ing on, followed by his " old grognards," Win- 
 nie copied in her book of souvenirs Southey's 
 poem, 
 
 THE MARCH TO MOSCOW. 
 
 The Emperor Nap he would set off 
 On a summer excursion to Moscow ; 
 The fields were green, and the sky was blue, 
 
 Morbleu ! parbleu ! 
 What a pleasant excursion to Moscow 1 
 
 Four hundred thousand men and more 
 Must go with him to Moscow :
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF THE PALACE. 335 
 
 There were marshals by the dozen, 
 
 And dukes by the score ; 
 
 Princes a few, and kings one or two ; 
 
 While the fields are so green, and the sky so blue, 
 
 Morbleu ! parbleu ! 
 What a pleasant excursion to Moscow ! 
 
 There was .Tunot and Augereau, 
 
 Heigho for Moscow ! 
 Dombrowsky and Poniatowsky, 
 
 Marshal Ney, lackaday ! 
 General Rapp, and the Emperor Nap ; 
 
 Nothing would do 
 
 While the fields were so grean. and the sky so blue, 
 Morbleu ! parbleu ! 
 Nothing would do 
 For the whole of this crew, 
 But they must be marching to Moscow. 
 
 But the Russians stoutly they turned to 
 
 Upon the road to Moscow. 
 Nap had to fight his way all through, 
 They could fight, though they could not parlez-vous ; 
 Bat the fields were green, and the sky was blue, 
 Morbleu ! parbleu ! 
 
 And so he got to Moscow. 
 
 He found the place too warm for him. 
 
 For they set fire to Moscow. 
 To get there had cost him much ado, 
 And then no better course he knew,
 
 336 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 While the fields were green, and the sky was blue, 
 
 M&rUeu! parbleuf 
 But to march back again from Moscow. 
 
 The Russians they stuck close to him 
 
 All on the road from Moscow. 
 There was Tormazow and Jemalow, 
 And all the others that end in ow ; 
 Milardovitch and Jaladovitch, 
 And all the others that end in itch ; 
 Schamscheff, Souchosaneff, 
 
 And Schepaleff, 
 
 And all the others that end in eff ; 
 Wasiltschikoff, Kostomaroff, 
 
 And Tchoglokoff, 
 And all the others that end in off ; 
 Rajeffsky and Novereffsky, 
 
 And Rieffsky, 
 
 And all the others that end in effsky ; 
 Oscharoffsky and Rostoffsky, 
 And all the others that end in offsky. 
 And Platoff he play'd them off, 
 And Markoff he mark'd them off, 
 And Krosuoff he cross'd them off, 
 And Boroskoff he bored them off, 
 And Kutousoff he cut them off, 
 And Parenzoff he pared them off, 
 And Worronzoff he worried them off, 
 And Doctoroff he doctor'd them off, 
 And Rodionoff he flngg'd them off,
 
 THE LAST DATS OF THE PALACE. 337 
 
 And, last of all, an admiral came, 
 A terrible man with a terrible name, 
 A name which you all know by sight very well, 
 But which no one can speak and no one can spell. 
 They stuck to Nap with all their might ; 
 They were on the left and on the right, 
 Behind and before, and by day and by night ; 
 He would rather parlez-wus than fight ; 
 But he look'd white and he look'd blue, 
 
 Morbleu ! parbleu ! 
 When parlez-vous no more would do, 
 For they remembered Moscow. 
 
 And then came on the frost and snow, 
 
 All on the road from Moscow. 
 The wind and the weather he found in that hour 
 Cared nothing for him, nor for all his power ; 
 For him who, while Europe crouch'd under his rod, 
 Put his trust in his fortune, and not in his God. 
 Worse and worse every day the elements grew. * 
 The fields were so white, and the sky so blue, 
 Sacre bleu ! venire bleu f 
 
 What a horrible journey from Moscow ! 
 
 But tlie cavalier treatment of this horrible 
 subject by the light, satiric poem exasperated 
 her. She was more in sympathy with Tolstoy's 
 temper of mind in his novel, War and Peace, 
 that wonderfully realistic description from a 
 Russian standpoint of this terrible tragedy.
 
 338 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 Before the beginning of this campaign Napo- 
 leon's victories had cost one million seven hun- 
 dred thousand men killed in battle and millions 
 more of wounded and disabled. His defeat was 
 to cost many more lives, and yet they were 
 given joyfully, readily. Why was it ? It was 
 because before the Revolution Frenchmen were 
 serfs ; with the call of the country for their 
 lives came the gift of liberty and free institu- 
 tions, and Prance poured out its blood unstint- 
 edly for la Patrie. The personal magnetism 
 of Napoleon faded out as Frenchmen lost faith 
 in him, but in the new ideas which came as 
 monarchy passed away in liberty, fraternity, 
 and equality they have not lost faith, and in 
 defence of these they are still ready to give 
 their lives. 
 
 With their brief study of the friendship of 
 two women of the Empire and of the Napoleon 
 pictures in the Versailles historical collection 
 their stay under the shadow of the beautiful 
 palace came to a close. They returned to 
 America to take up the busy modern life of the 
 New World, so different from the old romantic 
 dreams of the past, but glad at heart for many 
 of the differences, and especially for that liberty
 
 THE LAST DATS OF THE PALACE. 339 
 
 and fraternity for which the Frenchman has 
 striven so earnestly, but which we feel finds a 
 fuller expression in America than in any other 
 land,
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LEAGUE OF THE JUNIOR PATRONS. 
 
 many delightful ex- 
 periences had come 
 to the girls at Ver- 
 sailles in their ram- 
 bles into the past 
 through the magic 
 doors of history and 
 art, that it is not sur- 
 prising that a little natural re- 
 gret mingled with their fare- 
 wells when the time came for 
 them to return to America. 
 
 But Winnie was not a girl to 
 mope or sulk because one chapter of enjoyable 
 living was closed. She was brimful of enter- 
 prise and enthusiasm, and when there were no 
 " good times" ready to fall like ripe fruit into 
 her lap, she set herself to work planting the lit-
 
 LEAGUE OF THE JUNIOR PATRONS. 341 
 
 tie seeds of kindness which bear " good times" 
 before long for herself and others. 
 
 We have seen how helpful she was to Milly 
 at Shinnecock immediately after her return to 
 America, and when at the close of the summer 
 at the sketching class Milly was so cruelly dis- 
 appointed in Stacey, Winnie, to use a nautical 
 term, " stood by" and was a stay and comfort, 
 and later a joy and inspiration to her little 
 friend in the dark days. 
 
 The joy came, as it always does, in working 
 for others, the inspiration in a plan which Win- 
 nie developed for concerted action which en- 
 gaged the efforts of many children, and in 
 which the readers of this story are invited to 
 join. 
 
 The winter after the girls' experience at the 
 summer school at Shinnecock, Winnie, yielding 
 to Milly's strong desire, visited her in New 
 York, spending her mornings in work in a little 
 studio which she shared with Tib, who had be- 
 come an artist of more than ordinary ability. 
 Of all the four who had started out with such 
 high ambition and brilliant talents, Tib, the 
 plodder, the one least gifted apparently by na- 
 ture, had achieved the greatest success. Ade-
 
 342 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 laide was soon to marry Professor Waite. She 
 had relinquished her own perso'nal ambition to 
 become the sympathetic, appreciative, helpful 
 wife of an artist, to throw all the art impulse 
 of her own nature into his achievement, and in 
 so doing we cannot say that all of her own 
 effort and aspiration, or the opportunities of 
 travel and education lavished upon her by her 
 father, were in any way wasted ; they bore defi- 
 nite fruit, though in the work of another. 
 
 Milly, the one least interested, least talented 
 of the three, turned to art again as an occupa- 
 tion, a consolation in the desert of her disap- 
 pointed affection. Winnie, impulsive, working 
 by fits and starts, ready to give up her ambition 
 when her engagement with Van seemed to open 
 the way into another life, found in portraiture 
 an absorbing occupation and a means of sup- 
 port, now that the financial difficulties of the 
 Van Silvers postponed her marriage. 
 
 Once more, too, Winnie turned her attention 
 to the Home for poor children which she and 
 her friends had founded in their school days, 
 and which their absorbing occupations and ad- 
 ventures in Europe had caused them to neglect. 
 The Home was still doing its good work, loving
 
 LEAGUE OF THE JUNIOR PATRONS. 343 
 
 hearts and generous hands were carrying it on, 
 but the managers often felt their hearts ache 
 and courage fail when they saw a hundred ap- 
 plications for admission where only ten could 
 be received. They had missed the enthusiastic, 
 willing work of Winnie and her band of King's 
 Daughters, and welcomed with gratitude her 
 return. 
 
 Winnie had a serious talk with Milly after 
 her visit to the Home. "Something must be 
 done," she said. " The Home cannot stand 
 still, the work must either advance and meet 
 the increasing need, or it will gradually fade 
 out and be given up." 
 
 "Oh, no," exclaimed Milly; "that must 
 never be." 
 
 "No, certainly not," replied Winnie, with de- 
 cision ; " but look at the situation. The Home 
 has lost many valuable friends this year. Mr. 
 Armstrong has died suddenly, and did not re- 
 member the Home in his will. If he had 
 thought death was so near I am sure he would 
 have provided for it. It teaches me a lesson. 
 I've nothing to leave at present, but I am going 
 to make my will all the same, and direct that 
 one third of the rea'dy money I happen to leave
 
 344 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 whenever I do die shall be given to the 
 Home." 
 
 " 1 am sure it is better to do all we can while 
 we are alive," said Milly, " and I only wish I 
 had more to give ; but father has been so em- 
 barrassed by the financial crisis the past year that 
 I suggested his giving me a smaller allowance." 
 
 " I know it, dear, and Mrs. Van Silver and 
 Van cannot afford to give as generously as they 
 did. What with the elder people dying and 
 losing their fortunes, it looks as if the Home 
 was to depend mainly for its support on the 
 pennies of the children. And why shouldn't 
 it ? It was founded by children for children. 
 It seems to me very beautiful that children 
 should carry it on. I know of no exclusively 
 children's charity in the United States, and 
 there is surely enough power in the hands of 
 American children to do a very noble work if 
 we could only reach them all, and get them all 
 interested. I have an idea," she said at last. 
 " I will get up a baby show and give prizes for 
 the finest babies, and when I have them all to- 
 gether I will tell them about the Home and in- 
 terest them in working for poor babies." 
 
 Milly laughed. " Just like you, dear Winnie,
 
 LEAGUE OF THE JUNIOR PATRONS. 345 
 
 audacious and impractical. In the first place 
 you never could manage a baby show. No 
 mother would send her darling to be exposed 
 to possible contagion from some other child who 
 had undeveloped diphtheria or scarlet fever. 
 It would be a flat failure, and even if you did 
 get it up it would be only local, a New York 
 City affair. You would not reach the out-of- 
 town babies, the children all over the United 
 States whom you wish to interest." 
 
 Winnie sighed regretfully. " I presume you 
 are right, but I have a vision of how beautiful 
 it might be. New York has horse shows and 
 poultry shows and dog shows. Why not a baby 
 show ? I would have it in the Madison Square 
 Garden, and one feature would be a baby-car- 
 riage drill, the nurses dressed in the costumes 
 of peasants of different nations, and the carnages 
 with their parasols decorated with flowers and 
 flags. I would drill the nurses in the evolu- 
 tions, something like the bicycle drill of the 
 French soldiers, with empty carriages first, so 
 as not to endanger spilling out the babies, and 
 in the final parade we would have them well 
 strapped in. Then I would get the various 
 kindergartens of the city to co-operate, and we
 
 346 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 would have not alone the work of the children, 
 but the babies themselves would be there seated 
 at their little tables, making their little mud 
 pies and braiding their colored papers." 
 
 " Winnie ! Winnie !" Milly exclaimed be- 
 seechingly, " think of something else ; it is too 
 much of an enterprise for us to undertake." 
 
 " My only objection to it is that it is not 
 enough of an enterprise. As you say, it would 
 appeal only to New York, and I want to think 
 of something which will interest children every- 
 where." 
 
 Winnie thought, and gradually her ideas took 
 shape in a photographic baby show, an exhi- 
 bition of the photographs of children instead of 
 the children themselves. She issued a little 
 circular explaining her plan. The Society of 
 Amateur Photographers of New York offered 
 her their rooms for the exhibition, the Gorham 
 Manufacturing Company struck silver and 
 bronze medals for her, and the city newspapers 
 spread the invitation. 
 
 Medals were offered for the prettiest baby, 
 the judges to be a committee of artists ; for 
 the most perfect baby physically, as decided 
 by a committee of eminent New York physi-
 
 LEAGUE OF THE JUNIOR PATRONS. 347 
 
 cians ; for the baby with most varied expres- 
 sion, the prize to be awarded by a committee 
 of celebrated comedians ; for the most intelli- 
 gent baby, according to the. opinion of a com- 
 mittee of teachers ; and for the dearest and 
 sweetest baby, the judges of this class being a 
 committee of grandmothers. 
 
 That the exhibition would be successful was 
 a foregone conclusion, but as Winnie's main 
 object was to help the Home, she instituted at 
 the same time a League of Junior Patrons and 
 Patronesses of children who were willing to 
 contribute one dollar annually to the char- 
 ity, and only members of this League were 
 permitted to enter into competition for the 
 prizes. 
 
 From all over the country came letters in- 
 quiring about the Messiah Home, and the girls 
 were kept busy for weeks answering them and 
 telling of the work, with a result that at the 
 opening of the exhibition the League numbered 
 over four hundred members, and a handsome 
 sum was realized for the Home. But Winnie 
 saw that there were still greater possibilities 
 with these four hundred names as a nucleus, 
 and a meeting of the members resident in New
 
 348 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 York was called for organization shortly after 
 the exhibition. 
 
 It was a most interesting and unique occa- 
 sion. The ages of the members present ranged 
 from three to thirteen. The President (elected 
 from his photograph by the children visiting 
 the exhibition), John Francis Russell, aged 
 nine, took the chair and made a very creditable 
 inaugural address, which was roundly cheered 
 by the children. Then other officers and com- 
 mittees were nominated and elected. The Sec- 
 retary, the five-year-old daughter of Mrs. Don- 
 ald McLean, Regent of the Daughters of the 
 American Revolution, made a brief address, 
 which was supplemented by a brilliant one by 
 her mother. Miss Betty Collamore, of 165 
 West Fifty-eighth Street, was made Treasurer, 
 and little Edwin Gould, Jr., Chairman of the 
 Executive Committee. The children were en- 
 thusiastic and yet dignified, and all their pro- 
 ceedings were conducted with a decorum and 
 parliamentary order from which the Senate of 
 the United States would have done well to take 
 example. Speeches and motions were made 
 from the floor, the youthful President presiding 
 all the time with perfect self-possession, grace,
 
 LEAGUE OF THE JUNIOR PATRONS. 349 
 
 and dignity. Letters were read from absent 
 members, and among them the following from 
 little Van Wyck Ferris, of Yonkers : 
 
 " I'm only a tiny laddie, 
 
 Not quite on the stroke of five, 
 And yet as full of mischief 
 
 As any boy alive ; 
 But tho' I am small in stature, 
 
 I am very large in heart, 
 And in helping poor little children 
 
 I want to bear my part. 
 I am glad that you made me a ' Patron,' 
 
 I will serve you whenever you like, 
 And I hope that the little children 
 
 Will know I'm their friend 
 
 VANWlOK." 
 
 It was evident that the parents welcomed the 
 organization as educating their children in con- 
 certed philanthropic work, and a campaign was 
 arranged for the coming season, in which the 
 work of the League was to be done by the chil- 
 dren themselves, and abundant opportunity 
 afforded them in field days, business meetings, 
 receptions, and matinees for meetings of social 
 recreation. It was Winnie's aim to make the 
 children enjoy their organization, to make them 
 enthusiastic in working for it, and to have the
 
 350 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 money tax so light that it would not be felt by 
 any parent. 
 
 A Guard of Honor was organized for the boys, 
 with a grand marshal at its head. It was de- 
 cided that the guard should parade on field 
 days, and should escort the little children a^ 
 the Home to Central Park on May day, that 
 its officers should act as ushers at entertain- 
 ments given by the Maids of Honor, and hold 
 themselves in readiness to assist them in other 
 ways. A large number of the guard were at 
 their own request made recruiting sergeants, 
 and furnished with little books in which to en- 
 roll recruits from their friends. 
 
 The League decided that their first meeting 
 in October, 1895, should be at the Messiah 
 Home, and should be called Autumn Leaf Day, 
 and at this meeting the recruiting sergeants 
 should report their recruits those having 
 secured ten to be promoted to the rank of mar- 
 shal, and presented with a badge. At the an- 
 nual meeting the following spring the marshal 
 who secured most new members would be made 
 grand marshal for the ensuing year. 
 
 A division of the League analogous to the 
 (juard of Honor was arranged for the little girls.
 
 LEAGUE OF TUB JUNIOR PATRONS 351 
 
 Any one who desired was made a member of 
 the Entertainment Committee. Should she give 
 a lawn party or other entertainment during the 
 summer which would bring in ten dollars, she 
 would, at the Autumn Leaf Meeting, be consti- 
 tuted a Maid of Honor. The Maids would be 
 patronesses of all the matinees, carnivals, ex- 
 hibitions, and other entertainments given by 
 the League during the winter, and would give 
 a reception to the guard. The Maid most suc- 
 cessful in her efforts would be Queen of May 
 on the next May day. 
 
 These were some of the plans made for the 
 New York contingent of the League of the 
 Junior Patrons and Patronesses ; but the prob- 
 lem which absorbed Winnie's chief attention 
 was how to interest children not living in New 
 York in the charity, and what work to arrange 
 for them. 
 
 The exhibition of babies' photographs had 
 partially solved the problem, and it was 
 decided to hold another similar exhibition in 
 the spring of 1890, and at the same time to 
 publish the first number of the organ of the 
 League, a children's paper, edited, composed, 
 and illustrated by children, the proceeds to be
 
 352 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 devoted to the help of the children of the 
 poor. 
 
 A staff of child editors were appointed, headed 
 by little Gilbert White, youngest child of Dr. 
 John S. White, Head Master of the Berkeley 
 School, and by Master Karl Dodge, grandson 
 of Mary Mapes Dodge, editor of St. Nicholas. 
 The staff included children from a number of 
 other American as well as several " European 
 correspondents," juvenile artists were assigned 
 to the art department, and an invitation issued 
 to children everywhere to join the League and 
 contribute to its paper. 
 
 To give an idea of the kind of contributions 
 desired, and to stimulate effort, a prize of a 
 beautiful silver spoon, designed and made espe- 
 cially for the Messiah Home, and decorated in 
 repousse, with a figure of Charity on the handle 
 and cherub heads in the bowl, was offered for 
 the best article, story, or illustration under each 
 of the following classes : 
 
 1. For the best short story of some animal or 
 animals, descriptive of their habits or intelli- 
 gence or inculcating humanity. 
 
 2. For the best rhymed description of any 
 athletic contest.
 
 LEAGUE OF THE JUNIOR PATRONS. 353 
 
 3. For the best description of any nautical 
 event, of boats, fishing, or adventure by sea. 
 
 4. For the best tourist's letter descriptive of 
 a visit to some remarkable place or person. 
 
 5. For the most humorous article or story. 
 
 6. For the best puzzle. 
 
 7. For the best contribution not included in 
 any of the above classes. 
 
 8. For the best illustration (drawing in pen 
 and ink). 
 
 9. For the most humorous drawing. 
 
 10. For the photograph best adapted for re- 
 production as an illustration. 
 
 11. For the most artistic design in any branch 
 of applied art, as embroidery, wood-carving, etc. 
 
 12. For the best kindergarten design by a 
 child not over five years of age. 
 
 13. For the brightest saying by a child not 
 over five years of age. 
 
 (Note. Those who have read the earlier vol- 
 umes know of the Home founded by children 
 for children in New York City, and that though 
 many of the characters and adventures de- 
 scribed in the Witch Winnie series are fictitious, 
 this beautiful charity, the Messiah Home for 
 Children, is as true and real in its working as 
 it is lovely and ideal in its conception.
 
 354 WITCH WINNIE AT VERSAILLES. 
 
 It is situated at 145 East Fifteenth Street, 
 and gathers the children of working women 
 who have no help from husbands, who are 
 either sick, out of work, in prison, or dead, or 
 worse than dead. Any woman who must go 
 out to service or in some other way be the bread- 
 winner, and can have no home of her own, can 
 leave her children here to be cared for as chil- 
 dren should be cared for ; sweet beds at night, 
 good, wholesome food, neat clothing, capable 
 instruction, loving care, all for the nominal 
 sum of a dollar and a quarter ($1.25) per week. 
 Of course it costs much more than this to give 
 such privileges, and the necessary funds are 
 made up by private subscriptions from kind 
 people of all Christian denominations, for the 
 Home is entirely unsectarian. For seven years, 
 since the time of its founding by a circle of lit- 
 tle girls, who built better than they knew, the 
 Home has largely been helped by children. 
 Circles of King's Daughters in various parts of 
 the land have from time to time " adopted" a 
 special child, making it their protege, paying 
 its board regularly and making its clothing. 
 Sunday-school classes, circles of the Christian 
 Endeavor, private schools have owned a " guest 
 bed" in the Home, where the occupant was as 
 truly their guest as if entertained in their 
 father's house. The League, which is here de- 
 scribed as of Winnie's forming, is really in ex- 
 istence, and all readers of the Winnie books are 
 cordially invited to join it and to take part in 
 the prize competition, which will remain open 
 until March, 1896. Further information may 
 be obtained by addressing Mrs. J. Wells Champ- 
 ney, 96 Fifth Avenue, New York.)
 
 LEAGUE OF THE JUNIOR PATRONS. 355 
 
 Winnie's work with the Junior Patrons is at 
 this writing still an experiment. How it suc- 
 ceeded may be told, if our readers care to hear, 
 in a sequel to Milly's Shinnecock experience 
 (when Stacey, too, will strive to atone for his 
 great fault), in a volume to be entitled " Witch 
 Winnie in Holland.." In the mean time we -can 
 assure our friends that the girls found the 
 change from their dream life in Versailles to an 
 active, unselfish life in New York an easy one 
 easy because the tears which had wet their 
 cheeks through the magic touch of the tear of 
 the aloe had taught them the mistake of the 
 pleasure-loving voluptuaries of the past, had 
 taught them that there is no safety for the na- 
 tion which despises the cry of its poor, and no 
 happiness for any individual, no matter how 
 surrounded by luxury and culture, except in 
 the divine enthusiasm of working for others. 
 
 THE END.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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