courses. In a Carnival frolic, he appeared in the streets with two
companions in the character of bipeds with feathers,--a scanty addition
to Plato's definition of man. This airy costume was too much for French
modesty, proverbially shrinking and sensitive. The mob hooted and gave
chase. The maskers fled from the town and hid themselves in a marsh to
evade pursuit. The result of this venturesome _travestissement_ was the
death of both his friends, and an attack of inflammatory rheumatism
which twisted Scarron for life into the shape of the letter Z.

The Surintendant's _hotel_, at St. Mande, was a marvel of art, his
library the best in France. The number and value of his books was urged
against him, on his trial, as evidence of his peculations. His
country-seat, at Vaux, cost him eighteen millions of livres. Three
villages were bought and razed to enlarge the grounds. Le Vau built the
_chateau_. Le Brun painted the ceilings and panels. La Fontaine and
Michel Gervaise furnished French and Latin mottoes for the allegorical
designs. Le Notre laid out the gardens in the style which may still be
seen at Versailles. Torelli, an Italian engineer, decorated them with
artificial cascades and fountains, a wonder of science to Frenchmen in
the seventeenth century. Puget had collected the statues which
embellished them. There was a collection of wild animals, a rare
spectacle before the days of zoological gardens,--an aviary of foreign
birds,--tanks as large as ponds, in which, among other odd fish, swam a
sturgeon and a salmon taken in the Seine. Everything was magnificent,
and everything was new,--so original and so perfect, that Louis XIV.,
after he had crushed the Surintendant, could find no plans so good and
no artists so skilful as these _pour embellir son regne_. He was obliged
to imitate the man he hated. Even Fouquet's men of letters were soon
enrolled in the service of the King.

In March, 1661, Mazarin died, full of honor. His favorite saying, "_Il
tiempo e un galantuomo_," was fulfilled for him. In spite of many
desperate disappointments and defeats, _Messer Tiempo_ had made him
rich, powerful, and triumphant. The young King, who had already
announced his theory of government in the well-known speech, "_L'Etat,
c'est moi_," waited patiently, and with respect, (filial, some have
said,) for the old man to depart. He put on mourning, a compliment never
paid but once before by a French sovereign to the memory of a
subjec