small apartment, for the cardinal built
more for effect upon the world than for his own personal comfort; but it
was conveniently located for the proper care of the young king, for
whose sake alone the name of the palace had been changed.

The Palais-Royal, as enlarged and beautified from time to time by its
first occupant, who was ambitious to be more magnificently lodged than
the nominal sovereign at the Louvre, was the most splendid royal
residence of the time. Corneille, the greatest tragic poet of France,
said of it in one of his poems, that "the entire universe cannot present
the equal of the magnificent exterior of the Palais-Cardinal;" though,
as the stranger looks upon it to-day, the praise of the French
Shakespeare seems to be extravagant.

The apartments of the queen-regent were vastly more extensive and
elegant than those of his little majesty, and she caused a great deal of
money and good taste to be expended in their further ornamentation.
Cardinal Mazarin also went to reside with the royal family in this
luxurious palace, and his rooms looked out upon the Rue des Bons Enfants
(the street of the Good Children), though the name was hardly applicable
to those who dwelt in the place. Louis was provided with the
surroundings of royalty on a small scale, such as valets, and young
nobles as children of honor, even while the young king was pinched in
his personal comforts and luxuries. Until he was seven years old Louis
was mostly in the hands of the feminine portion of the household, like
other children. At this age the governor appointed to take charge of
him, the sub-governor, the preceptor, and the valets, entered upon their
special functions; the king was practically emancipated from the
nursery.

Laporte, a valet who had long been on duty in the royal family, and had
served a term in the Bastille for his fidelity, desired to read to the
king, when he went to bed, something besides fairy tales; if his
juvenile majesty went to sleep the reading would be lost; if not,
something instructive would be retained in his memory. He read the
history of France, and his charge was interested in it. Permission had
been obtained of the preceptor, but Mazarin did not approve of the
reading. One evening, to escape from the crowd, the cardinal passed
through the room during the reading. Louis closed his eyes and pretended
to be asleep. He had already taken a strong aversion to the minister,
like the greater portion of the