an, three days after the ceremony of laying the
foundation stone by the king on the 17th October 1665, left to winter
in Rome, promising to return with his wife in the following February.
He carried with him a munificent gift of 3000 gold louis and a pension
of 12,000 livres for himself and of 1,200 for his son. The pension was
paid regularly up to 1674, but the great Bernini was never seen in
Paris again.

[Footnote 146: Bernini, according to Charles Perrault, was short in
stature, good-humoured, and seasoned his conversation with parables,
good stories and _bons mots_; never tiring of talking of his own
country, of Michel Angelo and of himself. For a full history of these
intrigues, see Ch. Normand's _Paris_.]

Among the designs originally submitted to Colbert, and approved by him
and Lebrun, was one which had not been sent to Rome. It was the work
of an amateur, Claude Perrault, a physician, whose brother, Charles
Perrault, was chief clerk in the Office of Works. This was brought
forth early in 1667, and a commission, consisting of Levau, Lebrun,
Claude Perrault and others, appointed to report on its practicability.
Levau promptly produced his own discarded designs, and both were
submitted to the king for a final decision on 13th May. Louis was
fascinated by the stately classicism of Perrault's design, and this
was adopted. "Architecture must be in a bad state," said his rivals,
"since it is put in the hands of a physician." Colbert seems, however,
to have distrusted Claude's technical powers and on his brother
Charles' advice a council of specialists, consisting of Levau, Lebrun,
and Claude was appointed under the presidency of Colbert. Charles was
made secretary and many were the quarrels between the rival architects
over practical details. Perrault's new wing was found to be
seventy-two feet too long, but the sovereign fiat had gone forth, the
new east facade was raised and the whole of Levau's river front was
masked by a new facade, rendered necessary by the excessive length of
Perrault's design. The whole south wing[147] is in consequence much
wider than any of the others which enclose the great quadrangle. Poor
Levau's end was hastened by vexation and grief. Even to this day the
north-east wing of Perrault's facade projects unsymmetrically beyond
the line of the north front. The work has been much criticised and
much praised. It evoked Fergusson's ecstatic admiration, was extolled
by Reynolds and eulogised by