ult with which it could be reproached, it was its
grand, pretentious character. It is even at the present day proverbial
to calculate the number of acres of roofing, the restoration of which
would, in our age, be the ruin of fortunes cramped and narrowed as the
epoch itself. Vaux-le-Vicomte, when its magnificent gates, supported
by caryatides, have been passed through, has the principal front of the
main building opening upon a vast, so-called, court of honor, inclosed
by deep ditches, bordered by a magnificent stone balustrade. Nothing
could be more noble in appearance than the central forecourt raised upon
the flight of steps, like a king upon his throne, having around it
four pavilions at the angles, the immense Ionic columns of which rose
majestically to the whole height of the building. The friezes ornamented
with arabesques, and the pediments which crowned the pilasters,
conferred richness and grace on every part of the building, while the
domes which surmounted the whole added proportion and majesty. This
mansion, built by a subject, bore a far greater resemblance to those
royal residences which Wolsey fancied he was called upon to construct,
in order to present them to his master form the fear of rendering him
jealous. But if magnificence and splendor were displayed in any one
particular part of this palace more than another,--if anything could
be preferred to the wonderful arrangement of the interior, to the
sumptuousness of the gilding, and to the profusion of the paintings and
statues, it would be the park and gardens of Vaux. The _jets d'eau_,
which were regarded as wonderful in 1653, are still so, even at the
present time; the cascades awakened the admiration of kings and princes;
and as for the famous grotto, the theme of so many poetical effusions,
the residence of that illustrious nymph of Vaux, whom Pelisson made
converse with La Fontaine, we must be spared the description of all
its beauties. We will do as Despreaux did,--we will enter the park, the
trees of which are of eight years' growth only--that is to say, in their
present position--and whose summits even yet, as they proudly tower
aloft, blushingly unfold their leaves to the earliest rays of the rising
sun. Lenotre had hastened the pleasure of the Maecenas of his period;
all the nursery-grounds had furnished trees whose growth had been
accelerated by careful culture and the richest plant-food. Every tree in
the neighborhood which presented a fair