f St. Denis,
where his race lay buried, he would say to his courtiers, with a sublime
condescension, "Gentlemen, you must remember that I, too, am mortal."
Surely the lords in waiting could hardly think him serious, and vowed
that his Majesty always loved a joke. However, mortal or not, the sight
of that sharp spire wounded his Majesty's eyes; and is said, by the
legend, to have caused the building of the palace of Babel-Versailles.

In the year 1681, then, the great king, with bag and baggage,--with
guards, cooks, chamberlains, mistresses, Jesuits, gentlemen, lackeys,
Fenelons, Molieres, Lauzuns, Bossuets, Villars, Villeroys, Louvois,
Colberts,--transported himself to his new palace: the old one being left
for James of England and Jaquette his wife, when their time should come.
And when the time did come, and James sought his brother's kingdom,
it is on record that Louis hastened to receive and console him, and
promised to restore, incontinently, those islands from which the
canaille had turned him. Between brothers such a gift was a trifle; and
the courtiers said to one another reverently:* "The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy
footstool." There was no blasphemy in the speech: on the contrary, it
was gravely said, by a faithful believing man, who thought it no shame
to the latter, to compare his Majesty with God Almighty. Indeed, the
books of the time will give one a strong idea how general was this
Louis-worship. I have just been looking at one, which was written by
an honest Jesuit and Protege of Pere la Chaise, who dedicates a book of
medals to the august Infants of France, which does, indeed, go almost
as far in print. He calls our famous monarch "Louis le Grand:--1,
l'invincible; 2, le sage; 3, le conquerant; 4, la merveille de son
siecle; 5, la terreur de ses ennemis; 6, l'amour de ses peuples; 7,
l'arbitre de la paix et de la guerre; 8, l'admiration de l'univers; 9,
et digne d'en etre le maitre; 10, le modele d'un heros acheve; 11, digne
de l'immortalite, et de la veneration de tous les siecles!"

* I think it is in the amusing "Memoirs of Madame de Crequi"
(a forgery, but a work remarkable for its learning and
accuracy) that the above anecdote is related.

A pretty Jesuit declaration, truly, and a good honest judgment upon the
great king! In thirty years more--1. The invincible had been beaten a
vast number of times. 2. The sage was the puppet o