of the slopes of Saint-Cyr. Also, from the windows that
opened on the courtyard, he saw the entrance to his fortress and the
embankment by which he had connected his favorite residence with the
city of Tours. If Louis XI. had bestowed upon the building of his castle
the luxury of architecture which Francois I. displayed afterwards at
Chambord, the dwelling of the kings of France would ever have remained
in Touraine. It is enough to see this splendid position and its magical
effects to be convinced of its superiority over the sites of all other
royal residences.

Louis XI., now in the fifty-seventh year of his age, had scarcely more
than three years longer to live; already he felt the coming on of death
in the attacks of his mortal malady. Delivered from his enemies; on the
point of increasing the territory of France by the possessions of the
Dukes of Burgundy through the marriage of the Dauphin with Marguerite,
heiress of Burgundy (brought about by means of Desquerdes, commander of
his troops in Flanders); having established his authority everywhere,
and now meditating ameliorations in his kingdom of all kinds, he saw
time slipping past him rapidly with no further troubles than those
of old age. Deceived by every one, even by the minions about him,
experience had intensified his natural distrust. The desire to live
became in him the egotism of a king who has incarnated himself in his
people; he wished to prolong his life in order to carry out his vast
designs.

All that the common-sense of publicists and the genius of revolutions
has since introduced of change in the character of monarchy, Louis XI.
had thought of and devised. Unity of taxation, equality of subjects
before the law (the prince being then the law) were the objects of his
bold endeavors. On All-Saints' eve he had gathered together the learned
goldsmiths of his kingdom for the purpose of establishing in France a
unity of weights and measures, as he had already established the unity
of power. Thus, his vast spirit hovered like an eagle over his empire,
joining in a singular manner the prudence of a king to the natural
idiosyncracies of a man of lofty aims. At no period in our history
has the great figure of Monarchy been finer or more poetic. Amazing
assemblages of contrasts! a great power in a feeble body; a spirit
unbelieving as to all things here below, devoutly believing in the
practices of religion; a man struggling with two powers greater than his
o