tself
reproduced on canvas in all its moods. No painter ever lived, nor could
all the painters that ever lived, exhaust its infinite variety. Hebert
in his "_Dictionnaire de la Foret de Fontainebleau_" says, rightly
enough, that, with the coming of the men of Fontainebleau and its
"_artist-villages_" the classic type of "Paysage d'Italie" has
disappeared from the Salon Catalogues.

Art amateurs and the common people alike made the reputation of
Fontainebleau; the mere "trippers" were brought thither by Denecourt,
but the real forest lovers were those who were attracted by the
masterpieces of the painters. The town of Fontainebleau has changed
somewhat under this double influence. At Fontainebleau itself are two
monuments in memory of painters who have passed away. One of these is to
the memory of Decamps, who was killed by a fall from his horse while
riding in the forest; it is a simple bust, the work of Carrier-Belleuse.
The other is of Rosa Bonheur who died at Thomery, a little village on
the southern border of the forest, in 1902; it is an almost life-size
bull from a small model by the artist herself and surmounts a pedestal
which also bears a medallion of the artist.

CHAPTER XII

BY THE BANKS OF THE SEINE

On the highroad to Saint Germain one passes innumerable historic
monuments which suggest the generous part that many minor chateaux
played in the court life of the capital of old.

To-day, Maisons, La Muette and Bagatelle are mere names which serve the
tram lines for roof signs and scarcely one in a thousand strangers gives
them a thought.

The famous Bois de Boulogne and its immediate environment have for
centuries formed a delicious verdant framing for a species of French
country-house which could not have existed within the fortifications.
These luxurious, bijou dwellings, some of them, at least, the caprices
of kings, others the property of the new nobility, and still others of
mere plebeian kings of finance, are in a class quite by themselves.

Perhaps the most famous of these is the celebrated Bagatelle, within the
confines of the Bois itself. The Chateau de Bagatelle was built in a
month, thus meriting its name, by the Comte d'Artois, the future
Charles X, as a result of a wager with Marie Antoinette. On its facade
it originally bore the inscription: "_Parva sed apta_"--"small but
convenient."

[Illustration]

Bagatelle occupied a corner of the royal domain and, after its
completion,