France by the way of Versailles. He played
with Louis XIV and pleased him greatly, but Chamillard was no
statesman, as history and the following lines from his epitaph point
out.

"_Ci git le fameux Chamillard
De son Roy le pronotaire
Qui fut un heros au billard
Un zero dans le Ministere._"

This apartment of the OEil de Boeuf was the ancient Cabi du Conseil.
It is a wonderfully decorated apartment, and its furnishings, beyond
those which are actually built into the fabric, are likewise of a
splendour and good taste which it is to be regretted is not everywhere
to be noted in the vast palace of Louis XIV. The garnishings of the
chimney-piece alone would make any great room interesting and well
furnished, and the great golden clock, finely chiselled and brilliantly
burnished, is about the most satisfactory French clock one ever saw,
marking, as it does, in its style, the transition between that of Louis
XIV and Louis XV.

Versailles, in many respects, falls far short to-day of the ideal; its
very bigness and bareness greatly detract from the value of the historic
souvenir which has come down to us. Changes could undoubtedly be made to
advantage, and to this point much agitation has lately been directed,
particularly in cutting out some of the recently grown up trees which
have spoiled the classic vistas of the park, and the removal of those
ugly equestrian statues which the Monarchy of July erected.

Versailles only came under Napoleon's cursory regard for a brief moment.
He hardly knew whether he would care to make his home here or not, but
ordered his architects to make estimates for certain projects which he
had conceived and when he got them was so staggered at their magnitude
that he at once threw over any idea that he may have had of making it
his dwelling.

The Revolution had stripped the palace quite bare; no wonder that the
emperor balked at the cost of putting it in order. Napoleon may have had
his regrets for he made various allusions to Versailles while exiled at
Saint Helena, but then it was too late.

Louis Philippe took a matter-of-fact view of the possible service that
the vast pile might render to his family and accordingly spent much
money in a great expanse of gaudy wall decorations which are there
to-day, thinking to make of it a show place over which might preside the
genius of his sons.

These acres of meaningless battle-pieces, Algerian warfare and what not
are characteristi