ignificant motto; for in his own hands he had really concentrated all
the powers of the realm, and woe to him who trifled with a majesty so
real and so imperial!

However, notwithstanding all this imposing strength, this mighty
domineering will, and this keen intelligence, a man was found bold
enough to brave them all in the arena of pure humbug. It was toward the
close of the year 1667, when Louis, in the plenitude of military
success, returned from his campaign in Flanders, where his invincible
troops had proven too much for the broad breeched but gallant Dutchmen.
In the short space of three months he had added whole provinces,
including some forty or fifty cities and towns, to his dominions; and
his fame was ringing throughout Christendom. It had even penetrated to
the farthest East; and the King of Siam sent a costly embassy from his
remote kingdom, to offer his congratulations and fraternal greeting to
the most eminent potentate of Europe.

Louis had already removed the pageantries of his royal household to his
magnificent new palace of Versailles, on which the wealth of conquered
kingdoms had been lavished, and there, in the Great Hall of Mirrors,
received the homage of his own nobles and the ambassadors of foreign
powers. The utmost splendor of which human life was susceptible seemed
so common and familiar in those days, that the train was dazzling indeed
that could excite any very particular attention. What would have seemed
stupendous elsewhere was only in conformity with all the rest of the
scene at Versailles. But, at length, there came something that made even
the pampered courtiers of the new Babylon stare--a Persian embassy. Yes,
a genuine, actual, living envoy from that wonderful Empire in the East,
which in her time had ruled the whole Oriental world, and still retained
almost fabulous wealth and splendor.

It was announced formally, one morning, to Louis, that His Most Serene
Excellency, Riza Bey, with an interminable tail of titles, hangers-on
and equipages, had reached the port of Marseilles, having journeyed by
way of Trebizond and Constantinople, to lay before the great "King of
the Franks" brotherly congratulations and gorgeous presents from his own
illustrious master, the Shah of Persia. This was something entirely to
the taste of the vain French ruler, whom unlimited good fortune had
inflated beyond all reasonable proportions. He firmly believed that he
was by far the greatest man who had ever