Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1876 — OLD-TIME FRANCE. [ARTICLE]

OLD-TIME FRANCE .

The Klfig was reduced to utter -sell ► tydpletMMW, in accordance wnh the atul WbiWter of the household bad alarg rvtiniMof senanta ri. bta w—nand. ] , was his duty to see to the proper furnish togtorthof the royal and he y tyoutroltereand masters of the counting -JsufiW tvan-week. • 'The duty of provid ing the hooeehOld was over thesaprauded the fink ririf re <T Aotefl Under him were twelve asstatynts, whqs* napkin which he used before eatings TWR wutHßnW masttTrwMMwMting! house for disbursing the expenditures | and there’was an officer whose sole duty -was that of the grand chamberlain. Hd was a gnmff '•gentleman ffideed, usually* a Dufo orMarQjiUof high^*™ evert the first gentleman of the chamber, hiss .veistte satia. with « wiytof mhgnffiertit’ fflWfimW 1 -; •tor chamberlain ih"lc& arduous Uutifto irf^toffiwg’to r KS •Jfc»t ; . & tun : Majesty's personal wants; and I these in turn were assisted tty I four Hue blooded valuta, tyho slept by turns below the Kingls bed, ready to serve his slightest wish. Under the graq<pimn>b4fM4|<oo, were sixteen ush-yr-,4j»wty-twv sutojalets, twelve beams of the mantie. -two aiquebusterß, eight betides painters and sculptors, kennelwsjsrgdat. tab binerwmsh, and Ms/uritotf«afto??wriian ptM King undressed; ’be .Itnadedthimjhiiß night-dress, nightcap and .handkerchief; white-other maateN of the EmW-TH 8 few®. glovas, Wj aml readers, mte two ushers and lite taterpr’etfetVand trshslatorat therb Was. t ''mi£ fidconer'irtA another Set bf Sjrvants; a large' number 'were employed tn the care Wifi' decbriitlbn o? the King's parices, among them four or five architects,''three cottcHfalte? footmen, ■there were many? Theist ’ WBNTVJrious corps d«v*tedMtore tjroy|l an% among the staff employed in the garS;.sss?«w3fiMw - a •

The expense of this gorgeous establishMeudon, Fontainebleau, Cajnpiegne, St. ■Cloud, where the same royal state was Jieved, enormous. The statement of a few ■of the salaries and other expenditures wjll serve to ilJratpate tri What eMMWtor France wns burdened and bled to aoteain •the-pomp of ite-ndn *ad dianotatetnjfafty. Tire Ua&ptrpMfleinan of fancy dors'! fifteen bunditd. ■ OaoßeoM caatonhonteXVl., who waafarf rote haiiw,« umd thrift tor nartnwt laid step crar .half a million dollars.in tepairUHt his furniture; and this was anwnaaal ate twenty thousand dollars, by reftob mine th* court. Thw/mfcS wtttHftjr df'tldilrin/ <ptare to piece cost -Mm h® a fihndr avftir. The military corps attending nit majesty, Swiss guardsmen, the ‘Criw ' tansfinrthe Mie guardsmen,” All nearly ten rimes.ias a theater, and sometimes *k - a baiiTOom;” wore!nearly bro thousawi h«»«8; eras twte hundnea vehicles of varia—fWH; <eibK ftaen * Jj PF court. iftil and' dtefflnr horseman llis maiesfv ihad three hunted horses exalusivi’lvda Tfifs sfffrtliitay 1’ fwd cost fifty thousand doltare, Qd -•.W™ 11,1 8

■W ' 'V J»- ■ ■ ?. • I Mites of forest land about Versailles and and his <‘Xt nu^Wn a 6.(jf war; <-vAb gMdsoff glories inTfe «» head in a day. and his SO.OOO ptata l<J> MT rha.tytmJtajf toes on inwNMintly in the season.* “The King,” writes M. de Luvnes, in 174*? “ has been hunting every day of the paM and present awk, except to-day and dh Sundays, killing, since the beginning, 8,500 partridges.” When there is not hunting, some other luxurious recreation awaits the pleasure'of the King and court. One day, it is the comedians of the French theater; another, it is the Italian opera, performed in that historic theater ofVersailles; these days are eked out by the gaming at the tables of the jev de rot, by splendid suppers in the banqueting hall, by garden fetes, with illuminations and plav of waters in the park, and by dress-balls and glittering masquerades, which the rising sun catches in full career. Consider for a moment the royal tableservice at Versailles, and what it costa.' There are three sets of tables spread every day. One is Occupied by august majesty itself, with the princes and princesses; a second is devoted to the great officers of the household—the Grand Chamberlain, Grand Marshal, and so on; the third is crowded by two or three hundred of the court officials; and these tables are served by over a hundred waiters. The annual expense of this daily feasting is about half a million dollars. But these are only the tables of the King. The mem bers of his family, it must be remembered, have each a separate establishment of his or her own. Those of the royal mesdames include two hundred servants; Madame Elizabeth, the sister of Louis XVI., must be served by sixty-eight pairs of diligent hands; the Countesses u’Artois and de Provence, wives of the King’s brothers (both of whom were long afterward to be Kings themselves), are stately with households of two hundred and fifty servitors each; while Marie Antoinette's establishment hums with five hundred attendants of high and low degree. Even the little princess royal, afterward to become Duchess d’Angouleme, after escaping the fate of her parents on the guillotine and her brother at the Temple—even she, when but a month old absolutely needs eighty persons to do her service. Charles and Louis, the King’s brothers, are provided for separately from the King and from their wives. Louis of Provence has a “civil household” of 500, and a “military household” of 200; Charles of Artois, as a younger brother, must be content with 230 men of the military and 450 of the civil sort of servants. “ Three-fourths of these,” says Taine, “ are for display; with their embroideries and laces, their unembarrassed and polite expression their attentive and discreet air. their easy way saluting, walking and smiling, they appear well in an ante-chamber placed in lines, or scattered in groups in a gallery; I should have liked to contemplate even the stable and kitchen array, the figures filling up the background of the picture. By these stars of inferior magnitude we may judge of the splendor of tlie royal sun.” The total expense of all the tables to which the gallant multitudes sat ’own daily at Versailles was more than $700,000 a year. The wine bill alone was $60,000, the meat and game $200,000, the fish $15,000. The whole number of persons employed about and forming the court reache*d at least 15,000; and to maintain the court cost not less than $8,000,000 a year then, which was equal to what $16,000,000 would be know; and it was onetenth of the total revenue of France.

The head swims with all this multitude and with all these figures. We are dazzled even by the thought of so much pomp and magnificence, such reckless expenditure; such prodigious waste. No wonder, perhaps, that every French grand seigneur longed to be one of the court, though that court was the most glaring proof of how the nobility had decayed, and how all its grandeur and greatness had been chained to the royal chariotwheels. There was no one so high that he did not eagerly join in the adulation of royalty. Everybody, churchman or ‘layman, made it “the duty duty in life to be at all hours and in every place under the king’s eye, within reach of his voice and his glance.” It was literally true that “ the true courtier follows the Krince as a shadow follows its body.” Iven the Duke de Richelieu writes to Madame de Maintenon that it were preferable to die rather than be without the light of the royal countenance for two months; while the Duke de la Rochefoucauld made it a boast that he had never missed the King’s rising aid going to bed. People paid thousands of dollars for the privilege of being a royal valet or cloak-bearer. We hear of old sourtiers of eighty, who have spent half the time of that long life on their feet, dancing attendance on majesty! The palace is ever crowded, and with such i crowd! One would think that India tad exhausted her gems, and Fnmce her nlksand satins, to provide forthedazding show; that the deft arts and work* nanship of the world could scarcely have sufficed to furnish forth the decorations tnd ornaments; that Nature must have forced the life and juices of the earth to supply the vast wealth of flowers garlandid and grouped in corridors and reception lulls. Never was there a period when he art of dress was carried to a greater lerfection in color and shape, in elaborate aste and fanciful deviSfc. “There is not i toilet here, an air of the head, a tone of he voice, an expression in language, vhich is not a masterpiece of worldly culure, the distilled quintessence of all that s exquisitely elaborated by social art.” Ve can only fully realize the amazement vhich Franklin, appearing in plain, nuff-colored attire, caused the French .'ourt, when we comprehend the gorgeous diminution which the art of dress had -eached. The ladies' skirts, “ ranged in a :ircle, or in tiers on the benches, form an spatter covered with pearls, gold, silver, ewels, spangles, flowers and fruits, with heir artificial blossoms, gooseberries, berries, strawberries—a gigantic, animated bouquet of which the eye can carcely support the brilliancy.” The men were scarcely less splendid in attire han the women, with their buckles and rigs, their lace cuffs and cravats, their liken coats and “ vests of the hues of the alien leaves, or of a delicate icse-tini, or >f celestial blue, embellished with gold •raid and embroidery;” their swords with ichly-chased hilts, and their chapeaux thick with lace and feathers. | In such gorgeous fashion lived the French King and his court; and thus royalty and the court continued till the time came for the people to rise, and, in their rage,.and hunger, and thirst for vengeance, to put out the lights of this dazzling scene, and Jay low this most magnificent of all “ theatres royal" in smoking ruins M. Toxle, in Apptatont'