In 1872 all the surviving members of the French Royal Family assembled
at Chantilly to celebrate the wedding of Princesse Marguerite, daughter
of the Duc de Nemours with Prince Ladislas Czartoysky; and on this
occasion the great battle-pieces representing the military glories of
the great Condé were replaced in the Gallery.
In the early spring of that year, King Edward and Queen Alexandra--then
Prince and Princess of Wales--paid a visit to the Duc d'Aumale; with
whom they had contracted a warm friendship during his residence in
England.
But just when calm and happiness seemed to have at last returned to
Chantilly, another heavy blow fell upon it. The young Duc de Guise was
struck down by typhoid fever and died after a few days' illness. With
his sudden death all plans for the improvement of the Château and estate
came to an abrupt standstill, for the heart-broken father had now to
realise that, as he himself mournfully put it, "_la dernière flamme de
son foyer était éteinte_."
A new scheme now took shape in the heart of the Lord of Chantilly: a
scheme at first kept to himself, and which had revolved in his mind long
before he made it public. He intended to take France by surprise. This
scheme was a no less magnificent one than to bestow Chantilly with all
its appurtenances and contents upon the French nation. Once more the
long interrupted design of the architect Duban, made before the exile of
the Duke and Duchess, was recommenced: this time by M. Daumet, who
undertook also the difficult task of rebuilding the Grand Château. After
years of labour there arose once more upon the vaults of this famous
fortress the present building, destined to become the Musée Condé, a
veritable palace of Literature and Art. Its architecture, in order to
harmonise with that of Montmorency's Petit Château, is directly copied
from sixteenth-century designs. But to erect the stately marble
staircase with its splendid gilt iron railings, an undertaking which
offered the greatest difficulties, it was necessary to pierce the solid
rock. The Chapel, adorned by an elegant spire and full of valuable
relics of the Montmorency and the Condé families, was also restored at
this time. It contains an altar of Senlis marble, the joint work of Jean
Bullant and Jean Goujon; and exquisite wood carvings, dated 1548, were
brought from Écouen, an old seat of the Montmorency family. In the
stained-glass windows (dated 1544) are represented the sons and
daughters of Anne de Montmorency, whose effigy and that of his wife,
Madeleine of Savoy, are painted on the wall by a modern painter from a
cartoon by Lechevallier Chevignard.[17] The fine bronze monument to
Henri II de Bourbon by Jacques Sarrazin has also found a permanent abode
in this chapel. It was saved by Alexander Lenoir and presented to the
Prince de Condé in 1815.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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