Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3: France and the Netherlands, Part 1
History
Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3: France and the Netherlands, Part 1
France -- Description and travel; Netherlands -- Description and travel
[Footnote: Among the many lovers that rumor gave to the Queen, poor
Fersen is the most remarkable. He seems to have entertained for her a
high and perfectly pure devotion. He was the chief agent in the
luckless escape to Varennes; was lurking in Paris during the time of
her captivity; and was concerned in the many fruitless plots that were
made for her rescue. Fersen lived to be an old man, but died a dreadful
and violent death. He was dragged from his carriage by the mob. In
Stockholm, and murdered by them.--Author's note.]
"And," cries Monsieur d'Artois, "do I not love my sister, too? I pray
you not to omit me in your prophecies."
To whom Monsieur Cagliostro says, scornfully, "You may look forward to
fifty years of life, after most of these are laid in the grave. You
shall be a king, but not die one; and shall leave the crown only; not
the worthless head that shall wear it. Thrice shall you go into exile;
you shall fly from the people, first, who would have no more of you and
your race; and you shall return home over half a million of human
corpses, that have been made for the sake of you, and of a tyrant as
great as the greatest of your family. Again driven away, your bitterest
enemy shall bring you back. But the strong limbs of France are not to
be chained by such a paltry yoke as you can put on her: you shall be a
tyrant, but in will only; and shall have a scepter, but to see it
robbed from your hand."
"And pray, Sir Conjurer, who shall be the robber?" asked Monsieur the
Count d'Artois.
This I can not say, for here my dream ended. The fact is, I had fallen
asleep on one of the stone benches in the Avenue de Paris, and at this
instant was awakened by a whirling of carriages and a great clattering
of national guards, lancers, and outriders, in red. His Majesty, Louis
Philippe, was going to pay a visit to the palace; which contains
several pictures of his own glorious actions, and which has been
dedicated, by him, to all the glories of France.
Versailles in 1739
By Thomas Gray
[Footnote: From a letter to his friend West.]
What a huge heap of littleness! It is composed, as it were, of three
courts, all open to the eye at once, and gradually diminishing till you
come to the royal apartments, which on this side present but half a
dozen windows and a balcony. This last is all that can be called a
front, for the rest is only great wings. The hue of all this mass is
black, dirty red, and yellow; the first proceeding from stone changed
by age; the second, from a mixture of brick; and the last, from a
profusion of tarnished gilding. You can not see a more disagreeable
tout ensemble; and, to finish the matter, it is all stuck over in many
places with small busts of a tawny hue between every two windows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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