In leaving his palace, he realized that he
was finally surrendering all his claims to royalty. About noon on the
sixth day of October, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, under the
protection of the Marquis de Lafayette, turned their faces forever from
Versailles. Little they knew that they were even then traveling the long
road to the guillotine. A rabble of men and women surrounded them, some
on foot, some in carts and carriages. "All were very merry and amiable
in their own fashion, except a few jokes addressed to the Queen."
Such was the end of royal Versailles. Who can contest its tragic
grandeur? In these halls, these gardens, these secluded villas the
supreme destiny of the Bourbon monarchy was achieved. They witnessed the
apogee, the decline, and the ruin of the dynasty.
CHAPTER X
THE SHRINE OF ROYAL MEMORIES, THE SCENE OF WORLD ADJUSTMENTS
It was not long after the enforced departure of Louis XVI and the Court
that the immense sepulcher of regal glory was dismantled and forsaken.
During the Revolution some of the furnishings were taken to Paris to
supply the needs of the king and his family at the Tuileries. A number
of pictures and objects of art contained in the palace and the two
Trianons were removed to the Museum of the Louvre, which had been
founded in 1775. Some of these paintings, including the _Joconde_ by
da Vinci, and famous canvases by Titian, del Sarto, Rubens and Van
Dyck, still hang on the walls of the first national gallery of France.
Pages:
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133