Page:A general history for colleges and high schools (Myers, 1890).djvu/664

598 breathed his last, bequeathing to this boy of five years a kingdom overwhelmed with debt, and filled with misery, with threatening vices and dangerous discontent.

The Court of Louis XIV.—The Court sustained by the Grand Monarch was the most extravagantly magnificent that Europe has ever seen. Never since Nero erected his Golden House upon the burnt district of Rome, and ensconcing himself amid its luxurious appointments, exclaimed, "Now I am housed as a man ought to be," had prince or king so ostentatiously lavished upon himself the wealth of an empire. Louis had half a dozen palaces, the most costly of which was that at Versailles. Upon this and its surroundings he spent fabulous sums. The palace itself cost what would probably be equal to more than $100,000,000 with us. Here were gathered the beauty, wit, and learning of France. The royal household numbered fifteen thousand persons, all living in costly and luxurious idleness at the expense of the people.

One element of this enormous family was the great lords of the old feudal aristocracy. Dispossessed of their ancient power and wealth, they were content now to fill a place in the royal household, to be the king's pensioners and the elegant embellishment of his court.

As we might well imagine, the life of the French court at this period was shamefully corrupt. Vice, however, was gilded. The