Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/284

 196 STATESMEN AND SAGES king, it was because the people were worn out by the war of the Frondeurs. The grand master of ceremonies had notified the Parliament that Louis XIV. would take the "seat of justice," the place of the monarch in this body on solemn and important occasions, on that day, for the purpose of declaring his majority, and assuming the government. There was a great deal of simple fiction in the for- malities, for his majesty was only a boy of fourteen, with far less education than is usually obtained by one of that age at the present time, and was incapable of ruling over a great nation. There was even some fiction in regard to his age, for though he had entered his fourteenth year, he was hardly thirteen years old. If a boy of that age were transferred from his place in school to the presidency of the United States to- day, the cases would be parallel. The education of the juvenile king had been neglected, perhaps intentionally, by Mazarin for his cunning purposes, and though he had been instructed in all the forms and ceremonials of the court, he was de- ficient in his knowledge of the solid branches of learning, even for one in his sphere at that age. But the government, so far as he was concerned, was all a fiction. It was to be carried on in his name in the future as it had been in the name of his mother, the queen-regent, before, though neither of them was the actual ruler Mazarin was more than "the power behind the throne;" he was practically the throne itself. At seven o'clock in the morning, six heralds, clothed in crimson velvet cov- ered with fleurs de Us, the royal emblem of France, mounted on elegantly ca- parisoned horses, led the court to the palace where the Parliament assembled. The king's trumpeters came next to the heralds, and they were followed by the governors of provinces, two hundred of the nobility, and the officers of the royal household, escorted and flanked by several companies of light horsemen. Pages and valets had been dressed in new liveries, and the spectacle was as magnificent as the occasion required. Then came the boy-king, as a chronicler of the period describes him, " with his august countenance beaming with a gentle dignity truly royal, and with his natural politeness, calling forth from the assembled multitude that lined the streets redoubled good wishes for his health and prosperity." The youth who played the principal part in this great ceremonial was dressed in elegant gar- ments, so covered with gold embroideries that the color and material could hardly be discerned. He was mounted on a beautiful and high - spirited horse, which pranced and curvetted as if aware that he bore a king ; and Louis managed him so skilfully and gracefully that he won the admiration of the spec- tators. The king was received at the entrance of the palace chapel, where the court attended divine service, by the Bishop of Bayeux, who made an address to him, to which he listened, apparently in a thoughtful mood, and then ushered him into the chapel, where he heard low mass. Then he took his place in the hall of par- liament. The minutest particulars of the scene that surrounded him when he took his seat are given in the memoirs of some who were present. Seated, and