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 The Ascendency of France under Louis XIV 283 contentedly on working days, and dances or plays merrily on holy-days ; he may, for aught I know, live as well as a boor of Holland, who is either weary of his very ease or whose cares of growing still richer and richer waste his life in toils on land, or dangers at sea, and perhaps fool him so far as to make him enjoy less of all kind in his riches than the other in his poverty. V. Louis XIV and his Court In 167 1, when Louis XIV decided upon war with Holland, he honored his commander, the prince of Conde, by a visit to him at Chantilly, where a grand fete was given in the forest, for which elaborate prepa- rations were made by Vatel, the prince of cooks. The following spirited account of the occasion and of the cook's sad end is from a letter of Madame de Sevigne's, whose charming correspondence with her daughter and friends constitutes an important source for the period and for the life at Louis' court. It is Sunday, the 26th of April ; this letter will not go till Wednesday. It is not really a letter, but an account, which Moreuil has just given me for your benefit, of what happened at Chantilly concerning Vatel. I wrote you on Friday that he had stabbed himself ; here is the story in detail. The promenade, the collation in a spot carpeted with jon- quils, — all was going to perfection. Supper came ; the roast failed at one or two tables on account of a number of unex- pected guests. This upset Vatel. He said several times, " My honor is lost ; this is a humiliation that I cannot en- dure." To Gourville he said, "My head is swimming; I have not slept for twelve nights ; help me to give my orders." Gourville consoled him as best he could, but the roast which had failed, not at the king's, but at the twenty- fifth table, haunted his mind. Gourville told Monsieur le Prince about it, and Monsieur le Prince went up to Vatel in 339. How Louis and his court were enter- tained by the prince of Conde at Chantilly (1671). "