Page:The Man in the Iron Mask.djvu/104

 90 THE MAN" IN THE IRON MASK.

roofing, the reparation of which would, in our age, be the ruin of fortunes cramped and narrowed as the epoch itself. Vaux-le-Vicomte, when its magnificent gates, supported by Caryatides, have been passed through, has the principal front of the main building, opening upon a vast so-called court of honor, inclosed by deep ditches, bordered by a magnificent stone balustrade. Nothing could be more noble in appearance than the fore-court of the middle, raised upon the flight of steps, like a king upon his throne, having around it four pavilions forming the angles, the immense Ionic columns of which rose majestically to the whole height of the building. The friezes ornamented with arabesques, and the pediments which crowned the pilasters, conferred richness and grace upon every part of the build- ing, while the domes which surmounted the whole added proportion and majesty. This mansion, built by a subject, bore a far greater resemblance to those royal residences which Wolsey fancied he was called upon to construct-, in order to present them to his master from the fear of render- ing him jealous. But if magnificence and splendor were displayed in any one particular part of this palace more than in another — if anything could be preferred to the wonderful arrangement of the interior, to the profusion of the paintings and statues — it would be the park and gardens of Vaux. The jets d'eau, which were regarded as wonderful in 1653, are still so, even at the present time; the cascades awakened the admiration of kings and princes; and as for the famous grotto, the theme of so many poetical effusions, the resi- dence of that illustrious nymph of Vaux whom Pellisson made converse with La Fontaine, we must be spared the description of all its beauties. We will do as Despreaux did — we will enter the park, the trees of which are of eight years' growth only, and whose summits even yet, as they proudly tower aloft, blushingly unfold their leaves to the earliest rays of the rising sun. Lenotre had accelerated the pleasure of tho Mecsenas of his period; all the nursery- grounds had furnished trees whose growth had been accel- erated by careful culture and rich manure. Every tree in the neighborhood which presented a fair appearance of beauty or stature had been taken up by its roots and trans- planted to the park. Fouquet could well afford to purchase trees to ornament his park, since he had bought up three villages and their appurtenances (to use a legal word) to increase its extent. M. de Scuderj said of this palace that.