S70 MEMOIBS OF THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMOK.

abundance of water, forced up and gathered together from all
parts, is rendered green, thick, muddy; it disseminates hu-
midity, unhealthy and evident; and an odour still more so. I
might never finish upon the monstrous defects of a palace so
immense and so immensely dear, with its accompaniments,
which are still more so.

But the supply of water for the fountains was all defective
at all moments, in spite of those seas of reservoirs which had
cost so many millions to establish and to form upon the shifting
sand and marsh. Who could have believed it ? This defect
became the ruin of the infantry which was turned out to do
the work Madame de Maintenon reigned. M. de Louvois
was well with her, then. We were at peace. He conceived
the idea of turning the river Eure between Chartres and
Maintenon, and of making it come to Versailles. Who can say
what gold and men this obstinate attempt cost during several
years, until it was prohibited by the heaviest penalties, in the
camp established there, and for a long time kept up; not to
speak of the sick,—above all, of the dead,—that the hard labour
and still more the much disturbed earth, caused ? How many
men were years in recovering from the effects of the contagion!
How many never regained their health at all! And not only
the sub-officers, but the colonels, the brigadiers and general
officers, were compelled to be upon the spot, and were not
at liberty to absent themselves a quarter of an hour from
the works. The war at last interrupted them in 1688, and
they have never since been undertaken; only unfinished
portions of them exist which will immortalise this cruel
folly.

At last, the King, tired of the cost and bustle, persuaded
himself that he should like something little and solitary. He
searched all around Versailles for some place to satisfy this
new taste. He examined several neighbourhoods, he traversed
the hills near St. Germains, and the vast plain which is at the
bottom, where the Seine winds and bathes the feet of so many
towns, and so many treasures in quitting Paris. He was
pressed to fix himself at Lucienne, where Cavoye afterwards