Ascending the avenue
on the right, we shall find a road at the top which will lead us, to the
left, through delightful woods to the site of the palace. Nothing remains
but the walls supporting the wooded terrace.
It is difficult to realize the place as it was, for the quincunces of
limes which stood between the pavilions on either side of the steep avenue
leading to the royal residence, formerly dipt and kept close, are now huge
trees, marking still the design of the grounds, but obscuring the views,
and, by their great growth, making the main avenue very narrow. St. Simon
exaggerates the extravagance of Louis XIV. at Marly, who spent there four
and a half million francs between 1679 and 1690, and probably as much or
more between 1690 and 1715, perhaps in all ten or twelve millions, which
would represent fifty million francs at the present time. Nevertheless the
expense of the amusements of Louis XIV. greatly exceeded the whole revenue
of Henri IV., and those of the early years of Louis XIII.
From the central pavilion in which the flattery of Mansart placed him as
the sun, Louis XIV.
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