Grand Trianon

We had a lovely time exploring the rooms throughout the palace, and since we were self-guided, we could go at our own pace.

Next, we made our way through the gardens to the estate of Trianon.

Uh, we all really enjoyed the Queen's Hamlet, which is a whole little village that Marie Antoinette had set up so she could escape the palace and pretend she lived a simpler life.

After some good exploring, it was time for our picnic lunch.

Chapter 1.

Visits to the Petit Trianon.

Miss Morrison's account of the first visit to the Petit Trianon.

August, 1901. after some days of sight-seeing in paris to which we were almost strangers on an august afternoon nineteen o one miss lamont and i went to versailles we had very hazy ideas as to where it was or what there was to be seen both of us thought it might prove to be a dull expedition we went by train and walked through the rooms and galleries of the palace with interest though we constantly regretted our inability through ignorance to feel properly the charm of the place my knowledge of french history was limited to the very little i had learnt in the schoolroom historical novels and the first volume of justin mccarthy's french revolution over thirty years before my brother had written a prize poem on marie antoinette for whom at the time i had felt much enthusiasm but the german occupation was chiefly in our minds and miss lamont and i thought and spoke of it several times we sat down in the salle des glaces where a very sweet air was blowing in at the open windows over the flower-beds below and finding that there was time to spare i suggested our going to the petit my sole knowledge of it was from a magazine article read as a girl from which i received a general impression that it was a farmhouse where the queen had amused herself looking in baedeker's map we saw the sort of direction and that there were two trianons and sat off by not asking the way we went an unnecessarily long way round by the great flight of steps from the fountains and down the central avenue as far as the head of the long pond the weather had been very hot all the week but on this day the sky was a little overcast and the sun shaded there was a lively wind blowing the woods were looking their best and we both felt particularly vigorous it was a most enjoyable walk after reaching the beginning of the long water we struck away to the right down a woodland glade until we came obliquely to the other water close to the building which we rightly concluded to be the grand trianon we passed it on our left hand and came up a broad green drive perfectly deserted if we had followed it we should have come immediately to the petit trianon but not knowing its position we crossed the drive and went up a lane in front of us i was surprised that miss lamont did not ask the way from a woman who was shaking a white cloth out of the window of a building at the corner of the lane but followed supposing that she knew where she was going to talking about england and mutual acquaintances there we went up the lane and then made a sharp turn to the right past some buildings we looked in at an open doorway and saw the end of a carved staircase but as no one was about we did not like to go in there were three paths in front of us and as we saw two men a little ahead on the centre one we followed it and asked them the way afterwards we spoke of them as gardeners because we remembered a wheelbarrow of some kind close by and the look of a pointed spade but they were really very dignified officials dressed in long grayish-green coats with small three-cornered hats they directed us straight on we walked briskly forward talking as before but from the moment we left the lane an extraordinary depression had come over me which in spite of every effort to shake off steadily deepened there seemed to be absolutely no reason for it i was not at all tired and was becoming more interested in my surroundings i was anxious that my companion should not discover the sudden gloom upon my spirits which became quite overpowering on reaching the point where the path ended being crossed by another right and left in front of us was a wood within which and overshadowed by trees was a light garden circular and like a small bandstand by which a man was sitting there was no green sward but the ground was covered with rough grass and dead leaves as in a wood the place was so shut in that we could not see beyond it everything suddenly looked unnatural therefore unpleasant even the trees behind the building seemed to have become flat and lifeless like a wood worked in tapestry there were no effects of light and shade and no wind stirred the trees it was all intensely still the man sitting close to the kiosk who had on a cloak and a large shady hat turned his head and looked at us that was the culmination of my peculiar sensations and i felt a moment of genuine alarm the man's face was most repulsive its expression odious his complexion was very dark and rough i said to miss lamont which is our way but thought nothing will induce me to go to the left it was a great relief at that moment to hear some one running up to us in breathless haste Connecting the sound with the gardener's, I turned and ascertained that there was no one on the paths, either to the side or behind, but at almost the same moment I suddenly perceived another man, quite close to us, behind and rather to the left hand, who had, apparently, just come either over or through the rock or whatever it was, that shut out the view at the junction of the paths.

the suddenness of his appearance was something of a shock the second man was distinctly a gentleman he was tall with large dark eyes and had crisp curling black hair under the same large sombrero hat he was handsome and the effect of the hair was to make him look like an old picture his face was glowing red as through great exertion as though he had come a long way at first i thought he was sunburnt but a second look satisfied me that the colour was from heat not sunburning he had on a dark cloak wrapped across him like a scarf one end flying out in his prodigious hurry he looked greatly excited as he called out to us mesdames mesdames or madame pronounced more as the other il ne faut pronounced fout pas he then waved his arm and said with great animation par ici i was so surprised at his eagerness that i looked up at him again and to this he responded with a little backward movement and a most peculiar smile though i could not follow all he said it was clear that he was determined that we should go to the right and not to the left as this fell in with my own wish i went instantly towards a little bridge on the right and turning my head to join miss lamont in thanking him found to my surprise that he was not there but the running began again and from the sound it was close beside us silently we passed over the small rustic bridge which crossed a tiny ravine so close to us when on the bridge that we could have touched it with our right hands a thread-like cascade fell from a height down a green pretty bank where ferns grew between stones where the little trickle of water went to i did not see but it gave me the impression that we were near other water though i saw none beyond the little bridge our pathway led under trees it skirted a narrow meadow of long grass bounded on the further side by trees and very much overshadowed by trees growing in it this gave the whole place a sombre look suggestive of dampness and shut out the view of the house until we were close to it the house was a square solidly built small country house quite different from what i expected the long windows looking north into the english garden where we were were shuttered there was a terrace round the north and west sides of the house and on the rough grass which grew quite up to the terrace and with her back to it a lady was sitting holding out a paper as though to look at it at arm's length i supposed her to be sketching and to have brought her own camp-stool it seemed as though she must be making a study of trees for they grew close in front of her and there seemed to be nothing else to sketch she saw us and when we passed close by on her left hand she turned and looked full at us it was not a young face and though rather pretty it did not attract me she had on a shady white hat perched on a good deal of fair hair that fluffed round her forehead her light summer dress was arranged on her shoulders in handkerchief fashion and there was a little line of either green or gold near the edge of the handkerchief which showed to me that it was over not tucked into her bodice which was cut low her dress was long-waisted with a good deal of fulness in the skirt which seemed to be short i thought she was a tourist but that her dress was old-fashioned and rather unusual though people were wearing fichu bodices that summer i looked straight at her but some indescribable feeling made me turn away annoyed at her being there we went up the steps on to the terrace my impression being that they led up direct from the english garden but i was beginning to feel as though we were walking in a dream the stillness and oppressiveness were so unnatural again i saw the lady this time from behind and noticed that her fichu was pale green it was rather a relief to me that miss lamont did not propose to ask her whether we could enter the house from that side we crossed the terrace to the south-west corner and looked over into the cour d'honneur and then turned back and seeing that one of the long windows overlooking the french garden was unshuttered we were going towards it when we were interrupted the terrace was prolonged at right angles in front of what seemed to be a second house the door of it suddenly opened and a young man stepped out on to the terrace banging the door behind him he had the jaunty manner of a footman but no livery and called to us saying that the way into the house was by the cour d'honneur and offered to show us the way round he looked inquisitively amused as he walked by us down the french garden till we came to an entrance into the front drive we came out sufficiently near the first lane we had been in to make me wonder why the garden officials had not directed us back instead of telling us to go forward when we were in the front entrance hall we were kept waiting for the arrival of a merry french wedding party they walked arm in arm in a long procession round the rooms and we were at the back too far off from the guide to hear much of his story we were very much interested and felt quite lively again coming out of the cour d'honneur we took a little carriage which was standing there and drove back to the hotel des reservoirs in versailles where we had tea but we were neither of us inclined to talk, and did not mention any of the events of the afternoon.

After tea, we walked back to the station, looking on the way for the tennis court.

On the way back to Paris, the setting sun at last burst out from under the clouds, bathing the distant Versailles woods in glowing light, Valerian standing out in front a mass of deep purple.

Again and again the thought returned, was Marie Antoinette really much at Trianon? and did she see it for the last time long before the fatal drive to paris accompanied by the mob for a whole week we never alluded to that afternoon nor did i think about it until i began writing a descriptive letter of our expeditions of the week before as the scenes came back one by one the same sensation of dreamy unnatural oppression came over me so strongly that i stopped writing and said to miss lamont do you think that the petit trianon is haunted her answer was prompt yes i do i asked her where she felt it and she said in the garden where we met the two men but not only there she then described her feeling of depression and anxiety which began at the same point as it did with me and how she tried not to let me know it talking it over we fully realized for the first time the theatrical appearance of the man who spoke to us the inappropriateness of the wrapped cloak on a warm summer afternoon the unaccountableness of his coming and going the excited running which seemed to begin and end close to us and yet always out of sight and the extreme earnestness with which he desired us to go one way and not another i said that the thought had crossed my mind that the two men were going to fight a duel and that they were waiting until we were gone miss lamont owned to having disliked the thought of passing the man of the kiosk we did not speak again of the incident during my stay in paris though we visited the conciergerie prisons and the tombs of louis the sixteenth and marie antoinette at st denis where all was clear and fresh and natural three months later miss lamont came to stay with me and on sunday november tenth nineteen o one we returned to the subject and i said if we had known that a lady was sitting so near us sketching it would have made all the difference for we should have asked the way she replied that she had seen no lady i reminded her of the person sitting under the terrace but miss lamont declared that there was no one there i exclaimed that it was impossible that she should not have seen the individual for we were walking side by side and went straight up to her past her and looked down upon her from the terrace it was inconceivable to us both that she should not have seen the lady but the fact was clear that miss lamont had not done so though we had both been rather on the look-out for some one who would reassure us as to whether we were trespassing or not finding that we had a new element of mystery and doubting how far we had seen any of the same things we resolved to write down independent accounts of our expedition to trianon read up its history and make every inquiry about the place miss lamont returned to her school the same evening and two days later i received from her a very interesting letter giving the result of her first inquiries e m miss lamont's account of her first visit to the petit trianon in nineteen o one august nineteen o one in the summer of nineteen hundred i stayed in paris for the first time and in the course of that summer took a flat and furnished it intending to place a french lady there in charge of my elder school-girls paris was quite new to me and beyond seeing the picture galleries and one or two churches i made no expeditions except to shops for the exhibition of nineteen hundred was going on and all my free time was spent in seeing it with my french friends the next summer however nineteen o one when after several months at my school in england i came back to paris it was to take the first opportunity possible of having a visitor to stay there and i asked miss morrison to come with me miss morrison suggested our seeing the historic part of paris in something like chronological order and i looked forward to seeing it practically for the first time with her we decided to go to versailles one day though rather reluctantly as we felt it was diverging from our plan to go there too soon i did not know what to expect as my ignorance of the place and its significance was extreme so we looked up general directions in baedeker and trusted to finding our way at the time after spending some time in the palace we went down by the terrace and struck to the right to find the petit trianon we walked for some distance down a wooded alley and then came upon the buildings of the grand trianon before which we did not delay we went on in the direction of the petit trianon but just before reaching what we knew afterwards to be the main entrance i saw a gate leading to a path cut deep below the level of the ground above and as the way was open and had the look of an entrance that was used i said shall we try this path it must lead to the house and we followed it to our right we saw some farm buildings looking empty and deserted implements among others a plough were lying about we looked in but saw no one the impression was saddening but it was not until we reached the crest of the rising ground where there was a garden that i began to feel as if we had lost our way and as if something were wrong there were two men there in official dress greenish in colour with something in their hands it might have been a staff a wheelbarrow and some other gardening tools were near them they told us in answer to my inquiry to go straight on i remember repeating my question because they answered in a seemingly casual and mechanical way but only got the same answer in the same manner as we were standing there i saw to the right of us a detached solidly built cottage with stone steps at the door a woman and a girl were standing at the doorway and i particularly noticed their unusual dress both wore white kerchiefs tucked into the bodice and the girl's dress though she looked thirteen or fourteen only was down to her ankles the woman was passing a jug to the girl who wore a close white cap the woman was standing on the steps bending slightly forward holding a jug in her hand the girl was looking up at her from below with her hands raised but nothing in them she might have been just going to take the jug or have just given it up her light brown hair escaped from under her cap i remember that both seemed to pause for an instant as in a tableau vivant but we passed on and i did not see the end footnote following the directions of the two men we walked on but the path pointed out to us seemed to lead away from where we imagined the petit trianon to be and there was a feeling of depression and loneliness about the place i began to feel as if i were walking in my sleep the heavy dreaminess was oppressive at last we came upon a path crossing ours and saw in front of us a building consisting of some columns roofed in and set back in the trees seated on the steps was a man with a heavy black coat round his shoulders and wearing a slouch hat at that moment the eerie feeling which had begun in the garden culminated in a definite impression of something uncanny and fear-inspiring the man slowly turned his face which was marked by small-pox his complexion was very dark the expression was very evil and yet unseeing and though i did not feel that he was looking particularly at us i felt a repugnance to going past him but i did not wish to show the feeling which i thought was meaningless and we talked about the best way to turn and decided to go to the right suddenly we heard a man running behind us he shouted madame madame and when i turned he said in an accent that seemed to me unusual that our way lay in another direction il ne faut pronounced fout pas passer par là he then made a gesture adding par ici chercher la maison though we were surprised to be addressed we were glad of the direction and i thanked him the man ran off with a curious smile on his face the running ceased as abruptly as it had begun not far from where we stood i remember that the man was young-looking with a florid complexion and rather long dark hair i do not remember the dress except that the material was dark and heavy and that the man wore buckled shoes we walked on crossing a small bridge that went across a green bank high on our right hand and shelving down below us as to a very small overshadowed pool of water glimmering some way off a tiny stream descended from above us so small as to seem to lose itself before reaching the little pool we then followed a narrow path till almost immediately we came upon the english garden front of the petit trianon the place was deserted but as we approached the terrace i remember drawing my skirt away with a feeling as though some one were near and i had to make room and then wondering why i did it while we were on the terrace a boy came out of the door of a second building which opened on it and i still have the sound in my ears of his slamming it behind him he directed us to go round to the other entrance and seeing us hesitate with the peculiar smile of suppressed mockery offered to show us the way we passed through the french garden part of which was walled in by trees the feeling of dreariness was very strong there and continued till we actually reached the front entrance to the petit trianon and looked round the rooms in the wake of a french wedding-party afterwards we drove back to the rue des the impression returned to me at intervals during the week that followed but i did not speak of it until miss morrison asked me if i thought the petit trianon was haunted and i said yes then too the inconsistency of the dress and behaviour of the man with an august afternoon at versailles struck me we had only this one conversation about the two men nothing else passed between us in paris it was not till three months later when i was staying with her that miss morrison casually mentioned the lady and almost refused to believe that i had not seen her how that happened was quite inexplicable to me for i believed myself to be looking about on all sides and it was not so much that i did not remember her as that i could have said no one was there but as she said it i remembered my impression at the moment of there being more people than i could see though i did not tell her this the same evening november tenth nineteen o one i returned to my school near london curiously enough the next morning i had to give one of a set of lessons on the french revolution for the higher certificate and it struck me for the first time with great interest that the tenth of august had a special significance in french history and that we had been at trianon on the anniversary of the day that evening when i was preparing to write down my experiences a french friend whose home was in paris came into my room and i asked her just on the chance if she knew any story about the haunting of the petit trianon i had not mentioned our story to her before nor indeed to any one she said directly that she remembered hearing from friends at versailles that on a certain day in august marie antoinette is regularly seen sitting outside the garden front at the petit trianon with a light flapping hat and a pink dress more than this that the place especially the farm the garden and the path by the water are peopled with those who used to be with her there in fact that all the occupations and amusements reproduce themselves there for a day and a night i then told her our story and when i quoted the words that the man spoke to us and imitated as well as i could his accent she immediately said that it was the austrian pronunciation of french i had privately thought that he spoke old french immediately afterwards i wrote and told this to miss morrison footnote by old i mean old or unusual forms perhaps surviving in provincial french footnote f l on receiving miss lamont's letter i turned to my diary to see on what saturday in august it was that we had visited versailles and looked up the history to find out to what event she alluded on august tenth seventeen ninety two the tuileries was sacked the royal family escaped in the early morning to the hall of the assembly where they were penned up for many hours hearing themselves practically dethroned and within sound of the massacre of their servants and of the swiss guards at the tuileries from the hall the king and queen were taken to the temple we wondered whether we had inadvertently entered within an act of the queen's memory when alive and whether this explained our curious sensation of being completely shut in and oppressed what more likely we thought than that during those hours in the hall of the assembly or in the conciergerie she had gone back in such vivid memory to other augusts spent at trianon that some impress of it was imparted to the place some pictures which were shown to me proved that the outdoor dress of the gentlemen at court had been a large hat and cloak and that the ladies wore long-waisted bodices with full-gathered short skirts fichus and hats i told the story to my brother and we heartily agreed that as a rule such stories made no impression at all upon us because we always believed that if only the persons involved would take the trouble to investigate them thoroughly and honestly for themselves they could be quite naturally explained we agreed that such a story as ours had very little value without more proof of reality than it had but that as there were one or two interesting points in it it would be best to sift the matter quietly lest others should make more of them than they deserved he suggested lightly and in fun that perhaps we had seen the queen as she thought of herself and that it would be interesting to know whether the dress described was the one she had on at the time of her reverie or whether it was one she recollected having worn at an earlier date my brother also inquired whether we were quite sure that the last man we had seen who came out of the side building as well as the wedding party were all real persons i assured him with great amusement that we had not the smallest doubt as to the reality of them all as miss lamont was going to paris for the christmas holidays i wrote and asked her to take any opportunity she might have to see the place again and to make a plan of the paths and the buildings for the guide-books spoke of the temple de l'amour and the belvedere and i thought one of them might prove to be our kiosk e m miss lamont's account of her second visit to the petit trianon january nineteen o two on january second nineteen o two i went for the second time to versailles it was a cold and wet day but i was anxious not to be deterred by that as it was likely to be my only possible day that winter this time i drove straight to the petit trianon passing the grand trianon here i could see the path up which we had walked in august i went however to the regular entrance thinking i would go at once to the temple de l'amour even if i had time to go no further to the right of the cour d'honneur was a door in the wall it led to the amour de la reine and to the gardens i took this path and came to the temple de l'amour which was not the building we had passed in the summer there was so far none of the eerie feeling we had experienced in august but on crossing a bridge to go to the ameaux the old feeling returned in full force it was as if i had crossed a line and was suddenly in a circle of influence to the left i saw a tract of park-like ground the trees bare and very scanty i noticed a cart being filled with sticks by two labourers and thought i could go to them for directions if i lost my way the men wore tunics and capes with pointed hoods of bright colours a sort of terra-cotta red and deep blue footnote one man wore red the other blue the colours were not mixed footnote i turned aside for an instant not more to look at the amo and when i looked back men and cart were completely out of sight and this surprised me as i could see a long way in every direction and though i had seen the men in the act of loading the cart with sticks i could not see any trace of them on the ground either at the time or afterwards i did not however dwell upon any part of the incident but went on to the amo the houses were all built near a sheet of water and the old oppressive feeling of the last year was noticeable especially under the balcony of the maison de la reine and near a window in what i afterwards found to be the i really felt a great reluctance to go near the window or look in and when i did so i found it shuttered inside coming away from the amour i at last reached a building which i knew from my plan to be the smaller orangery then meaning to go to the belvedere i turned back by mistake into the park and found myself in a wood so thick that though i had turned towards the hameau i could not see it before i entered i looked across an open space towards a belt of trees to the left of the hameau some way off and noticed a man cloaked like those we had seen before slip swiftly through the line of trees the smoothness of his movement attracted my attention i was puzzling my way among the maze of paths in the wood when i heard a rustling behind me which made me wonder why people in silk dresses came out on such a wet day and i said to myself just like french people i turned sharply round to see who they were but saw no one and then all in a moment i had the same feeling as by the terrace in the summer only in a much greater degree it was as though i were closed in by a group of people who already filled the path coming from behind and passing me at one moment there seemed really no room for me i heard some women's voices talking french and caught the words monsieur et madame said close to my ear the crowd got scarce and drifted away and then faint music as of a band not far off was audible it was playing very light music with a good deal of repetition in it both voices and music were diminished in tone as in a phonograph unnaturally the pitch of the band was lower than usual the sounds were intermittent and once more i felt the swish of a dress close by me i looked at the map which i had with me but whenever i settled which path to take i felt impelled to go by another after turning backwards and forwards many times i at last found myself back at the orangery and was overtaken by a gardener i thought this gardener did not look like a frenchman he had more the air of an englishman he had hair on his face a grizzled beard was large and loosely made his height was very uncommon and he seemed to be of immense strength his arms were long and very muscular i noticed that even through the sleeves of his jersey footnote i asked him where i should find the queen's grotto that had been mentioned in de nolhoc's book which i had procured while in paris he told me to follow the path i was on and in answer to a question said that i must pass the belvder adding that it was quite impossible to find one's way about the park unless one had been brought up in the place and so used to it that person ne the expression specially impressed me because of the experience i had just had in the wood he pointed out the way and left me the path led past the belvedere which i took for granted was the building we had seen in august for coming upon it from behind all the water was hidden from me i made my way from there to the french garden without noticing the paths i took on my return to versailles i made careful inquiries as to whether the band had been playing there that day but was told that though it was the usual day of the week it had not played because it had played the day before being new year's day i told my french friends of my walk and they said that there was a tradition of marie antoinette having been seen making butter within the she was sitting there in her grotto and saw a page running towards her bringing the letter from the minister at the palace to say that the mob from paris would be at the gates in an hour's time the story went on that she impulsively proposed walking straight back to the palace by the short cut through the trees he would not allow it but begged her to go to the maison to wait whilst he fetched the carriage by which she was generally conveyed back through the park and that he ran off to order it f l january nineteen o two nineteen o two to nineteen o four during the next two years very little occurred to throw light on the story the person living in versailles to whom we had been directed as having related the tradition of the queen's being at trianon on october fifth seventeen eighty nine was unable to remember anything at all about it the photographs of the belvedere made it clear that it was not identical with the on the many occasions on which miss lamont went to the trianon she could never again find the places not even the wood in which she had been she assured me that the place was entirely different the distances were much less than we had imagined and the ground was so bare that the house and the amo were in full view of one another and that there was nothing unnatural about the trees miss lamont brought back from paris la reine marie antoinette by m de nolhac and le petit trianon by desjardins we noted that m de nolhac related the traditional story of the queen's visit and that the comte de vaudreuil who betrayed the queen by inciting her to the fatal acting of the barbier de sevier in her own theatre at trianon was a creole and marked by small-pox pages sixty one and two hundred and twelve turning over the pages of desjardins i found wertmuller's portrait of the queen and exclaimed that it was the first of all the pictures i had seen which had all brought back the face of the lady some weeks later i found this passage ce tableau fut assez mal accueilli des critiques contemporains qui le trouvèrent froid sans majesté sans grâce pour la postérité au contraire il a le plus grand mérite celui de la ressemblance au dire de mme campin il n'existe de bon portrait de la reine que cette toile de et celle que madame le brun peignit on page two hundred and eighty two in january nineteen o four miss lamont went to the comdie franaise to see the barbier de seville and noticed that the alguazils standing round were dressed exactly like our garden officials but had red stockings added this was interesting as the comdie franaise is the descendant of the royal private theatre and the old royal liveries worn by the subordinate actors who were in earlier times the royal servants are carefully reproduced at it also she reported that almaviva was dressed in a dark cloak and a large spanish hat which was said to be the outdoor dress of french gentlemen of the period e m On Monday, July 4th, 1904, Miss Lamont and I went to the Trianon, this being my second visit.

But the German occupation was chiefly in our minds, and Miss Lamont and I thought and spoke of it several times.

We sat down in the salle des glaces, where a very sweet air was blowing in at the open windows over the flower-beds below, and finding that there was time to spare, I suggested our going to the Petit Trianon.

my sole knowledge of it was from a magazine article read as a girl from which i received a general impression that it was a farmhouse where the queen had amused herself looking in baedeker's map we saw the sort of direction and that there were two trianons and sat off by not asking the way we went an unnecessarily long way round by the great flight of steps from the fountains and down the central avenue as far as the head of the long pond the weather had been very hot all the week but on this day the sky was a little overcast and the sun shaded there was a lively wind blowing the woods were looking their best and we both felt particularly vigorous it was a most enjoyable walk after reaching the beginning of the long water we struck away to the right down a woodland glade until we came obliquely to the other water close to the building which we rightly concluded to be the grand trianon we passed it on our left hand and came up a broad green drive perfectly deserted if we had followed it we should have come immediately to the petit trianon but not knowing its position we crossed the drive and went up a lane in front of us i was surprised that miss lamont did not ask the way from a woman who was shaking a white cloth out of the window of a building at the corner of the lane but followed supposing that she knew where she was going to talking about england and mutual acquaintances there we went up the lane and then made a sharp turn to the right past some buildings we looked in at an open doorway and saw the end of a carved staircase but as no one was about we did not like to go in there were three paths in front of us and as we saw two men a little ahead on the centre one we followed it and asked them the way afterwards we spoke of them as gardeners because we remembered a wheelbarrow of some kind close by and the look of a pointed spade but they were really very dignified officials dressed in long grayish-green coats with small three-cornered hats they directed us straight on we walked briskly forward talking as before but from the moment we left the lane an extraordinary depression had come over me which in spite of every effort to shake off steadily deepened there seemed to be absolutely no reason for it i was not at all tired and was becoming more interested in my surroundings i was anxious that my companion should not discover the sudden gloom upon my spirits which became quite overpowering on reaching the point where the path ended being crossed by another right and left in front of us was a wood within which and overshadowed by trees was a light garden circular and like a small bandstand by which a man was sitting there was no green sward but the ground was covered with rough grass and dead leaves as in a wood the place was so shut in that we could not see beyond it everything suddenly looked unnatural therefore unpleasant even the trees behind the building seemed to have become flat and lifeless like a wood worked in tapestry there were no effects of light and shade and no wind stirred the trees it was all intensely still the man sitting close to the kiosk who had on a cloak and a large shady hat turned his head and looked at us that was the culmination of my peculiar sensations and i felt a moment of genuine alarm the man's face was most repulsive its expression odious his complexion was very dark and rough i said to miss lamont which is our way but thought nothing will induce me to go to the left it was a great relief at that moment to hear some one running up to us in breathless haste connecting the sound with the gardener's i turned and ascertained that there was no one on the paths either to the side or behind but at almost the same moment i suddenly perceived another man quite close to us behind and rather to the left hand who had apparently just come either over or through the rock or whatever it was that shut out the view at the junction of the paths the suddenness of his appearance was something of a shock the second man was distinctly a gentleman he was tall with large dark eyes and had crisp curling black hair under the same large sombrero hat he was handsome and the effect of the hair was to make him look like an old picture his face was glowing red as through great exertion as though he had come a long way at first i thought he was sunburnt but a second look satisfied me that the colour was from heat not sunburning he had on a dark cloak wrapped across him like a scarf one end flying out in his prodigious hurry he looked greatly excited as he called out to us mesdames mesdames or madame pronounced more as the other il ne faut pronounced fout pas he then waved his arm and said with great animation par ici i was so surprised at his eagerness that i looked up at him again and to this he responded with a little backward movement and a most peculiar smile though i could not follow all he said it was clear that he was determined that we should go to the right and not to the left as this fell in with my own wish i went instantly towards a little bridge on the right and turning my head to join miss lamont in thanking him found to my surprise that he was not there but the running began again and from the sound it was close beside us silently we passed over the small rustic bridge which crossed a tiny ravine so close to us when on the bridge that we could have touched it with our right hands a thread-like cascade fell from a height down a green pretty bank where ferns grew between stones where the little trickle of water went to i did not see but it gave me the impression that we were near other water though i saw none beyond the little bridge our pathway led under trees it skirted a narrow meadow of long grass bounded on the further side by trees and very much overshadowed by trees growing in it

The hardest part was figuring out where to go.

1908.

Plows in France have altered in character this century.

No plow amongst the list of implements bought for the Petit Trianon from 1780 to 1787.

Comte d'Artois, colonel of Swiss guards, and the whole corps de garde, had a green livery.

Speechmaking.

The Trianons.

Waterworks.

Saint-Cloud.

Two lions, the one overturning a wild boar, the other a wolf, both the production of Filain, pointed out to us the fountain of Diana.

But I will not attempt to describe to you any of the very beautiful sculptured gods and goddesses here.

With a single friend, I paid a visit to the two Trianons.

The larger was, we were told, just as King Louis Philippe left it.

Speechmaking.

The Trianons.

Waterworks.

Saint-Cloud.

Two lions, the one overturning a wild boar, the other a wolf, both the production of Filain, pointed out to us the fountain of Diana.

But I will not attempt to describe to you any of the very beautiful sculptured gods and goddesses here.

With a single friend, I paid a visit to the two Trianons.

The larger was, we were told, just as King Louis Philippe left it.