Not even the splendor of the Salle des Menus could rival for an instant
the beauty of the vast hall, brilliantly lighted by great golden lustres
set in double row up and down its length, in which Mr. Calvert now found
himself. These lights burned themselves out in endless reflections in
the seventeen great mirrors set between columns on one side of the hall.
Opposite each of these mirrors was a window of equal proportions giving
upon the magnificent gardens and terraces. The vaulted ceiling of this
great gallery was dedicated, in a series of paintings by Lebrun, to the
glorification of Louis XIV, from the moment when, on the death of
Mazarin, in 1661, he took up the reins of government ('twas the theme of
the great central fresco, _Le Roi gouverne par lui-meme_, wherein,
according to the fashion of the day, the very Olympian deities were
subject to the princes of France, and Mercury announced this kingly
resolve to the other powers of Europe) to the peace of Nymwegen, which
closed that unjust and inglorious war with Holland. Lebrun, being a
courtier as well as an artist, had made these military operations under
Turenne and Conde resemble prodigious success, and from The Passage of
the Rhine to The Capture of Ghent, Louis was always the conqueror over
the young Stadtholder, William of Orange.
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