THE The to
"
reign was, above
one
LOUIS-QUATORZE " things, spectacular
all
French writers
of the greatest
:
219
and, according
;
"The
brilliant dis-
some compensation in those times, thanks to the kindly feelings of the people and to the traditions of deep devotion to their sovereigns, for the enormous expenses charged upon the taxes. Mazarin had said Let them sing, provided they pay'; while Louis XIV.'s remark was 'Let them look.' Sight had replaced the voice the people could still look, but they could no longer sing." This monarch was no ordinary man. Moreover, when he attained to years of discretion, and saw a possibility of ordering everything as he wished, he was fortunate in having at his beck and call men of phenomenal mental calibre and physical energy to carry out the gigantic schemes that had long been fructifying in his brain and to supplement them play
.
.
afforded
.
*
;
—
by others
of their
own
sovereign's reign, from the
command,
The whole tenor of this moment when he assumed supreme
creation.
most powerfully the law of reaction. As a child he was brought up under the strictest discipline, perpetually subject to the surveillance of the severest "tutors and illustrates
governors"; furthermore,
parsimony poverty
—
of Mazarin,
poverty
we
are told aright, through the
he was kept
in a state of
at least for a destined ruler of
cordially detested Italian
head
if
was
comparative
France.
That
for a long time practically the
and undoubtedly possessed the ear of the Anne of Austria, whether the belief entertained in some quarters that the two were actually husband and wife has any foundation in fact or not. The spirit of the young King, nevertheless, was by no means crushed on the contrary, it was developed and hardened. He bided his time in patience formulating and pondering over his plans for the future. When the long wished for removal of the Prime Minister was brought about by the hand of death, Louis proved hmiself to be a man of iron, of the State,
Queen Mother,
the haughty
;
;
filled
with a fixed determination to reign alone and absolutely