The Time of Louis XIV

77

live for a time in the beautiful castle, and in 1683, after his marriage to Madame de
Maintenon, Louis did present it to his former mistress. But the pain caused to the lady
by her humiliations was too much for her pride in the long run, and in June 1692 she
left everything to her son, the Due de Maine, and entered a nunnery.

At the end of the eighteenth century the ruined castle was pulled down, and to-day
there is no trace of it. Mansart made his first experiment at Clagny (Fig. 4c 8). As at

FIG. 408.-CLAGNY—GROUND-PLAN

Versailles, the buildings were round an inner court with a large one in front, at the sides
of which kitchen-gardens and stables were cleverly concealed; and this front court was
enclosed by a moat, showing how hard it was to part from the traditional idea that a
castle must have trenches as a protection. The main part of the building was set forward
into the garden by side wings, a plan carried out on a small scale by Mansart, serving as
an example for the future enlargement of the castle at Versailles. The garden, which
Le Notre laid out "in his own style" as Madame de Sevigne says, and which, has been
so greatly praised, could be no more than the private garden of a small house. But the
style of Le Notre is here fully exemplified, and the middle show-garden gently sloping
in terraces from the castle (Fig. 409) ends in a large water-mirror, the great pond which