When near to him, in the palace of Versailles, men lived, and hoped, and trembled; everywhere else in France, even at Paris, men vegetated.

The existence of the great lords was concentrated in the court, about the person of the king.

Scarcely could the most important duties bring them to absent themselves for any time.

They returned quickly, with alacrity, with ardor; only poverty or a certain rustic pride kept gentlemen in their provinces.

"The court does not make one happy," says La Bruyere, "it prevents one from being so anywhere else." At the outset of his reign, and when, on the death of Cardinal Mazarin, he took the reins of power in hand, Louis XIV.