REFLECTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 146, 21 June 1940, Page 6

REFLECTIONS

HALL OF MIRRORS

SCENES AT VERSAILLES

PICTURES OF THE PAST

(By G. 0.)

By authority of the Minister for Fine .Arts under laws of December 31, 1921, and July 13, 1925—and payment of a nominal fee—any decentlyattired and orderly person was free to indulge in fancies in the great Galerie 1 dcs Glaces at Versailles. "Was" free. ■ But now! The Germans are in Versailles. Not for the first time are they there. They looted the palace in 1815; they established their headquarters there in 1871; they signed the notorious treaty of peace with the Allies there on June 28, 1919 —in this very Hall of , Mirrors; and, after 21 years almost to a day, they are there again. At this moment, it may be, the great gallery ■is resounding with the tramp of German feet and the sharp click of German heels, swaggering German soldiers and their officers reflected in the mirrors. Could but those reflections be fixed as a photographic negative is fixed, a very large part of the history of France would be placed on record, graphic depictions of events beyond the cavil or argument of historian or painter. They would show facts, tragic, comic, ludicrous, pathetic, stirring, even horrific; yet all veritable facts that could not be ignored, distorted, or disproved. ***** The mirrors would show the splendour of the court of the Sun King, Majesty itself passing through this gallery. Actually, thousands in his train or awaiting his radiance, a pushing, squeezing, jabbering, jostling ' crowd, and that most rudely, the mirrors reflecting the scenes, reproducing, too, the expressions on the faces of them all, envy, hatred, and all uncharitableness as they squirm among, themselves for a place in the rays of, this Roi Soleil, Louis the Fourteenth of his line. He it is who had built up all this magnificence for his own glory, his own vanity. Not, indeed, unlike Solomon is this Louis. The greatest King that Israel ever had upon its throne was "building his own house 13 years, and he finished all his house." -Louis has taken longer over Versailles, but he is no less ambitious than Solomon. Indeed, there are many points of resemblance between the two monarchs, as these mirrors tell, could they retain their reflections. •' Both kings shone as suns, their splendour dazzling contemporary rulers of other, and lesser nations. Both as suns they declined and set ingloriously. These mirrors see, perhaps, the lovely and constant La Valliere, the only woman who really loves Louis, passing down the gallery, superseded, dismissed from the court to the convent. Do they reflect her tears? The mirrors reflected, too, the great pack of human jackals which crouched silent about the death bed of Louis XV, and when the last breath had left his putrid body they rush with terrific din and speed through the gallery, to pay homage to the' new King, Louis XVI, and the new Queen, Marie Antoinette. Again, in the dim of an October morning, the mirrors for a moment reflect this same Marie fleeing from a bloodthirsty crowd, which actually does invade her bed chamber and thrust their swords into her vacant bed. The Queen flees through room on room to the King. He is gone, really to find her and save her and her children from the fury of the mob, which races madly through the gallery, seen in the mirrors, which cannot record the echoes of musket shots, screaming, snarling, cursing, and groanings of agony as faithful bodyguards are stricken down at their posts before the Queen's bed chamber. The ravening pack rushes through the gallery crying, "The King must go to Paris." He goes to return no more to' the glory of his former state at Versailles. • * ' * * * Beautiful, indeed, is the scene re- ] fleeted in the Hall of Mirrors, as the j Queen of England with the Emperor Napoleon 111 and the Eugenic with the Prince Consort open the great j State ball.in 1855. The Crimea War is over, the Allies have humbled Russia, a new age of peace and exhibitions has been ushered in, and we shall have in Paris a beautiful bridge across the Seine, to be called Pont d'Alma. Here, indeed, are scenes -of gaiety and brilliancy for the mirrors to reflect; the uniforms, the dresses, the orders, the beauty of men and women of high distinction in the world of this peace following a bitter war, disaster, and muddlement. In every one of these mirrors as the dance proceeds and at any moment is to be seen a great subject for painters of court scenes and pageantry. , ***** ' For France another scene, tragical in the extreme and with the tragedy insult, is reflected in this gallery. It is winter, January 18, 1871, to be exact. Paris is invested by Prussian cannon, its people subsisting on cats and dogs and rats and anything else they can find to eat; but they are holding out against the hereditary enemies of France. Here, at this time, in the Hall of Mirrors' is seen King William of Prussia, being proclaimed German Emperor. The mirrors reflect the scene; the King on the dais, the Crown Prince at his ' right hand, Bismarck and yon Moltke, their helmets in'their hands, the former in the white uniform of the cuirassiers, and on his face depicted satisfaction at high achievement. An impressive but sinister and humiliating scene for the French, and the place is one that possibly only German mentality would choose for the purpose. Again, in 1896, and by way of purification, the mirrors reflect another imposing spectacle. The Tsar of All the Russias is the honoured guest of France. The ceremonial is elaborate. Amidst it all the Tsar may see or already have caught a glimpse of the painting in the middle of the gorgeously ornamented ceiling, the legend beneath the picture, "Le Roi Gouverne par Lui-meme." If so, what are his thoughts? The mirrors only reflect. ***** An event of the highest importance not only to France but to the world, is reflected. Here, in the gallery, there is no music, no dancing, no feasting. Instead a series of long tables covered, with papers and dispatch cases, and I seated at the tables are men of the highest importance too. They are \by no means all Frenchmen; they come from many parts of the world, from the United States, Canada, South Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand. They have come about great, momentous affairs. The chief business is "to make the world safe for democracy." All of them have assembled for this supreme purpose, and they mean it in their hearts, if the mirrors truthfully indicate their expressions. They have come to see that the treaty they have drawn up

shall be signed and kept by the aggressor who broke the peace of Europe in 1870 and again in 1914. These men. so utterly dissimilar in many ways of thought, are come into the Hall of Mirrors in the hope that their business done and once they have left, they shall return no more except as individual stragglers and under the surveillance of the custodians of the place. The mirrors reflect them, every one of them as he faces them or turns his back upon them to look through the great windows at the long, bluegreen vista of pool and fountain, sward and canal with regimented ranks of ancient trees along its borders, and groups of statuary placed just where they ought to be. An enchanting view, this, the scene of many incidents in attempts to create a land of fancy unhuman and unreal..' ***** Last brilliant scene of all to be mentioned as reflected in the mirrors is the State luncheon to the King-and Queen of England. They have come to eat the bread and salt of the French people,' to consolidate professions of friendship and amity and peace, this lovely Queen Elizabeth, this sedate \ King George VI. The mirrors reflect them and, above- all, the charming smile of the Queen. The gallery is full of guests, gay, scintillant; the hour is pregnant with mystic meaning. There is far more in this gathering than meets the eye or that can be reflected in mirrors, which cannot re- j fleet things to be, but only those of the moment. j 1 * * • * • The dusk of a day early in September, in 1939, comes slowly over •fhe vast park and buildings of Versailles, the I daylight fades from the Hall of MirI rors and is darkest in the reflections.' Silence and locked doors. What is the next great scene to be reflected in these glasses?