[116]. Marion’s mother died shortly before 1793, Légendes de Trianon, Lavergne.

[117]. In Mique’s map of 1783 there is a building outside the wall between the ruelle and the porte de jardinier.

[118]. If Marianne was 21 at her son’s birth in 1796 she would have been 8 in 1783, and 14 in 1789.

[119]. In 1793 “Marion” (daughter of an under-gardener) was chosen by the Versailles Republican Club to personate the local Goddess of Reason. Horrified at the prospect, the night before the installation on the altar of the Versailles Notre Dame, she so completely disfigured her face with scratches from a thorn branch that she never completely lost the marks (Légendes de Trianon, Mdme Julie Lavergne, pp. 91–97).

[120]. In 1786 “Charpentier” is mentioned as an ouvrier terrassier, having to clear up sticks and leaves, plant flowers, and rake (Arch. Nat. O1, 1878).

Charpentier seems to have been the “Jean de l’eau,” so called from his daily duty of fetching water from Ville d’Avray for the Queen’s table. He even tried to get it to her when she was in the Conciergerie, August, 1792. He was afterwards wounded at Marengo and became a captain, and in 1805 was appointed by Napoleon jardinier en chef at the Petit Trianon, and married Marion (Légendes de Trianon, p. 97).

The marriage certificate of Alexandre Charpentier, in 1823 (at that time chef d’atelier aux Pepinières Royales de Trianon, and, later, for many years jardinier en chef at Trianon), shows that he was the son of Louis Toussaint Charpentier, pensionnaire, and Marie Anne Lemaignan (Mairie de Versailles).

[121]. “Dec. 5, 1780. Commencé par ordre de M. Mique le model de la partie de la grotte ... du coté des montagnes ... là dessus une petite ruine d’architecture, l’avoir penté, planté, et gazonné.”

“Detail estimatif d’une ruine formant la naissance d’une rivière, savoir—Fouille de terre—maçonnerie ... le massif et le rigolle des fondations ... pierre dure ... colonnes avec les murs au derrière ... 7 colonnes ... 7 chapiteaux ... partie de la voute ... le parement des murs ... le fossite pour l’architecture ... Recapitulation ... 7 chapiteaux Ioniques, antique ... 5 membres ... 5 rosaces ... 9358 livres” (Arch. Nat. OI, 1878).

The Temple de l’Amour is more than once called a “ruine,” which did not seem to mean more than the reproduction of an older building. One “ruine” mentioned had six Corinthian pillars, and was near the “onze arpents.”