The theatre at Chantilly, celebrated for its elaborate decorations and beautiful scenery, was approached by a terrace adorned by forty-eight marble vases; whence a double staircase led through the Salon d’Apollon. Palm-trees formed an avenue before its entrance, and the back of the theatre opened upon the garden, where a statue of Diana surrounded by waterfalls stood in the background. Amongst the improvements in the gardens first introduced by this Prince was a “Hameau,” which was erected long before that in the Petit Trianon at Versailles.
From the time of Henri IV Chantilly, as we have seen, had been a favourite pleasure-resort for Royal personages. Louis XV used to combine excursions thither with his visits to Versailles. The King of Denmark, the hereditary Prince of Prussia, and Gustavus III, King of Sweden, were all entertained at the Château; and the latter presented to the Prince de Condé the magnificent cabinet containing many strange and curious minerals now at the Musée Condé.
In 1782 the Comte du Nord, afterwards the Emperor Paul of Russia, with his wife, Dorothea of Wurtemberg, paid a long visit to Chantilly. One of the Russian ladies-in-waiting, the Baroness Oberkirch, gives the following description of their stay: “We joined the Prince at eleven o’clock, which was the dinner-hour. This dinner, which opened the fêtes of the day—we were a hundred and fifty at table—was splendid, and quite in accordance with the traditions of this princely house, so famous for its magnificent hospitality. When we left the dining-hall we found carriages waiting for us. The Prince and the Duke, his son, themselves drove us along the avenues, where a thousand surprises were prepared for us. The trees were hung with flags and decorated with the Russian colours. After the drive we went to the theatre. They played The Friend of the House, The Supposed Poet, and The Fifteen-year-old Lover. The latter piece told the love-story of the Duc and Duchesse de Bourbon and had been played on the eve of their wedding. It ended with a fine ballet. On coming out we found the gardens illuminated and fireworks blazing all round, while the façade of the Château was decorated with the heraldic bearings of the Emperor and Empress. Supper was served on the Isle d’Amour and then followed a ball which was so gay and full of merriment that it seemed to us a quite exceptional thing, since this is not usually the case amongst princes. The next morning a hunting-party was arranged, a diversion of which the Condé princes and princesses are particularly fond. A stag was hunted for three hours, and when at last he went into the water he was followed by the whole pack of hounds. The sight was really superb.”
A picture representing this famous hunting-party was painted by Le Paon and presented to the Russian Emperor. It still hangs in one of the Imperial Palaces in St. Petersburg; but a copy was offered to the Duc d’Aumale by the Grand Duke Wladimir, which is now in the Musée Condé.
Another day the magnificent stables were visited and dinner was served in the central hall beneath the cupola. Much admiration was expressed for the gorgeous hangings which divided this part of the building from the rest. When the Royal party left the table these hangings were lifted on both sides, so as to exhibit the two hundred and forty horses stabled in either wing.
At that time two bronze horses stood beside the great fountain, which was completed in 1782. But they disappeared during the Revolution.
The hostess upon this occasion was the Princesse Louise de Condé, for the Duchesse de Bourbon, after but a few years of married life, separated herself from her gay young husband. This Princess inherited her father’s great qualities. She had been educated in the same convent where a relation of hers, Henriette de Bourbon Condé, was Abbess under the name of Madame de Vermandois—a lady of whom it was rumoured that she had refused to marry Louis XV and had preferred the life of a convent to that of Queen of France! Over the young Princesse de Condé she exercised great influence and Princesse Louise tells us that she looked upon her as a mother, since she had never known her own. Of her father she saw very little; but in her childhood he used to send the Surveyor of the Province to her every Sunday to ask whether she wanted anything. At the age of twelve she left this peaceful life for Paris, where she attached herself to her cousin Princesse Bathilde d’Orléans, who presently became her sister-in-law.
These two Princesses had each a royal household of their own, with maids-of-honour and attendants; and they were permitted to receive the visits of relations and certain selected friends. The Duc de Bourbon, whose attachment to his sister was the one redeeming point in his otherwise unsatisfactory character, often came to see her, and it was during one of these visits that he first met his wife.
The Princesse Louise de Condé at this time was presented at Court, where her beauty and grace created a great sensation; and she then received the title of “Mademoiselle.” The Duc d’Artois, third son of the Grand Dauphin, was greatly attracted by her, and a marriage between them was much discussed in Court circles. It was even said that it was desired by the people; but Louis XV, wishing to revenge himself upon Louis Joseph for having opposed the “pacte de famine,”[14] insisted on his grandson marrying Marie Thérèse of Savoy. This bitter disappointment, coming to her in yet tender years, made a deep impression upon the Princess, and from thenceforth she preferred solitude to worldly pleasure. She continued to reside in the Convent, refusing all other proposals of marriage, and devoting herself to literature. Later on in life she indulged in a platonic friendship with the Marquis de Gervaisais, who is said to have collaborated with her in the drama of Friendman. They often made excursions together from the watering-place of Bourbon d’Archambault, where the Princess had gone for her health, to visit the old Château de Bourbon; and it was during these excursions, amid ruins clad with ivy “as with a Royal mantle,” that the young poet wrote this drama (subsequently acted at Bourbon d’Archambault), wherein he hymned the praises of his adored Princess. “L’âme n’a pas d’âge, comme elle n’a pas de sexe” wrote her admirer.
But Louise de Condé, who at first had given herself up entirely to the joy of meeting with a kindred soul, recoiled suddenly on finding that this friendship was on both sides fast approaching passionate love. At a period of history when princely personages rarely denied themselves anything that attracted their fancy, it is remarkable to find a Princess who held such a high moral standard, and this also at a time when Madame du Barry was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of France. The Princess went so far as to force herself to give up this friendship, because she became aware that her sentiments towards the poet were after all not wholly platonic, and that she, as a Princess of the Blood, could not marry him.