A RÊVERIE
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she had noticed that the little stream issuing from the grotto had not been cleared, but was choked with dead autumn leaves.[1] This unusual and forlorn sight had remained in her mind. Here she had sat for a time looking at the place now deserted by all who had formerly been with her there, and, as was inevitable at that time of political anxiety, became engrossed in mournful anticipations of further troubles.[2] They had pressed more than she could bear, and feeling a sudden desire to speak to someone she had entered the moss-lined grotto.[3]
- ↑ The streams were cleared of dead leaves on Oct. 1, 2, 3, but not on the 4th or 5th or after that date (O1, 1877).
- ↑ Memoirs of Marie Antoinette, by Madame Campan, p. 201. Légendes de Trianon, by Madame Julie Lavergne, p. 75.
- ↑ In the time of Marie Antoinette there were at least three grottos at Trianon, of which only one remains intact, and that possibly the last created; it may have been formed along with the Escargot hill, raised in 1781 (Arch. Nat. O1, 1877). The oldest grotto is mentioned in 1777 as ending at the porte d'entrée (O1, 1875). Issuing from the side of this first grotto was a "naissance de rivière," which fed (perhaps by pipes) the small circular lake, whose waters passed under the Rocher bridge, through the great lake to the stream which meandered through the grounds. A small "ruine" having seven columns, a dome roof, and walls, stood above the spring "formant la naissance de la rivière" (O1, 1878, Desjardins, p. 90). Such waters as drained naturally through the first grotto seem to have collected in a little pool at the lower end. In June, 1780, a new "petite rivière," intended to carry these stagnant
