Note 107 — THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. (continued 2)

There was a moment when the aspiration of the French marshal seemed fulfilled even in France, if we may credit the early Madame de Lafayette, who, in the first sentence of her Memoirs, announces perfect tranquillity, where "no other arms were known than instruments for the cultivation of the earth and for building, and the troops were employed on these things." Part of their work was to divert the waters of the Eure, so that the fountains at Versailles should have a perpetual supply: but this was better than War.—Madame de Lafayette, Mémoires de la Cour de France pour les Années 1688 et 1689, p. 1.