is likely that Charles X., thinking that the Archbishop had told
me of his favorable sentiments, expected a word of thanks and that
he was shocked at my silence."

The ceremony of the reception of the knights once finished, the
King quitted his throne in the sanctuary, after having made the
required obeisances. The completory was next sung. Then all the
members of the order re-escorted the monarch to his apartments in
the same order and with the same ceremony that he had been
escorted to the Cathedral.

After the ceremony, Charles X. held a chapter of the order, in
which he named twenty-one cordons bleus: the Dukes d'Uzes, de
Chevreuse, de Boissac, de Mortemart, de Fitz-James, de Lorges, de
Polignac, de Maille, de Castries, de Narbonne, the Marshal Count
Jordan, the Marshal Duke of Dalmatia, the Marshal Duke of Treviso,
the Marquis de la Suze, the Marquis de Bre'ze', Marquis de
Pastoret, Count de La Ferronays, Viscount d'Agoult, Marquis
d'Autichamp, Ravez, Count Juste de Noailles. By an ordinance of
the same day he named to be Dukes, the Count Charles de Damas,
Count d'Escars, and the Marquis de Riviere.

The next day, May 31, the King after having heard Mass in his
apartments,--left the palace at ten o'clock with a brilliant
cortege. Preceded by the hussars of the guard, and by the pages,
and followed by a numerous staff, he was in the uniform of a
general officer, on a white horse, whose saddle of scarlet velvet
was ornamented with embroideries and fringe of gold. He had at his
right the Dauphin on a white horse, and the Duke of Bourbon on a
bay horse; at his left the Duke of Orleans, who wore the uniform
of a colonel-general of hussars, and rode an iron-gray horse.
Following the cortege was an open carriage; at the back the
Dauphiness with the Duchess of Berry at her left, and in front the
Duchess of Orleans and Madame of Orleans, her sister-in-law. The
route lay through an immense crowd to the Hospital of Saint
Marcoul. When he arrived there, the King dismounted and offered up
a prayer in the chapel. Then he ascended to the halls, where were
assembled one hundred and twenty-one scrofulous patients. He
touched them, making a cross with his finger on the brow, while
the first physician held the head and the captain of the guard the
hand. The King said to each: "May God heal thee! The King touches
thee!" Then he thanked the sisters who had charge of the hospital
for all the care they gave to the solacing of suffering humanity.
The pious sisters knelt at the feet of the sovereign, and begged
his benediction, according to an ancient custom. The King gave it
to them, and allowed them to kiss his hand. The holy women wept
with joy.

Charles X., followed by his cortege, next proceeded to the abbey
of Saint Remi, which dates from the eleventh century, and
performed his devotions on the tomb of the saint whose shrine had
been discovered. Then he remounted and went to review the troops
of the camp of Saint Leonard, under the walls of the city, in a
vast plain, along the river Vesle, on the right of the road to
Chalons. In the midst of this plain rises a grassy hillock, above
which was placed the portrait of the King; below, on a background
of soil, was this inscription in bluets and marguerites,--

    "A moment in the camp--always in our hearts."

Not far from there an altar had been erected under a tent before
the royal tent. All the road from Chalons, opposite the lines, was
covered with a shouting and cheering crowd. Charles X. was
accompanied by the princes and a brilliant staff. The carriage of
the princesses followed him. He distributed to the officers, sub-
officers, and soldiers the crosses of the Legion of Honor which he
had accorded to them. The review, which was magnificent, lasted
from noon to 3 P.M. Before returning to the palace, the sovereign
visited the bazaar established along the promenade of the lawn. He
dismounted, and the princesses descended from their carriage to
traverse the shops.

At five o'clock the cortege, which had set out at 10 A.M.,
returned to the palace. On each of the four nights that Charles X.
passed at Rheims, the streets of the city were illuminated. It was
clear weather, and by the light of the illuminations, amid the
crowd in the streets, there were everywhere to be seen the
generals, the officers of the King's household, and the great
personages of the court in grand uniform. Charles X. set out from
Rheims the morning of June 1, and the city, after some days of
dazzling pomp, resumed its accustomed calm. Things had passed off
well, and the monarch was fully satisfied.

The poets had tuned their lyres. Barthelemy, himself, the future
author of the Nemesis, celebrated in enthusiastic verses the
monarchical and religious solemnity; Lamartine, future founder of
the Second Republic, published Le Chant du Sucre ou la Veille des
Armes; Victor Hugo, the future idol of the democracy, sang his
dithyrambic songs. Yet, in this concert of enthusiasm there were
some discordant notes. Beranger circulated his ironic song Le
Sacre de Charles le Simple.

As for Chateaubriand, the most illustrious of the royalist
writers, he was to close his chapter of the MSmoires d'outre-tombe
as follows:--

"So I have witnessed the last consecration of the successors of
Clovis. I had brought it about by the pages in which in my
pamphlet, LE ROI EST MART! VIVE LE ROI! I had described it and
solicited it. Not that I had the least faith in the ceremony, but
as everything was wanting to legitimacy, it had to be sustained by
every means, whatever it might be worth."





XVI

THE RE-ENTRANCE INTO PARIS


Charles X. made a solemn re-entrance into Paris, June 6, 1825.
According to the Moniteur, Paris was divided between a lively
desire for the day to come and fear that the weather, constantly
rainy, should spoil the splendor of the royal pomp. At the barrier
of La Villette there had been erected amphitheatres and a
triumphal arch. The streets were hung with white flags and the
arms of the sovereign, with the inscription: "Long live Charles
X.! Long live our well-beloved King!" The Rue Saint Denis, the Rue
du Roule, the Rue Saint Honore, presented a picturesque spectacle.
The merchants of these business streets had converted the facades
of their houses into an exposition of the rich tissues of their
shops, and the cortege was thus to traverse a sort of bazaar. What
a pity if the rain was going to spoil so many fine preparations!
By a good luck, on which every one congratulated himself, the
weather in the morning ceased its gloomy look, and a merchant of
the Rue Saint Denis inscribed on his balcony these two celebrated
lines,--

    "Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacula mane,
    Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet."

At 1 P.M. a salvo of one hundred and one guns announced the
arrival of the monarch at the barrier of La Villette. The Prefect
of the Seine addressed him an allocution and presented him the
keys of the city. The King responded: "I feel a great satisfaction
in re-entering these walls. I always recall with lively emotion
the reception given me eleven years ago when I preceded the King,
my brother. I return here, having received the holy unction that
has given me new strength. I consecrate it all, and all that I
have of life and all my resources, to the happiness of France. It
is my firm resolve, gentlemen, and I give you the assurance of
it."

The cortege then took up its march. It was formed of a squadron of
gendarmerie, several squadrons of the lancers and cuirassiers of
the royal guard, the mounted National Guard of Paris, the staff of
the garrison and of the first military division, a numerous group
of general and superior officers.

The Count d'Haussonville wrote on the subject:--

"I was in the cortege, and as the staff of the National Guard
followed pretty close to the royal carriage, I had occasion to
note how far below what had been hoped was the reception at the
gate of La Villette, where a triumphal arch had been erected. Some
groups, plainly soldiers, after the discourse of the Prefect of
Paris and the response of the King, uttered some huzzas that found
no echo. When we approached the boulevards, the public warmed up a
little. The windows were lined with women, of whom the greater
number waved their handkerchiefs in sign of welcome. Around Notre-
Dame, whither the cortege proceeded on its way to the Tuileries,
the crowd was enormous behind the line of soldiers charged with
restraining it. There was nothing offensive in their remarks;
neither was there any emotion or sympathy. The magnificence of the
equipages and the costumes, the beauty of the military uniforms,
particularly of the CORPS D'ELITE, such as the Hundred Swiss and
the body-guard, were the only things spoken of. The spectators
sought to guess and name to each other the prominent persons."

During the passage the King received bouquets offered him by the
market men and women, as well as by a number of workmen's
corporations preceded by their banners. At the entrance of the
Cathedral he was congratulated by the Archbishop of Paris at the
head of the clergy. A te Deum was sung and the Marche du Sacre of
Lesueur was played. Then the King returned to his carriage and
directed his course to the Tuileries.

As the cortege drew near to the Chateau, the welcome grew more and
more cordial. The balconies of many of the houses were draped.
Women of the court, in rich toilet, threw bouquets and flowers to
the King. The Count d'Haussonville says:--

"The untiring good grace with which the King returned the
salutations of the crowd, and by gestures full of Bonhomie and
affability, responded to the cries of persons whom he recognized
as he passed, added every moment to his personal success. In fact,
when, June 6, 1825, at evening, he descended from the magnificent
coronation coach, to mount the stairs of the palace of his
fathers, Charles X. had reason to be content with the day. I doubt
whether among the witnesses of the splendid fetes that had
followed without interruption at Rheims and at Paris, there were

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