After his coronation Charles X. remained at Rheims during the 30th and
31st of May. On the 30th the ceremony of the Order of the Holy Spirit
was celebrated in the Cathedral. The interior presented the same aspect
as the day before. At 1 P.M. the order passed in procession through the
covered gallery as follows: the usher, the herald, Marquis d'Aguessau,
Grand Master of Ceremonies of the order, having at his right the Count
Deseze, Commander Grand Treasurer, at his left Marquis de Villedeuil,
Commander Secretary, the Chancellor, two columns of Knights of the Holy
Spirit. In the right hand column, the Viscount of Chateaubriand, the
Duke of San-Carlos, the Prince of Castelcicala, the Viscount Laine, the
Marquis of Caraman, the Marquis Dessole, Marshal Marquis of Viomesnil,
the Duke d'Avaray, the Marshal Duke of Ragusa, the Marshal Duke of
Taranto, the Marshal Duke of Conegliano, the Duke of LEvis, the Duke of
Duras, the Duke d'Aumont, the Duke of Luxembourg, the Prince of
Hohenlohe, the Duke de La Vauguyon. In the left column, the Marquis of
Talaru, the Duke of Doudeauville, the Count of Villele, the Marshal
Marquis of Lauriston, the Count Charles de Damas, the Baron Pasquier,
the Duke of Blacas d'Aulps, the Marquis of Riviere, the Marshal Duke of
Reggio, the Duke of Dalberg, the Prince de Poix, the Duke de Gramont,
Prince Talleyrand, the Duke de La Rochefoucauld. Then came the Dauphin,
the Duke of Orleans, the Duke of Bourbon, the King.
The vestments of the monarch, of a silver stuff, were covered by a
mantle of the order in black velvet, lined with green silk stitched
with gold. His headdress was also in black velvet, surmounted by an
aigrette of heron plumes. The knights of the order had their mantles
with the Holy Spirit in silver spangles on the shoulder; the grand
collar, the facings of their mantles, caught up in front, were of green
velvet sown with gold flames. They made their entry into the Cathedral
in two columns, which deployed on either side of the altar. The King,
who followed them, seated himself on a throne in the choir and they
arranged themselves in their stalls to the right and left. The
princesses occupied the same gallery as the day before. The clergy
chanted the vespers. Then the two columns formed in a double rank and
the ceremony commenced. There was a long series of obeisances. The King
made twenty himself, eleven before vespers, nine after. The reception
began with the ecclesiastical commanders and the laymen came afterwards.
The solemnity was less imposing than that of the coronation. Count
d'Haussonville remarked it: "The military array of so many marshals and
generals clad in brilliant uniforms, the pomp of the ceremonies to the
slow and majestic sound of the organ filling the vast nave of the
church, had succeeded, the preceding day, in redeeming for the
spectators, and for me particularly, whatever was a little
superannuated in the minute observance of a ritual that had come down
from the Middle Ages. I felt myself, on the contrary, rather surprised
than edified by the character, partly religious, partly worldly, but
far more worldly than religious, that I witnessed on the morrow. Most
of these gentlemen were known to me. I had met nearly all of them in my
mother's or grandmother's salon. I had not been insensible to the fine
air given them by the cordon bleu (worn under the frock coat, usually,
or on great occasions over a coat covered with gold lace and shining
decorations), the traditional object of ambition for those most in
favor at court; but they seemed to me to present a constrained figure,
as I saw them soberly ranged in the stalls of the canons, clad in a
costume of no particular epoch, wrapped in long mantles of motley
color, and following, with a distracted air, the phases of a ceremony
to which they were so little accustomed that they were constantly
rising, sitting down, and kneeling at the wrong time."
The receptions took place as follows: the herald-at-arms of the order
called in groups of four the new members from each column, and escorted
them to the middle of the sanctuary. There the four knights, abreast,
saluted together, first the altar, then the sovereign. Then they
advanced in line toward the throne, and after a second obeisance,
knelt, placed the right hand on the book of the Gospels spread out on
the knees of the monarch, and took the oath. The King decorated each
with his own hand. He passed over their coats, from right to left, the
cordon bleu with the cross of gold suspended from it, placed the collar
on the mantle, gave a book of hours and a decastich to each one, who
kissed his hand, rose, and returned to his place.
By a curious coincidence, M. de Chateaubriand and M. de Villele, two
inveterate adversaries, were one in the column on the right, the other
in that on the left, and the herald-at-arms of the order called both at
once to the foot of the throne. Listen to the author of the Memoires
d'Outre--Tombe:--
"I found myself kneeling at the feet of the King at the moment that M.
de Villdle was taking the oath. I exchanged a few words of politeness
with my companion in knighthood, apropos of a plume detached from my
hat. We quitted the knees of the King, and all was finished. The King,
having had some trouble in removing his gloves to take my hands in his,
had said to me, laughing, 'A gloved cat catches no mice.' It was
thought that he had spoken to me for a long time, and the rumor spread
of my nascent favor. It 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."