"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 many who would not have been strongly surprised if
there had been announced to them by what a catastrophe, in five years
only, an end was to be put to the reign inaugurated under the happiest
auspices."
The 8th of June, the city of Paris offered to the King a fete at which
there were eight thousand guests. The sovereign made his entry, having
the Dauphiness on his right, and on the left the Duchess of Berry, who
opened the ball. A cantata was sung with words by Alexandre Soumet, and
the music by Lesueur.
The 10th of June, the King went to the Opera with the Dauphin, the
Dauphiness, and the Duchess of Berry. The back of the stage opened and
showed, in an immense perspective, the most illustrious kings of
France; at the farthest line were the statue of Henry IV., Paris, its
monuments, the Louvre. The 19th of June, Charles X. again accompanied
by the family went to the Theatre-Italien. Il Viaggio A Reims was
played. Le Moniteur, apropos of this work, said:--
"It is an opera of a mould which, under the forms of the Opera Buffa,
presents some ideas not destitute of comedy, in which homage of love
and respect is at times expressed with an art that French taste cannot
disavow. The author, M. Bellochi, has conceived the praiseworthy idea
of introducing personages of all the nations of Europe, joining with
the French in their prayers for the happiness of our country and of the
august family that governs us. The composer is M. Rossini. The Morceaux
are worthy of the reputation of this celebrated master. Madame Pasta
displayed all the resources of her admirable talent. Bouquets of roses
and lilies were distributed to the ladies."
There was an endless series of fetes, receptions, balls at court, at
the houses of the ministers of the foreign ambassador, theatrical
representations retracing the incidents of the coronation. The cities
of the provinces imitated the example of Paris. All this movement
stimulated business, and France appeared happy. But to an acute
observer it was plain that the pomps of the coronation and the fetes
that followed it pleased the people of the court more than the
bourgeoisie. The Count d'Haussonville says, apropos of the nobility at
that time:--
"I had the feeling--educated as I was at college, and provided early
with a sort of precocious experience, the precious fruit of public
education--that the nobility was a world a little apart. I
instinctively perceived how much the preoccupations of the persons with
whom I was then passing my time were of a nature particular, special to
their class, not opposed--that would be saying too much certainly--but
a little foreign to the great currents that swayed the opinion of their
contemporaries. They had their way of loving the King and their country
which was not very comprehensible, nor even, perhaps, very acceptable,
to the mass of the people and the bourgeois classes, who were rather
inclined to remain cold or even sullen in the presence of certain
manifestations of an ultra-royalism, the outward signs of which were
not always at this time entirely circumspect."
To one regarding the horizon attentively there were already some dark
spots on the bright azure of the heavens. The struggles of the rival
classes of French society existed in a latent state. The white flag had
not made the tricolor forgotten. Charles X., consecrated by an
archbishop, did not efface the memory of Napoleon crowned by a pope,
and beneath royalist France were pressing upward already Bonapartist
France and Revolutionary France.