Near the old village of Picpus, now a part of the Faubourg St. Antoine,
under the walls of the garden which belonged to the canoness of St.
Augustine, in a bit of ground not more than thirty feet in length,
repose thirteen hundred and fifteen victims beheaded at the Barrière du
Throne between the 26th Prairial and the 9th Thermidor in the second
year of the Republic.
Widows, orphans, and mothers left comfortless, and without support,
swallowed their tears in secret, and dared not even ask for their dead
the right of burial. In times like those, tears had ceased to be
innocent, and the tomb to be a refuge. These unhappy creatures
contented themselves with commending the remains of their loved ones to
Him whose eye is ever upon the living and the dead; but they knew not
whose hand buried them, nor even the spot of earth where they were laid.
But a Sister as brave as she was tender, Madame Amélie-Zéphirine de
Salm-Kirbourg, Princess of Hohenzollern, sister of Frédérick, Prince of
Salm, gained from her great grief a strength which others seemed to
lose. She had, I may say, watched over the last moments of her
brother's life, had seen the blow which ended his days, the wagon which
bore away his remains, the earth which received them. She bought the
spot of ground, scarcely sufficient to cover the victims who had just
been buried there; she had it enclosed by a wall, and she protected it
from profanation, hoping that pious sorrow would some day consecrate
these new catacombs. This prayer of fraternal piety has been heard; it
has been fulfilled by two sisters, Mesdames de la Fayette and de
Montagu, worthy imitators of such an example, for they were themselves
worthy of setting it. They both belonged to one of those patrician
families which had remained sound in the midst of an age despoiled of
virtue, like an obelisk in the midst of a desert; both were daughters,
granddaughters, sisters, and were related to and nearly connected with
several victims beheaded at the Barrière du Throne. One of them, whose
days were fewer than her good works, died last year, leaving in the
world, in which she has lived only to be wife and mother, a void
difficult to fill; the other, with a broken heart, a worn-out body, and
her fortune all lost, still finds comfort for the sorrowful, solace for
the suffering, and help for the poor. These two noble and pious women
began by purchasing a portion of the ground belonging to the nuns; and
upon the ruins of the cells they have caused to be built a modest
oratory. The innocence of the former occupants must help to make
effectual the prayers to be offered there. The august symbol of our
redemption has now been placed above this funeral enclosure; a priest
has been sent there by the Grand Vicars of Paris; an annual service has
been appointed there; and the blood of a Divine Victim has been offered
upon this altar for the repose of the souls of all these distinguished
dead.
This was doubtless sufficient for the dignity and consolation of all
these Christian spirits, but not to satisfy the tender pity of their
families and friends. The chapel and the cemetery were separated from
each other by the garden of the nuns. It was resolved to unite them by
purchasing this valuable bit of ground, which contains more than four
_arpents_. A subscription was started. A circular was drawn up by a man
noted for talent and integrity,[15] who for thirty years has declared
himself the defender of all those whose misfortunes were most noble and
touching. Generous emotion responded to the appeal of eloquent
sensibility, and subscriptions were soon obtained to the amount of
forty thousand francs. By the side of the proudest and most cherished
names of France one cannot see without emotion the unknown names and
small donations of several faithful servants who brought their humble
offerings to lay at the feet of their old masters and at the base of
the new altar. The whole of the piece of ground was at last purchased;
and for two years and a half the same enclosure has surrounded the
victims and the oratory of the dead. The ashes of the fathers have
become the property of the children; the children will transmit it to
their descendants. This monument will remain as a sorrowful reparation
for the past and an impressive lesson to the future.
Here every day the holy sacrifice is offered up for all the victims of
the Revolution; here are celebrated every year for those buried in this
spot two solemn services,--one on Low Sunday week and the other on the
day corresponding to the 9th Thermidor; here on last Monday, the 11th
of this month, a congregation gathered to celebrate the anniversary.
After the service at the chapel, which was remarkable only for the
number and emotion of those present, the attendants went in procession,
according to custom, into the Champ des Martyrs.
In the middle there is a bit of rising ground shaded by cypress and
poplar trees, whose tall waving branches remind us of the vanity of our
earthly hopes, and point to where they should be fixed; while a cross
surmounting a pyramid, whose base is planted upon all these vanished
sources of happiness, seems to call all the descendants of the victims
to its outstretched arms. The funeral memorial service began, and the
faithful, on their knees, alternately repeated the melancholy stanzas
of the psalm which mourns and hopes.
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Footnote 15:
Monsieur Lally-Tollendal.
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Transcriber's note: