It soon became the subject of conversation
on every side.
Six millions voted by the two Chambers for the expenses of the
coronation, at the time that the civil list was regulated at the
beginning of the reign, permitted the repairs required by the
Cathedral of Rheims to be begun in January, 1825. The arches that
had sunken, or threatened to do so, were strengthened; the ancient
sculptured decorations were restored; the windows were completed;
the fallen statues were raised. It was claimed that even the holy
ampulla had been found, that miraculous oil, believed, according
to the royal superstitions of former ages, to have been brought
from heaven by a dove for the anointing of crowned heads. The
Revolution thought that it had destroyed this relic forever. The
6th of October, 1793, a commissioner of the Convention, the
representative of the people, Ruhl, had, in fact, publicly broken
it on the pedestal of the statue of Louis XV. But it was related
that faithful hands had succeeded in gathering some fragments of
the phial as well as some particles of the balm contained in it.
The 25th of January, 1819, the Abbe Seraine, who in 1793 was cure
of Saint-Remi of Rheims, made the following declaration:--
"The 17th of October, 1793, M. Hourelle, then municipal officer
and first warden of the parish of Saint-Remi, came to me and
notified me, from the representative of the people, Ruhl, of the
order to remit the reliquary containing the holy ampulla, to be
broken.
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