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.
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