The two other
processions had no less eclat, and their pauses being fixed in the
churches of the principal parishes, they passed through the
busiest and most populous quarters of Paris.
The fourth and last procession, that of the 3d of May, was the
most important of all. It was to close by an expiatory ceremony in
honor of Louis XVI., by the laying and benediction of the corner-
stone of the monument voted by the Chamber of 1815, and which
still awaited its foundation. It is at the very place where the
unfortunate sovereign had been executed that the monument was to
be constructed. The cortege left Notre-Dame and directed its
course first to the Church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois. The
Chamber of Peers, the Chamber of Deputies, all the functionaries,
all the authorities of the Department of the Seine, followed the
King and Dauphin, who advanced, accompanied by the ministers, the
marshals, the officers of their houses, cordons bleus, cordons
rouges. Never since the end of the old regime had such a multitude
of priests been seen defiling through the streets of Paris. The
pupils of all the seminaries, the almoners of all the colleges,
the priests of all the parishes and all the chapels, stretched out
in an endless double line, at the end of which appeared the Nuncio
of the Pope, Cardinals de Latil, de Croi, and de La Fare, the
Archbishop of Paris, and a crowd of prelates.
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