Three times in succession they raise to heaven the cry for pardon
and pity. All the spectators fall upon their knees. A profound,
absolute silence reigns about the altar and over all the Place; a
common sorrow overwhelms the people; the King's eyes are filled
with tears."
In this multitude the absence of the Dauphiness, the daughter of
Louis XVI., is remarked. The Orphan of the Temple had made it a
law for herself never to cross the place where her father had
perished. She went to the expiatory chapel of the Rue d'Anjou-
Saint-Honore, to pass in prayer the time of the ceremony.
M. de Vaulabelle makes this curious comparison:--
"Behind Charles X. there knelt his Grand Chamberlain, Prince
Talleyrand, covered with gleaming embroideries, orders, and
cordons. It was the ecclesiastical dignitary whom Paris had beheld
celebrating the Mass of the Federation on the Champ-de-Mars, the
wedded prelate who, as Minister of the Directory, had for some
years observed as a national festival the anniversary of this same
execution, now the subject of so many tears."
Religious people rejoiced at the ceremony that was celebrated; but
the Voltairians and the enemies of royalty complained bitterly at
the sight of the quays, the streets, the squares of the capital
furrowed by long files of priests, chanting psalms and litanies,
dragging devout in their suite the King, the two Chambers, the
judiciary, the administration, and the army.
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