The 17th, at Tarascon, she breakfasted with the Marquis de
Gras-Preville, and was present at the games instituted by good
King Rene,--tambourine dances and the races of the Tarasque. The
18th, at Arles, she visited the Cloister of Saint Trophime, and
the Roman circus. About eighteen thousand persons were crowded on
the ancient benches. The galleries resounded with military music
which, borne from echo to echo, spread beneath all the arches. In
the evening the entire city was illuminated. From a balcony, the
Princess assisted at a pegoulade, a sort of torchlight promenade
of five or six hundred young people, who bore pieces of tarred
rope lighted at one end. She desired to see again these bizarre
and picturesque effects of light, this joyous procession, this
clamorous animation, and she had the enthusiastic cortege file a
second time under her windows. The 21st, she visited the Roman
theatre at Orange, one of the most curious ruins of the world. The
23d, she passed again through Lyons. The 28th, she was at the
Tuileries for dinner.
The Duchess of Berry returned enchanted with her journey. Never
had the throne of the Bourbons seemed to her more solid, never
were the advantages of the family pact revealed in a more
brilliant manner. The Moniteur wrote: "The Princess Marie-
Christine has heard her name mingling in the air with that of her
whose son is one day to be King of France.
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