French capital. However shorn of its former glory, however impoverished and humiliated, Paris was not to be introduced to a foreign and semi-barbarous potentate without something of the splendour and the grace in which her sons at all times had delighted; and it was surprising on this occasion to see what could be done by a populace as well versed as the French in the art of representation. At the Passy station the Persian autocrat was received by Marshal MacMahon and General l'Admirault, and was welcomed by a royal salute from Mont Valérien. The Bois de Boulogne looked better than it had ever done since the war, when he visited it on the 7th July. A state banquet in the Galérie des Glaces at Versailles was held in his honour on the 8th; a review at Longchamps on the 10th. On the 13th Paris gave a fête; and yet it was said that, as compared with his reception in England, his reception by the crowd in the French capital was a silent one. The Paris journals turned the fact to the national glorification, asserting that the quiet politeness of the French produced a pleasing impression on the foreign despot's mind after the boisterous roughness of the insulars.

During the period of the Shah's visit an incident occurred which would have afforded even more talk than it did had it not been for the preoccupation of the public mind. This was a duel between M. Rane and M. Paul de Cassagnac, occasioned by a political onslaught made by the Bonapartist journalist on the ex-member of the Commune after the late proceedings of the Assembly against him. M. Ranc observed that M. de Cassagnac found it easier to abuse him than to give him a sword-thrust. Upon this M. de Cassagnac sent Ranc a challenge. The encounter was announced beforehand with an odd sort of publicity. The adversaries met at Essanges on the Luxembourg frontier, and after a first and second assault, M. Rane was disabled by injury received in the arm.

The next public mention of the ex-Communist Deputy was when sentence was given on the 13th of October, by the Tribunal directed to pronounce on the charges against him, and he was condemned to death in contumaciam, according to the technical phrase where the criminal's absence renders the sentence practically nugatory.

The last instalment of the Indemnity due from France to Germany was paid on the 5th of September. The evacuation of Nancy and of Belfort had taken place on the 1st of August; that of Verdun, the last fortress in pawn, was completed on the 16th of September. At Belfort the joy of the inhabitants was grave, though deep. At Verdun the popular enthusiasm ran over. The Germans, indeed, were not behindhand in the satisfaction with which they greeted the day of their own departure. At seven o'clock in the morning, the handful of men who remained under General von Manteuffel's command assembled on the esplanade of the fortress, where they underwent their last inspection upon French territory. The staff, having ridden round the ranks, drew up in

front of the men; and then, the word of command" Present arms!" having been given, General von Manteuffel rose in his saddle, swiftly drew his sword and waved it aloft, shouting, "Hoch lebe der Kaiser! Hurrah!" The cheer was caught up by the men, and the bands bursting forth with the "Heil dir im Siegerkranz," the troops marched down the esplanade and through the Porte de France, out of the little frontier town which had gallantly braved the German cannonade less than three years before. Scarcely had they departed than the tricolour flag was everywhere hoisted, and tricolour rosettes decorated the breasts of the women and the coats of the men. At twelve o'clock the French troops arrived, and were received at the railway station by a crowd of departmental and municipal functionaries. Their march through the town to the citadel resembled a triumphal procession, the streets being lined by an enthusiastic crowd, shouting, "Vive la République !" "Vive l'Armée !" and "Vive Thiers!" and ladies and children presenting them with bouquets of flowers. Bands of music and illuminations enlivened the evening.

It was remarked, however, that very few cries were heard of " à bas les Prussiens!" and, on the other hand, the demeanour of the Germans themselves was admirable for its sobriety and self-restraint. Indeed, great praise was due to the representatives of both the nationalities, who for the last two years had been forced into juxtaposition under such trying circumstances. The exciting tales of outrage and cruelty on the part of the invaders, so rife during the progress of the war, had ceased to be bandied about during the occupation, in spite of the freedom enjoyed by the provincial press, and in spite of the popular love of exaggeration. "In fact," it was observed at the time, "there never was a force kept better in hand and more completely restrained from tyranny over the people [than that of the Germans]. On the other hand, the French officials have borne themselves with remarkable judgment and self-control, and have communicated a great measure of these qualities to the people whom they represent. The quick temper of the Gaul has not led him into quarrels, nor has the presence of the invaders prompted him to any revengeful folly. In most places the inhabitants have carried out their resolve to have no communication with the garrison, and the lower classes have often given vent to their feelings against any Frenchman or Frenchwoman who may have forgotten this etiquette of patriotism. But they have kept within their undoubted rights, and given the Germans no pretext for complaint or severity. Among themselves and to the neutral they have been open enough in their denunciations. But they have felt that the first demand on their patriotism was to do nothing which might delay the departure of the enemy; they held their tongues, and now they have their recompense."

Immediately on the prorogation of the Assembly, an incident took place which proved the turning-point to the political schemes and transactions of the remainder of the year. The circumstances

which led to it are said to have been these. After the overthrow of Thiers' Government on the 24th of May, the Duc d'Aumale became anxious that the existing divisions in the victorious majority should no longer continue to hamper its action; and that above all the Legitimists and Orleanists should unite in a common understanding. He sounded the disposition of his nephew, the Comte de Paris; he estimated the efforts of the partisans of Fusion; and one day, in the presence of one of the most active fusionists and of several members of his family, the Duke exclaimed, "If I were in Paris's place I should start at once for Frohsdorf." These words were immediately reported to the Comte de Paris. "Let my uncle advise me to take the step, and I will take it," replied the Prince. When this reply was reported to the Duke, he said, "I can only give advice when I am asked for it." An occasion was then sought for bringing on an explanation between the uncle and the nephew. It was, it is said, a lady, a friend of the Princes, who, one day seeing them together, abruptly said, "Is it not true, Monsieur le Duc, that you approve the journey of the Comte de Paris to Frohsdorf?" "Parfaitement, answered the Duke. The lady then discreetly retired, leaving the two Princes alone, and the journey was decided upon the next day. "I hope," said the Comte de Paris a few days afterwards, "that, after the severe blow inflicted on my refusal to visit my cousin, justice will be done to the thought which now induces me to undertake the journey."

"

And to Frohsdorf the Comte de Paris went-his uncle, the Prince de Joinville, accompanying him. The interview between the cousins took place on the 5th of August. It had previously been agreed, by an interchange of notes, what form it should assume, and that no political question should be introduced in the conversation. At nine o'clock in the morning, the grandson of Louis Philippe, who had started from Vienna two hours previously, entered the château of the grandson of Charles the Tenth. The Comte de Chambord received his visitor standing, offered him his hand, then sat down, and made the Comte de Paris follow his example. The action was interpreted as symbolical of his intention to acknowledge his visitor as his heir. The following are said to have been the words then spoken by the Comte de Paris:

"I have come to pay you a visit which I have long wished to pay you. In my name, and in that of all the members of my family, I come to present to you our respectful homage, not only as the chief of our House, but also as the sole representative of the Monarchical principle in France. I hope that a day may come when the French nation may understand that its safety is in that principle. If ever it expresses the wish to have recourse to the Monarchy, no competition for the throne will arise in our family." Then the Comte de Chambord rose, with tears in his eyes, and embraced the Comte de Paris. The reconciliation of interests was to all appearance complete; and the Monarchical parties in France entered, with the zest arising from united interests, on their schemes for recasting the

temper of the country. In all attempts to carry out Legitimist pretensions, the aid of the Church was indispensable. The possibility of a Henri Cinq presupposed a significant extension of Ultramontane influence.

The signs of the clerical reaction which the Royalist rulers were now bent on enforcing were especially conspicuous in the numerous and carefully-organized processions and pilgrimages taking place all over the country. The clerical journals exulted. "We are returning," wrote Le Monde, "we have already returned, not eighty years back, for it is scarcely eighty years back when, following Voltaire, people scarcely believed in God; not 150 years back, for then, owing to Jansenism, they hardly believed in miracles; but to three or four centuries ago-to the time of Christian fervour." The Union observed that since the pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Martin of Tours "it seems as if our Catholic Deputies were more directly protected by Mary." A paper called Le Pélerin was started specially to record these movements, and to celebrate the miracles which, according to the stories told, were of frequent occurrence. It related how the Nismes pilgrims, 2600 in number, received from their bishop the pilgrim's cross and accompanied him to Lourdes, where they met 1500 pilgrims from La Roche, and how the 4000 abandoned themselves to transports of love and faith. "The pilgrims," said the organ of these pious people, " relate to us the four miracles they themselves saw-the paralytic woman relieved, the lame woman who left her crutches at Lourdes, the deaf and dumb woman who hears and speaks, the blind person who was able to see the procession of the pilgrims with torches." Of the various shrines to which these pilgrimages are made, the most frequented were those of Lourdes, La Salette, and Paray-le-Monial; and many descriptions were given of the various incidents of the journeys, the special manifestations of grace, the admiration the pilgrims inspired as they passed through the towns, with their red crosses over their hearts and their rosaries of large beads, their raptures and cstasies and hysterics, and the electric shock which would run through them at the cry of "Vive Notre Dame de Lourdes!" "Vive Pie IX.!" Everybody envies their happiness," said Le Pélerin; "the perfume of Lourdes is upon them, and men say to each other, 'No, France is not dead, since her faith cannot be killed.""

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In some places the pilgrims carried white flags, and raised cries of "Vive le Roi !" "Vive Henri Cinq !" At Notre Dame de Liesse, on the 12th of August, a great demonstration was made in favour of the Pope and against Germany. Another Ultramontane ebullition took place on occasion of a pilgrimage of more than 20,000 persons to Veselizes, to inaugurate a statue of the Virgin. Recent miracles were talked of; new cures were reported to have taken place at Lourdes. At Cambrai the Virgin and an angel with a flaming sword had barred the way against the Prussians during the war. The following address to the Pope was numerously signed by pious devotees :-" Most Holy Father, Rome and France could not be separated. In renewing

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the consecration of France to the Virgin Mary, the pilgrims to all our holy places think of their Pontiff and Father. It is because their country has forgotten its mission that it is now humbled, and it is also because it has forgotten its mission that you are a captive. Our crimes are the cause of your sufferings, and our misfortunes are bound up with yours. Your triumph will be our triumph. You alone can show us the road to victory. Continue to enlighten our course by your infallible teaching; direct us in the way marked out by the great and glorious Syllabus; present France to the Immaculate Mary; obtain our conversion and our salvation. The salvation of France is the triumph of the Church. The salvation of France is your deliverance. To you belong our hearts, our minds, the power of our country, the blood of our children. Ad multos annos vivat.-August 15, Fête of the Assumption of the Most Holy Virgin."

Among all the tales of supernatural agency on behalf of religion invented or revived at this time, none attracted so much attention as that of Marie Alacoque, in whose supposed revelation from the Saviour, two hundred years ago, the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus had originated. It was at the nunnery of the Visitation, at Paray-le-Monial, in the department of the Saône et Loire, that Marie Alacoque had received her mystical or, as the vulgar believed, physical communication; it was at Paray-le-Monial that her shrine was consecrated. This special form of devotion was especially urged on at the present time by the ecclesiastical authorities who sought to guide the public mind. The attempt to dedicate the proposed new church on Montmartre to the Sacred Heart, though the Assembly refused to sanction it, had been eagerly pushed on by the clerical party.

The pilgrimages to Paray-le-Monial this summer were numerous and enthusiastic; and not the least remarkable of them was one consisting of English devotees, who, led by sundry ecclesiastics, and previously blessed in London by Archbishop Manning, quitted London on September 2nd, to the number of some three or four hundred, and made their way by Pilgrim Railway Train to the sacred spot. Whatever may have been the belief of the throngs who were encouraged by every device to testify in this way their faith in the sanctions of the Church of Rome and their abhorrence of the Communism which had terrified France two years before, it is certain that the politicians who for the time steered the fortunes of the country used these religious demonstrations as their most powerful ally in that restoration of Legitimate sovereignty upon which their whole purpose was bent. The vision of the Comte de Chambordl'enfant du miracle-upon the throne of his ancestors was taking definite shape before their eyes; the health of "the King" on his 53rd birthday, the 29th of September, was toasted at many a private convivial meeting among the ranks of the initiated; and to bring the desired consummation to pass, the leaders of the Administration did not scruple to embark in intrigues, and spread about false