Assembly, a quæstor and two secretaries, representing the officials of the Assembly, and the members of the Right drawn by lot to be present at the funeral, saw that the procession was going from the house to the cemetery without passing by the church, they withdrew and dismissed the ushers of the Assembly. The detachment of cuirassiers which, in conformity with the law of the 24th Messidor year xii, was taking part in the procession, immediately returned to its quarters.

M. Le Royer, deputy for the Rhone, questioned the Government on June 24th, as to these two incidents. He pointed out that the Prefect of the Rhone had exceeded his powers, and that the decree of the 18th of June was a violation of liberty of conscience. In a country where there is no State religion it is not permissible to arrange the citizens in categories according to their beliefs. It was possible that certain abuses had occurred at Lyons, but it was not impossible to avoid a repetition of them without attacking liberty of conscience. At the funeral of M. Brousses there had been a manifest violation of the law. In fact, the honours are not paid to the person, but to the office. Thus spoke the deputy for the Rhone.

General du Barail replied so far as the military honours were concerned. He appealed to an old circular, which ordered the troops to go to the house, thence to the church, then directly to the cemetery. "As the body was not taken to the church" he added. At this there was a violent interruption, and he was unable to finish his phrase; but on the restoration of silence, he defined his opinion, which was also the opinion of

scenes unforgettable for those who witnessed them, incomparable spectacles whence souls turned full of warmth and light!"

Pilgrimages

1

re

Not to Paray-le-Monial alone, but to all sacred sanctuaries, there was a stream of worshippers: to Chartres, to Notre-Dame de Liesse, to the Chapelle-des-Buis and Notre-Dame de Sion in the east; to Lourdes, La Salette, etc.

Throughout France committees were forming under the patronage of the Bishops to raise and organise these extraordinary popular movements. A central committee was established in Paris in the Rue de Sèvres, at the seat of the Jesuits, under the presidency of Father Bazin, a hostage of the Commune. MM. de La Bouillerie, Chesnelong, de Diesbach, Keller and Baron de Vinols, had been designated by the Réservoirs meeting to represent the Assembly in this committee."

On May 27th and 28th, 1873, there took place at the ancient sanctuary of national tradition, on the spot which had in former times witnessed the union of the peoples of Gaul when they decided on the struggle against Cæsar, at the metropolis of the Carnutes afterwards Notre-Dame de Chartres, a national pilgrimage, "comprising more than 20,000 pilgrims, at the head of whom marched 140 deputies of the Chamber." "

3

The president was that most ardent and strict among Bishops, Mgr. Pie, Bishop of Poitiers, the defender of the faith in its entirety, and of Ultramontanism without compromise. His speech was as the voice of those kneeling and deeply

1 A. de Margerie, 1873, Page d'Histoire Contemporaine, . 4. 2 Vinols, Mémoires, p. 139.

3

Mgr. Baunard, Histoire du Cardinal Pie, vol. ii., p. 498.

moved crowds: "O noble country of France," said he, "from the day on which thou didst lay thy hand on the sacred Ark of the Rights of God, and oppose to it thy idolatrous declaration of the Rights of Man, thine own constitution has been shattered, thy constitution of fourteen centuries; and now for eighty years thou hast been able to affirm thy constituting authority only to display to the eyes of the universe thy want of power to constitute anything." In the end the Bishop, paraphrasing Esther's prayer, said: "O God Almighty, hear the voice of those whose only hope is in Thee alone! . . . This is the This is the cry of France in her distress. She awaits a Head, she awaits a Master."

Men, inflamed by these words, involuntarily shouted the name of the Claimant of the lilies, the Son of France, God's gift, the Comte de Chambord. The historian of the Bishop of Poitiers, recalling these moments, says, "Catholic France indeed came to ask God for His deliverance in the most ancient sanctuary of the monarchy."

A month later, June 20th, 1873, the pilgrimage of the Sacred Heart to the monastery of the Visitation took place at Paray-le-Monial.

The cult of the Sacred Heart, especially venerated in the sanctuary where Marie Alacoque, of the Order of the Visitation, had had her visions in 1675, had become, through the influence of the Jesuits, the formula, the social and political symbol of the Ultramontanes." 1

The Comte de Chambord was known to have displayed a special predilection for the worship of the Sacred Heart.

1 Saint-Valry, Souvenirs et réflexions politiques, vol. i., p. 154. 81

VOL. II.

G

The manifestation of the 20th of June, 1873, attracted more than 20,000 pilgrims, among whom were fifty Legitimist deputies. M. de Charette, late colonel of the Pontifical Zouaves, laid on the tomb of the Saint the flag carried by his regiment at the bloody battle of Patay.

In his speech the Bishop of Autun, who presided, solemnly dedicated France to the Sacred Heart.1 M. de Belcastel, Legitimist deputy for the HauteGaronne, who led the parliamentary deputation, pronounced the following words in the name of his colleagues who were present and of a hundred deputies" detained at Versailles "

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we come to dedicate to Thee ourselves and our colleagues, who are united in faith. We implore Thee to pardon us for all the evil that we have committed, and to pardon also all those who live apart from Thee. For the share that we can therein take, and in the measure that appertains to us, we also dedicate to Thee with all the strength of our desire, France, our dearly loved country, with all its provinces, with its works of faith and charity. We entreat Thee to reign over her by the omnipotence of Thy grace and holy love. And ourselves too, pilgrims of Thy Sacred Heart, adorers and sharers of Thy great Sacrament, most faithful disciples of the infallible See of Saint Peter, whose festival we are blessed in celebrating to-day, ourselves we dedicate to Thy service, O Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, humbly begging of Thee to grant us the

1 Abbé Rouquette, Paray-le-Monial, Compte rendu du péleri nage du 20 juin, 1873, Paris 1873, p. 75.

grace of being entirely Thine, both in this world and in Eternity. Amen.'

1

After the events of the 24th of May, as the majority now felt itself able to control the destinies of France, such sentiments developed with singular intensity. It was thought that an appeal to God. on the part of France, an act of faith, a glorification, which was to be at the same time an expiation, should be the prelude to those divine mercies which would re-establish the descendant of Saint Louis and Louis XIII on the throne, and prove to be the starting point of the "political, religious, and social revival." 2

As decisive events were at hand, there was urgency; it was necessary "to reply to the appeal of God" by offering" to the Divine Heart" the altar demanded of the King of France in 1823 by Jesus Christ, in one of His appearances to Mother Marie de Jésus.3

Mgr. Guibert, Archbishop of Paris, had taken the initiative, shortly after his appointment as successor to Mgr. Darboy, by opening, in all the dioceses of France, a subscription destined to erect on the heights of Montmartre-" watered by the blood of the first martyrs" and starting point of the horrors of the Commune-a basilica consecrated to the worship of the Sacred Heart.*

1 A. de Saint-Albin, p. 393.

2 Chesnelong, La Campagne Monarchique d'octobre 1873, introduction.

3 See on this point A. de Saint Albin, Histoire d'Henri V. p. 392.

The idea had been put forward in a sermon by Father de Boylesve, of the Company of Jesus, preached October 17th, 1870, in the Convent of the Visitation at Mans. Two hundred thousand copies of this sermon were distributed. One of them