8 Mae Darling 



The minister of Parma gives us some idea of the enthusiasm 

 of the crowd and of the manner in which it greeted certain im- 

 portant persons in the procession. " The cries of 'Vive le roi,' " 

 he says, " were heard from the moment of leaving the chateau 

 up to the entrance into the church. . . . However, his majesty 

 did not seem to notice these demonstrations, prompted by grati- 

 tude, by affection, by joy. The real cause [for the indifference of 

 the king] was known later. He was grieved at not hearing the 

 queen as enthusiastically applauded. It is asserted that the king, 

 upon returning to the chateau, cried out in the bitterness of his 

 heart, ' I thought I had done enough for my people for them 

 to give me that slight token of gratitude.' The Duke and the 

 Duchess of Orleans were received with outbursts of applause 

 without number. The procession was a wonderful sight; the 

 three orders were in regulation costumes, the third estate pre- 

 ceded the nobility, the latter were in front of the clergy. There 

 was loud applause for a certain deputy in the ranks of the third 

 estate, a rich farmer from Rennes, named Gerard, whose vener- 

 able appearance and violet vest attracted the attention of every- 

 one. It was with great difficulty that he had been made to put 

 on the black coat and mantle, but, in order that no one might be 

 ignorant of the fact that he was a peasant, he had kept his 

 coarse woolen garment underneath. When the Due d'.Orleans 

 appeared among the deputies of the nobility, the applause and 

 cries of ' Vive monsieur le due d'Orleans ' began again with 

 renewed vigor; the prince seemed deeply touched, his eyes were 

 moist with tears of satisfaction. 



" The bishops with their violet garments, the two cardinals, de 

 la Rochefoucauld and de Laval in red mantles, the splendor of 

 the chasubles, the richness of the dais, the cords of which were 

 held by the brothers of the king and by the dukes d'Angouleme 

 and de Chartres, the large retinue which followed with the king 

 and the queen, the Holy Sacrament, the double line of the Cent- 

 Suisses and of the bodyguard, all that together surpassed the 

 expectation of the public, and satisfied its curiosity."^® 



29 Vicomte de Grouchy et Antoine Guillois, La revolution frangaise, 

 87, 88. 



210 



