uarded by soldiers, precluded the possibility of
interruption.

Early on the appointed morning, the entire body of the clergy of Paris,
decked out in their most splendid robes and bearing the insignia of
their respective ranks, assembled in Notre Dame, and thence in solemn
state marched to the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, to meet the
king. Sixteen dignitaries bore aloft the precious reliquary of Sainte
Genevieve; others in similar honor supported the no less venerated
reliquary of Saint Marcel. Those skilled in local antiquities averred
that never before had the sacred remains of either saint been known to
be brought across the Seine to grace any similar display.

At Saint Germain l'Auxerrois--that notable church under the very shadow
of the Louvre, whose bell, a generation later, gave the first signal for
the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day--the royal court and the civil and
municipal bodies that had been permitted to appear on so august an
occasion, were in waiting. At length the magnificent column began its
progress, and threading the crowded streets of St. Honore and St. Denis,
made its way, over the bridge of Notre Dame, to the island upon which
stood and still stands the stately cathedral dedicated to Our Lady. Far
on in the van rode Eleonore, Francis's second queen, sister to the
emperor, conspicuous for her dignified bearing, dressed in black velvet
and mounted on a palfrey with housings of cloth of gold. In her company
were the king's daughters by his former wife, the "good Queen Claude,"
all in dresses of crimson satin embroidered with gold; while a large
number of princesses and noble ladies, with attendant gentlemen and
guards, constituted their escort.

The monastic orders came next. Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians,
Carmelites, all were there, with burning tapers and highly prized
relics. The parish churches were represented in like manner by their
clergy; and these were followed by the chapter of the cathedral and by
the multitudinous professors and scholars of the university. Between
this part of the procession and the next, came a detachment of the Swiss
guards of the king, armed with halberds, and a band of skilled musicians
performing, on trumpets, hautboys, and other instruments, the airs of
the solemn hymns of the church.

An honorable place was held by the ecclesiastics of the "Sainte
Chapelle," originally built by Louis the Ninth, in the precincts of his
own palace, for the recept