ront, were of green
velvet sown with gold flames. They made their entry into the Cathedral
in two columns, which deployed on either side of the altar. The King,
who followed them, seated himself on a throne in the choir and they
arranged themselves in their stalls to the right and left. The
princesses occupied the same gallery as the day before. The clergy
chanted the vespers. Then the two columns formed in a double rank and
the ceremony commenced. There was a long series of obeisances. The King
made twenty himself, eleven before vespers, nine after. The reception
began with the ecclesiastical commanders and the laymen came afterwards.

The solemnity was less imposing than that of the coronation. Count
d'Haussonville remarked it: "The military array of so many marshals and
generals clad in brilliant uniforms, the pomp of the ceremonies to the
slow and majestic sound of the organ filling the vast nave of the
church, had succeeded, the preceding day, in redeeming for the
spectators, and for me particularly, whatever was a little
superannuated in the minute observance of a ritual that had come down
from the Middle Ages. I felt myself, on the contrary, rather surprised
than edified by the character, partly religious, partly worldly, but
far more worldly than religious, that I witnessed on the morrow. Most
of these gentlemen were known to me. I had met nearly all of them in my
mother's or grandmother's salon. I had not been insensible to the fine
air given them by the cordon bleu (worn under the frock coat, usually,
or on great occasions over a coat covered with gold lace and shining
decorations), the traditional object of ambition for those most in
favor at court; but they seemed to me to present a constrained figure,
as I saw them soberly ranged in the stalls of the canons, clad in a
costume of no particular epoch, wrapped in long mantles of motley
color, and following, with a distracted air, the phases of a ceremony
to which they were so little accustomed that they were constantly
rising, sitting down, and kneeling at the wrong time."

The receptions took place as follows: the herald-at-arms of the order
called in groups of four the new members from each column, and escorted
them to the middle of the sanctuary. There the four knights, abreast,
saluted together, first the altar, then the sovereign. Then they
advanced in line toward the throne, and after a second obeisance,
knelt, placed the right hand on the book of the G