Old and New Paris: Its History, Its People, and Its Places, v. 2Edwards, H. Sutherland (Henry Sutherland)
History
Old and New Paris: Its History, Its People, and Its Places, v. 2
Edwards, H. Sutherland (Henry Sutherland)
Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- History
On the 21st of January, 1793, the Convention decreed that the body of
Lepelletier, deputy of Saint-Fargeau, who had been assassinated for
having voted the death of the king, should be translated to the
Panthéon. Then Marat, to whom, after the stab of Charlotte Corday, the
Convention had already erected a mausoleum on the Place du Carrousel,
was judged worthy of the Panthéon. On the 25th of November, 1793, Marie
Joseph Chénier, speaking before the Tribune, and armed with documents,
proved the transactions which Mirabeau had had with the Court,
contrasting therewith the disinterestedness of Marat, whose remains, as
he eloquently maintained, should displace at the Panthéon those of
Mirabeau, unworthy of such a resting-place. The Convention adopted his
propositions in a decree which was not executed until after the fall of
Robespierre, on the 22nd of September, 1794. The official programme of
the ceremonies, still extant, is interesting enough. After having fixed
the order and the route of the cortège the authors of the programme
added: “The procession will stop when it arrives on the Place of the
Panthéon; a tipstaff of the Convention will advance towards the door of
entrance, and there will be read the decree which excludes from the
Panthéon the relics of Mirabeau. Thereupon the body of Mirabeau shall be
conveyed out of the precincts of the Panthéon, and handed over to the
commissary of police for that section. Then the body of Marat shall be
placed in triumph on a platform elevated in the Panthéon.... All
citizens assisting at this ceremony shall be unarmed.” From the last
injunction it is evident that the authorities feared the possibility of
a riot. Everything, however, passed off quietly. The body of Mirabeau
was laid in a corner of the cemetery of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.
At length, on the 19th of October, 1794, the turn of Rousseau came. His
body, borne by a deputation of the inhabitants of Ermonville, where he
had breathed his last, was received at the Tuileries, where the future
arch-chancellor pronounced over it an impressive speech. The remains of
the philosopher, enclosed in an urn, were then conveyed to the Panthéon,
escorted by the crowd and preceded by an orchestra playing various airs
from his own “Devin du Village.”
But the political tide was already on the turn. On the 1st of February,
1795, the bust of Marat, placed in several of the theatres and cafés,
was hooted and overthrown. His remains, according to the Abbé de
Montgaillard in his history of the Revolution, were snatched from the
Panthéon, dragged through the streets by young men, and cast amongst the
refuse of the Rue Montmartre--“a tabernacle,” says the abbé, “worthy of
such a god.” This account, however, is inaccurate; it was only Marat’s
effigy which was thrown into the sewer, his relics were transported to
Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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