Seventeen Years in Paris: A Chaplain's StoryNoyes, H. E. (Henry Edward)
Religion
Seventeen Years in Paris: A Chaplain's Story
Noyes, H. E. (Henry Edward)
Church of England -- France -- Paris; English Church (Paris, France)
party in England, are not, I presume, the object at which French
sentiment is aiming.”
[Illustration: COURT YARD, BRITISH EMBASSY.]
In February of the next year, President Felix Fauré died quite
unexpectedly. There was a certain mystery about his death which has never
been quite cleared up to the public satisfaction. The wildest rumours
were spread in Paris. I visited the Elysée, and the salon where the dead
President lay. He looked much as I had often seen him in life. He was
dressed in evening clothes, the prevailing custom in France. The funeral
was most imposing. But “Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi.” Very soon the
question of a successor came on, and the grand Salon at Versailles (where
the German Emperor was crowned in 1870) was filled with the deputies to
elect their President. The choice fell upon M. Loubet—contrary to the
expectation of many—and the event showed that he was the right man, for
during his Presidency France had a comparatively quiet period.
Next year (1900) came the great Exhibition, when we were flooded with
visitors from all parts of the world. Sir Edmund Monson kindly placed the
ballroom at the Embassy at my disposal for an overflow service on the
Sunday mornings, as the church proved too small.
Indeed, nothing could exceed the interest and kindness of the Ambassador
in all Church matters. During this year the Annual Conference of
Continental Chaplains was held in Paris, as it gave them the opportunity
to visit the Exhibition. Halls suitable for such a gathering were very
expensive, but again the Ambassador came to our aid, and we held the
Conference in the ballroom at the Embassy. He also gave a banquet to the
chaplains, which was much appreciated. I unfortunately caught typhoid
fever at the end of the year, and so was debarred from many of the
closing functions which were crowded into that time.
In 1901 came our great National loss in the death of England’s greatest
Queen. I have described elsewhere the deep feeling manifested in the
British Colony in Paris, and the services held in connection with that
sad event.
I have spoken above of the kindness of Sir E. Monson in all Church
matters. When the time of his departure drew near, I wrote to tell him
how much the British Colony, and especially the congregation of the
Embassy Church, appreciated what he had done. He wrote me the following
letter:—
“My dear Dr. Noyes,—
“I am deeply touched by your kind letter of yesterday; and it
is a real gratification to me to think that our association
during the last eight years has been productive of such
relations of friendship as have constantly existed between
us, and that our steady co-operation in the interests of the
English community here has never failed to be advantageous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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