The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1Edgeworth, Maria
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The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1
Edgeworth, Maria
Edgeworth, Maria, 1768-1849; Novelists, Irish -- 19th century -- Biography
On the 27th January Mr. Edgeworth received a peremptory order from the
French Government to quit Paris immediately. He went with Maria to the
village of Passy. Their friend, Madame Gautier, generously offered to
them the use of her house there, but they would not compromise her. M.
de Pastoret and M. Delessert visited Mr. Edgeworth the next morning,
fearless of Buonaparte and his orders, and the day after M. Pictet and
M. Le Breton came to say that he could return to Paris. There had been
some misapprehension from Mr. Edgeworth having been supposed to be
brother to the Abbé Edgeworth. He wrote to Lord Whitworth that he would
never deny or give up the honour of being related to the Abbé. Lord
Whitworth advised him to state the exact degree of relationship, which
he did, and we heard no more of the matter. [Footnote: The Abbé
Edgeworth (who called himself M. de Firmont, from the estate possessed
by his branch of the family) was first cousin once removed to Mr.
Edgeworth, being the son of Essex, fifth son of Sir John Edgeworth, and
brother to Mr. Edgeworth's grandfather, Colonel Francis Edgeworth of
Edgeworthstown.]
MISS CHARLOTTE EDGEWORTH _to_ C.S. EDGEWORTH. PARIS, _Feb. 21, 1803._
We went yesterday to see the consecration of a Bishop at Nôtre Dame, and
here I endured with satisfaction most intense cold for three hours, and
saw a solemn ridiculous ceremony, and heard music that went through me:
I could not have believed that sounds could have been so fine: the
alternate sounds of voices and the organ, or both together, and then the
faint, distant murmur of prayers: each peal so much in harmony as to
appear like one note beginning softly, rising, rising, rising,--then
dying slowly off. There was one man whose voice was so loud, so full and
clear, that it was equal to the voices of three men. The church itself
is very fine: we were placed so as to see below us the whole ceremony.
The solemnity of the manner in which they walked, their all being
dressed alike, and differently from the rest of the people, rendered
these priests a new set of beings. The ceremony appeared particularly
ridiculous, as we could not hear a word that was said, because the
church is so large, and we were at too great a distance, and all we
could see was a Bishop dressing or undressing, or lying on the ground!
The Archbishop of Paris, who performed the chief part of the ceremony,
is a man about eighty years of age, yet he had the strength to go
through the fatigue which such a ceremony requires for three hours
together in very great cold, and every action was performed with as much
firmness as a man of fifty could do it, and there was but one part which
he left out,--the walking round along with the other bishops with the
cross borne before them. We were told that he has often gone through
similar fatigue, and in the evening, or an hour after, amused a company
at dinner with cheerful, witty conversation: he is not a man of letters,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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