try crowded her streets. The day was to be ushered in by a
vast and imposing procession. "The houses along the line of march were
hung with mourning drapery, and altars rose at intervals." Before every
door was a lighted torch in honor of the "holy sacrament." Before daybreak
the procession formed, at the palace of the king. "First came the banners
and crosses of the several parishes; next appeared the citizens, walking
two and two, and bearing torches." The four orders of friars followed,
each in its own peculiar dress. Then came a vast collection of famous
relics. Following these rode lordly ecclesiastics in their purple and
scarlet robes and jeweled adornings, a gorgeous and glittering array.

"The host was carried by the bishop of Paris under a magnificent canopy,
... supported by four princes of the blood.... After the host walked the
king.... Francis I. on that day wore no crown, nor robe of state." With
"head uncovered, his eyes cast on the ground, and in his hand a lighted
taper," the king of France appeared "in the character of a penitent."(339)
At every altar he bowed down in humiliation, not for the vices that
defiled his soul, nor the innocent blood that stained his hands, but for
the deadly sin of his subjects who had dared to condemn the mass.
Following him came the queen and the dignitaries of state, also walking
two and two, each with a lighted torch.

As a part of the services of the day, the monarch himself addressed the
high officials of the kingdom in the great hall of the bishop's palace.
With a sorrowful countenance he appeared before them, and in words of
moving eloquence bewailed "the crime, the blasphemy, the day of sorrow and
disgrace," that had come upon the nation. And he called upon every loyal
subject to aid in the extirpation of the pestilent heresy that threatened
France with ruin. "As true, Messieurs, as I am your king," he said, "if I
knew one of my own limbs spotted or infected with this detestable
rottenness, I would give it you to cut off.... And further, if I saw one
of my children defiled by it, I would not spare him.... I would deliver
him up myself, and would sacrifice him to God." Tears choked his
utterance, and the whole assembly wept, with one accord exclaiming, "We
will live and die for the Catholic religion!"(340)

Terrible had become the darkness of the nation that had rejected the light
of truth. "The grace that bringeth salvation" had appeared; but France,
after beholdin