Young und Okey - 1915 - Travels in France and Italy during the years 1787,

Travels in France and Italy/17
regretted that a very early departure from Paris would not let me promise
myself a further enjoyment so congenial with my feelings as the
company of men whose conversation showed a marked attention to objects
of national importance. On the breaking up of the party, went with
Count Alexander de la Rochefoucauld post to Versailles, to be present
at the fete of the day following (Whitsunday); slept at the Duke de
Liancourt’s hotel.
27th. Breakfasted with him at his apartments in the palace, which
are annexed to his office of grand master of the wardrobe, one of the
principal in the court of France.—Here I found the duke surrounded by
a circle of noblemen, among whom was the Duke de la Rochefoucauld,
well known for his attention to natural history; I was introduced to him,
as he is going to Bagnere de Luchon in the Pyrenees, where I am to have
the honour of being in his party.
The ceremony of the day was the king’s investing the Duke of Berri,
son of the Count d’Artois, with the cordon blue. The queen’s band was
in the chapel where the ceremony was performed, but the musical ‘effect
was thin and weak. During the service the king was seated between
his two brothers, and seemed by his carriage and inattention to wish
himself a hunting. He would certainly have been as well employed as in
hearing afteiwards from his throne a feudal oath of chivalry, I suppose,
or some such nonsense, administered to a boy of ten years old. Seeing so
much pompous folly I imagined it was the dauphin, and asked a lady of
fashion near me; at which she laughed in my face, as if I had been guilty
of the most egregious idiotism; nothing could be done in a worse manner;
for the stifling of her expression only marked it the more. I applied
to Monsieur de la Rochefoucauld to learn what gross absurdity I had
been guilty of so unwittingly; when, forsooth, it was because the dauphin,
as all the world knows in France, has the cordon blue put around
him as soon as he is born. So unpardonable was it for a foreigner to be
ignorant of such an important part of French history, as that of giving a
babe a blue slobbering bib instead of a white one!
After this ceremony was finished, the king and the knights walked
in a sort of procession to a small apartment in which he dined, saluting
the queen as they passed. There appeared to be more ease and familiarity
than form in this part of the ceremony; her majesty, who, by the way,
is the most beautiful woman I saw to-day, received them with a variety
of expression. On some she smiled; to others she talked; a few seemed to
have the honour of being more in her intimacy. Her return to some was