"Mounted astride
of asses which they have rigged out in chasuble and which they guide
with a stole," they halt at each low smoking-den, holding a drinking
cup in their hand; the bartender, with a mug in his hand, fills it,
and, at each station, they toss off their bumpers, one after the
other, in imitation of the Mass, and which they repeat in the street
in their own fashion. - On finishing this, they don copes, chasubles
and dalmatica, and, in two long lines, file before the benches of the
Convention. Some of them bear on hand-barrows or in baskets,
candelabra, chalices, gold and silver salvers, monstrances, and
reliquaries; others hold aloft banners, crosses and other
ecclesiastical spoils. In the mean time "bands play the air of the
carmagnole and 'Malbrook.' . . . On the entry of the dais, they
strike up 'Ah! le bel oiseau;'"[19] all at once the masqueraders throw
off their disguise, and, mitres, stoles, chasubles flung in the air,
"disclose to view the defenders of the country in the national
uniform." Peals of laughter, shouts and enthusiasm, while the
instrumental din becomes louder! The procession, now in full blast,
demands the carmagnole, and the Convention consents; even some of the
deputies descend from their benches and cut the pigeon-wing with the
merry prostitutes.
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