- To wind up, the Convention decrees that it will
attend that evening the f?te of Reason and, in fact, they go in a
body. Behind an actress in short petticoats wearing a red cap,
representing Liberty or Reason, march the deputies, likewise in red
caps, shouting and singing until they reach the new temple, which is
built of planks and pasteboard in the choir of Notre Dame. They take
their seats in the front rows, while the Goddess, an old frequenter of
the suppers of the Duc de Soubise, along with "all the pretty dames of
the Opera," display before them their operatic graces.[20] They sing
the "Hymn to Liberty," and, since the Convention has that morning
decreed that it must sing, I suppose that it also joined in.[21] After
this there follows dancing; but, unfortunately, the authorities are
wanting for stating whether the Convention danced or not. In any
event, it is present at the dance, and thus consecrates an unique
orgy, not Rubens' "Kermesse" in the open air, racy and healthy, but a
nocturnal boulevard-jollification, a "Mardi-gras" composed of lean and
haggard scapegraces. - In the great nave of the Cathedral, "the
dancers, almost naked, with bare necks and breasts, and stockings down
at the heel," writhe and stamp, "howling the carmagnole.
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