3-021-163 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Grand Mass in the Chapel of the Tuileries [Palace, in Paris], 1869. 'This season something of the ancient state of the Grand Monarque has been revived at the musical masses...Ordinarily, when assisting at mass, the Emperor, Empress, and Prince Imperial...would occupy places at the farther end of the gallery...but now, when the grand masses lately inaugurated are celebrated, the Imperial family occupy the prie-dieu placed for them on the floor of the chapel, within a few paces of the altar itself...The Emperor is in military uniform, the Empress in a robe à traine [ie a dress with a train], and the members of the suite in their official costumes. The service is performed either by the Archbishop of Paris or the Bishop of Arras, assisted by the Vicar-General of the diocese and several subalmoners; the "encenseurs" and children of the choir, of whom there are half a dozen, belong to some of the first families in France attached to the Imperial Government. The music and singing are exquisite'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.