Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: blows to decapitate her. It is said Mme. Tiquet's appearance was that of a saint, as, dressed in the white garment of the condemned, she extended her fingers to the executioner, who assisted her to mount the steps, which she did with all the grace and dignity for which she had been noted. To add to the horrors of the scene, a violent thunderstorm broke just as they reached the Place-de-Greve, and the condemned woman was obliged to wait until it had abated, all the time watching with fascinated horror the conveyance which had been sent for her remains by her relatives draw nearer, awaiting its ghastly freight! Louis Antoine de Noailles was a man of extraordinary independence, absolutely refusing to administer extreme unction to the notorious Duchesse de Berri, whose tampering with her health had reduced her to the point of death. The regent—her father—stormed, swore, implored in vain, the cardinal was obdurate. The controversy lasted for five days, during which time the duchesse recovered—the cardinal had carried his point. To him Paris was indebted for the rebuilding of the beautiful archepiscopal palace, now, alas! destroyed in the Revolution of 1831, which then adjoined and belonged to the Church of Notre Dame. He, on another occasion, refused to give " letters demissory " to the notorious Dubois, who had cleverly tricked the regent into making him Archbishop of Cambrai. But the powerful favourite found the Archbishop of Rouen more tractable, and gained his end, his consecration being conducted with a magnificence previously unknown in France; the Cardinal de Rohan, between whom and the Cardinal de Noailles there was the fiercest rivalry for power, officiating. One thing which speaks well for the integrity and excellence of de Noailles is the bitter and inveterate hatred i...