Note 3 — Chapter I · Sunny Days

The Champ de Mars is a large square on the left bank of the Seine, devoted to military exercises. From a very early period it has been the scene of battles, riots, pageants, festivals, and great public gatherings. Besides the Fête of the Federation, sometimes called the “Feast of the Pikes,” mentioned above, it was the scene of the Massacres in 1791, and of the “Fête à l’Être suprême,” the latter a festival in which an effort was made, under the auspices of Robespierre, who had obtained a decree from the Assembly recognizing the existence of the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul, to set up a new religion in the place of Catholicism and reason worship. Carlyle calls it “the shabbiest page of human annals.”