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Till the revolution, the tapestry was always kept in the cathedral, in a
chapel on the south side, dedicated to Thomas a Becket, and was only
exposed to public view once a year, during the octave of the feast of
St. John on which occasion it was hung up in the nave of the church,
which it completely surrounded. From the time thus selected for the
display of it, the tapestry acquired the name of _le toile de Saint
Jean_; and it is to the present day commonly so called in the city.
During the most stormy part of the revolution, it was secreted; but it
was brought to Paris when the fury of vandalism had subsided. And, when
the first Consul was preparing for the invasion of England, this ancient
trophy of the subjugation of the British nation was proudly exhibited to
the gaze of the Parisians, who saw another _Conqueror_ in Napoleon
Bonaparte; and many well-sounding effusions, in prose and verse,
appeared, in which the laurels of Duke William were transferred, by
anticipation, to the brows of the child and champion of jacobinism.
After this display, Bonaparte returned the tapestry to the municipality,
accompanied by a letter, in which he thanked them for the care they had
taken of so precious a relic. From that period to the present, it has
remained in the residence appropriated to the mayor, the former
episcopal palace; and here we saw it.
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