Originally published in The Leisure Hour (Religious Tract Society) vol.1 #6 (05 Feb 1852).
The following singular narrative was given in the London newspapers, during the summer of 1779, and thus headed: "Extract of a Private Letter from Paris, just received. . . . I cannot finish without acquainting you of a most extraordinary occurrence that took place here last Wednesday, and for some days hath put the city into a great consternation; and I impart this affair to you the more willingly, as I believe, from the nature of the event, it will not find its way into any of the French gazettes.
"One of the vicars of the church of St. Sulpice, in the Faubourg St. Germain, named Louis-Pierre d'Ambusson, having been convicted of converting to his own use a considerable sum of money which had been given by a dying lady, one of his penitents, to be distributed in alms, was sentenced to be degraded from his priesthood, branded on the shoulder with a hot iron, and sent to the galleys for life. On Wednesday last he was carried to the Place de Grève, to suffer the former part of his punishment. The concourse of people to see him pass was very great; and as he was going by, some carts of wood, coming out of a cross street, caused a great stop for some time. Just as the tumbril which contained the criminal was hindered from proceeding, a baker had set a basket of bread on the ground, for the greater convenience of seeing. The criminal rose up in the tumbril, and cried with aloud voice, 'I am not yet degraded: I am still a priest, and I have got full power to execute all the functions of the priesthood; therefore, with a full power and full intention, I consecrate all this bread now before me into the body of the Lord." Having said this, he stretched his hands over the basket of bread, containing thirty-seven loaves, pronounced aloud the words of consecration, and then sat down quietly in the carriage, which drove on. The astonished multitude was now in the utmost consternation at this event. Many of them fell on their knees round the basket; while the affrighted baker ran to inform his master. One of the commissaries of the quarter presently went and informed the lieutenant of the police, who immediately sent a number of the gens du Gué (the military watch of Paris), to keep the ground round the basket; and a canopy was raised over it, to preserve it from rain; and lanterns were also set round it, to be lighted as soon as it grew dark. Having taken these precautions, the Archbishop of Paris being absent in the country, the lieutenant of police waited on his vicar-general; who assembled the chapter of the cathedral of Notre Dame, to consult as to what was to be done with this extraordinary hostie. After several hours' debate, it was concluded that the basket should be fetched, in solemn procession, and placed on the high altar, to be kept there till the consecrated bread began to corrupt; then to be burnt, and the ashes cast into the marble basin which holds the holy water: all which was done last Sunday morning."