Xaintrailles, Madame de. The story is told by Clavel
in his Pictorial History of Freemasonry and of Ancient and Modern Secret
Societies, Paris, 1843, that the Lodge of Brother Artists at Paris,
of which Cuvelier de Trie was Master, was about to inaugurate and open a Lodge
of Adoption, that is, a mixed lodge under patronage of a Masonic lodge,
when, having opened the Masonic lodge on the First Degree, there was discerned
among the visitors in the ante-room a young military officer dressed as Captain
of Cavalry. A request for his diploma or patent having been made, after some
hesitation, he presented a folded paper which proved to be the commission of a
military aid-decamp, issued by the French Directory to the wife of General de
Xaintrailles, who was in fact the supposed male Captain of Cavalry standing in
the ante-room. In explanation, it is said that at this time (and as usual in
such stories time is seldom recorded) a number of women had donned male attire
and joined the military forces. When the situation was made known to the
lodge, the members are supposed to have been so overcome with emotion (as true
Frenchmen should be) that their reason and regard for Freemasonry entirely
departed from them, so that they were ready for anything that might be suggested.
While they were yet in this distracted state, the woman was, with her consent,
elected to membership, initiated in the First Degree, and accepted as one
among them. Some have suggested that this must have occurred in the latter part
of the 18th century, probably during the French Revolution, when life being
precarious, refined conduct was not seriously important. Strange to say, the
legend fails to state what became of the proposed institution of the Lodge
of Adoption but, since the French First Degree is a rather formidable
affair, usually beginning in mid-afternoon and involving a number of maneuvers
before the lodge is even approached, and the rest of the ceremony is full of
emphatic ”tests,” the institution ceremonies must have approached dawn of the
next day.
