Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1865-07-06
The Bones Of the Bourbons.

The Bones Of the BOurbOns.
: '4No man. says the Koran, 'knows thu
spot on earth where his grave shall be made.
The Bourbons thought they knew, but, lik,
the meaner folks, they were out of their reck
oning, so far, at least, as related to their ffna
place Of seputure In vain they built them
selves mighty mausoleum. For eleven hun
dred years the Abbey church consecrated tt
st. Denis held the bones Of Capets, Carlov
ingians and the descendants Of '..the goot
King Dagobert," but the revolutionary storm
of 1892 swept away all before and scattered
these and all other relics till then held sacred
There are few events Of that terrible time
more completely demonstratin& the subvers
ion of the royalty which had endured SO long
than the decrces of the Convention of the 9Th
of August, 1892, six months offer the execu
tion of Louis the Sixteenth, Which sent the
rabid populace Of Paris trooping to st. Denis
to oblterate the collection Of the Kings o.
France by DESTROYING their very tombs and
burying their remains nthe common fosse =
In the lombs Of followed stone of the earlier
monarchs, very little worth notice was found
In that of King Pepin there was small guam
tity Of gold wire, nothing more, but each cof
fin bore the simple inscription Of the name Of
its inmate ON leadcn plate, and the greater
part Of these plates were much oxydized, and
in a very bad condition, so that the names
were; in many instances, nearly illegible.-
fThe plates, however, were not wanted for pres.
ervation, but, together with the leaden coffns
of Philippe lie Hardi and Isabelle Of Aragon,
and the leaden roofs of the abby church, were
taken to the Hotel de Vile of Paris, and there
melted down and cast into musket balls
The most remarkable object discovered was a
silver seal, of ogive form, belonging to Con-
stance of Castile, the second wife OF Louis the
Seventh who died in HOO 1t weighed three
ounces and half, and silver money being out
| of fashion, was not converted into either cash
or bullets, but found its way to the municipal
stronghold, and was thence transferred to the
cabinet of antiquities of the National (not
the ImperiaD library Though only three
days labor were actually bestowed, the work
of demolition, was, from various causes, sus-
pended from August till October, but on the
18th OF that month it was resumed, and with
renewed vigor, the destroyers forced their way
into the vaults ol the Bourbons. ..-..., ...
The first coffin they met with, was one which
might have demanded forbearance, had there
been any forbearing spirit in the midst of so
much unhallowed ruiianism; it was that Of
Quartrc! His body was in a good state of
preservation, and his features were perfectly
recognizable; the winding sheet by which he
was enveloped was also in good condition.
For two days his remains were exposedt to pub
lie view, and then they were remorselessly cast
into the yawning trench which awaited them.
The same fate awaited the bones of Louis the
Thirteenth and his descendants. The first
named monarch was recognized by his nous
taches, and Louis the Fourteenth by his prom
inent features, but his face-that face which
time, was now black as ink 10 this com
plexion had 1t come at last The bodies of
his immediate family, and especially that Of
the Grand Dauphin-oh, grandeur!-were in
state Of liquid putrefacton The hearts Of
some of the princes were found under the cof-
fins, encased in lead, with enameled inscrr-
tons; the lead was carefully taken away, the
withered hearts were tossed with hows and
execrations into the common fosse. On the
fifth day, after having taken all the bodies,
which were regularly inferred in the royal
vault, the deprcdators came, at the further end,
to another coffin, placed upon stone bench
about two feet from the ground, in a recess
formed in the thickness of the wall The sit
uation of this coffin showed that it was that
of the late King who had died, which always
occupied the recess in question till his sue
cessor cane to replace him. In this instance
the successor never came AS if open day
were necessary for fully satisfying the veng-
cance of the revolutionary mob, eager to
wreak their brutal fury on all the Bourbons in
the person of one, i'll called "Le bien aine," :"
the coffin Of Louis the Fifteenth was dragged
from the crypt to the trench, and there open
cd The body, taken out of its leadcn case
and swatled like a mummy, appeared to be in
good preservation, but the instant the bandag-
es were removed, the royal corpse took its re.
venge on the surrounding multitude. 1t was,
as might have been expected, considering the
disease of which the proaigate King died, in
state of the direst putretaction, and from
the loathsome carcass came so perniclous an
odor that all present fled from it in dismay.
At length, in order that the Jacobin body
snatchers might complete their purpose, re-
course was had to the firing of muskets and
burning of gunpowder, to purify the air, and
when the fumigation had lasted long enough,
the blackened fragments of loyalty were bu-
ried in the pit on bed of quicklime-someI
what different from the sumptuous couch of
Versailles! s!-and quickly concealed from hui
man senses.
.