The Arizona champion., 1883-12-22
ROYAL REMAINS.
Imperial Caesars Dead and Turned to
 Clay in Westminster Abbey.

O re. enter the remains of Queen Rather ne of Nalois, wife of Henry V.
 The fortunes of this queen were strange in death as well as in life. The laughter of Charles NI of France, wife Df our Henry N., mother of Henry w., grardmothcr of Henry NlI., link be- tween the royal houses of France and she was regarded as queen of both countries. She had been received on her first visit to England Gas an an gel of God" and in France had sat with her husband at great banquet in Paris, among crowd of dukes, princes and barons, gorgeously apparelled and crowned with precious diadem.
 After her husbands death, she and her son Henry VI. erected to him the splendid chantry in the Confessors s Chapel, which is built in the shape of the first letter of his name. But after lIenry's death she made a mesalliance with Owen Tudor, who, whatever may have been his supposed extraction from ancient British kings, held no higher position than that of soldier of the guard.
 In consequence of this she fell into contempt and oblivion, and after her death her remains were so badly con fined that her body was actually visible more than two centuries .aiterward.
 This scandalous neglect continued un- til more than a century ago, when the body was slowed away in the vault of Sir George Nillars, father of the Duke of Buckingham, who was the favorite of James l. and Charles l.
 When the Nillers vault was opened after the funeral of one of the Percies in the vault which ajoins it, we thought that it would be a good opportunity to remove the body of the neglected Queen -once so beautiful and so renowned to a more fitting burial place. It was not right that she should be indebted , so to speak, to the chance vacancy in the grave of the Buckinghamshire knight When the coffin was lifted out of the vault in the Chapel of St. Nicholas, it tumbled to pieces before our eyes and there lay the mortal remains of the wife of our hero-king-the Kate of Shakespeare $ magnificent tragedy and the ancestress of the mighty Tudors,
 The remains were nearly perfect, but were little more than q skeleton, except that the muscles of the legs and feet still remained. The skull, small and eXquisitely shaped, lay on something which had once been silken cushion. Large pieces of cerecloth still remained, though they crumbled to dust at the least touch.
 No one was present when this occurred except the Dean, the clerk of the works and myself. We stood in silence, and in deep and reverent thought, beside the mortal relics of the lovely Princess, who had been the ancestress of so many of our kings, and who, after SO much glory and so many sorrows, had passed away nearly four centuries ago. Neither the Dean nor l was tempted by the pas sion for abstracting memorials from the resting places of the dead Not one bone, nor one shred of silk was dis except, Gf l remember rightly d very small piece of cere cloth, which we sent to her Majesty the Queen.
 A strong oak coffin was made with all nd l,,,, T the chantry Queen Katherine built Here it rests, immediately over the tomb of her husband. The top of the tomb was formed of what had once been in tended for an altar-stall in the chantry chapel. and the translation of the very simple Latin inscription which was en- graved upon it is to the following effect:
 ''IIere rests at length, after SO many years and so many vissitudes, the body of Katherine Nalois, daughter of Charles VI. of France, wife of Henry N., mother of Henry NI., grandmother of Henry NII."
 It happened to the Dean for various necessary reasons, to be obliged to open oVNtldl pl lllc l'N ul NulllS-dlNdNS or course, for adequate causes and with royal permission. Thus it was desirable to open the tomb of Richard II. for in- repairs. The common story about his death relates that his skull was cleft from behind with blow from the battle-aXe of Sir Piers EXton in the dungeon of Ponteiract Castle.
 It was seen, however, that nothing of the kind had happened to the body which lies there inferred and there are some doubts whether Henry V. really brought :he corpse of Richard IT, to London from Poutefract, and whether the body he exposed to view was not rather that of Richards chaplain, Maudslcy, who is known to have closely resembled him. The historic doubt on this subject will never be solved. The mode in which he met his death is d secret of the prison-house forever.
 On another occasion it became neces- sary to open several of the royal vaults, to see whether it was true that the body of James l. had been removed from the Abbey by the puritans. If this had proved to be the case, there would have been some small shadow of an excuse for the base act of the Parliament of Charles II. in turning out of the Abbey the bodies of Cromwell and his adher-