St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-10-16
THE RULERS OF FRANCE.
THEIR BONES HAVE LAIN FOR YEARS
UNBURiED
IN A SORT OF sToRE-RooM.

the IOmDS Were Ordered De-
strOyed and Afterwards the
Violation of the Coffins-On
the nth of November. 1893,
They Were All Removed.
A few months ago it was reported in
some of the French papers that the
bones of the kings and queens of France
were left neglected in the store rooms
of one of the public buildings of Paris.
and the Figaro was the first to call, in
the name of decency, for their respect
full refinement. The Vie Contem-
poralne now takes up the subject and
gives the first detailed account of the
violation of the royal tombs during the
Reign of Terror.
In the vaults of the Church Of st.
Denis, resting under the statues which
represented them, fifty kings of France
and fifty queens slept the eternal sleep
IN the religious peace of the basilica.
From Dagobert l. down to Francis L.,
Henry w., Louis Kill, and Louis
XIV, the kings all reposed there in the
ancient vaults. The tombs in the
chapels and in the crypt became so nu-
merous that there was no longer any
room for one more royal corpse when
the revolution burst out.
The convention at first ordered the
destruction of the tombs, and after
wards the violation of the collins. The
9th of August, 1898, conducted by the
mayor, the populace entered the basilica.
This mayor was formerly a priest, and
sang the cadet Ronselle" and the
flynn to Mars" in the pulpit i'll which
short time previously he preached the
word of God.
They were supplied with cords and
ladders, and were assisted by consid-
cradle number of wOrkmen. The troop
advanced up to the altar, and at first APP
peared somewhat surprised at the act
that they were about to commit, not
having as yet lost all respect for the
sanctity of the place. They entered
the chapel called the Chapel of the
Charles" where by the side of Du
GueSclin and Louis de Saucorne, were
the remains of Charles V. and his wife,
Charles VI. and Charles VII. Tney
struck with heavy hammers the ''de-
tested faces of the tyrants," and they
Saluted with shouts of Joy the skillful
blows that shattered the marble to
pieces.
They would not break the monument
of Turenne because it had not been
raised to the glory of an upStart king.
But they did not spare that of Du Cues
clin. When they had finished smashing
the stones, when they had sufficiently,
amid roarS of laughter, broken the
noses. the fingers, and the heads of the
statues, they resolved to open the cot
fins, because. according to the legends,
several of them contained treasures.
All that they found. however. consisted
of a few threads of bogus gold in the
coffin of Pepin and the seal of Con-
stance de CASTLE.
Upon each coffin there was an inscrip-
ton upon a plate OF lead or copper.
They were torn off. One of them, that
of Louis XIV, was found again in 1920
in the shop of braZier, who used it as
saucepan. Some of the bones were
thrown into the cemetery, but the
greatest portion of them remained IN the
collins. In three days, 9th. 18th and Ssh
of August, fifty-One tombS were de-
strOyed. The news was announced all
over the country and the event was eel
ebrated by the feast of the 10th of Aug
uSt. For all that, it was considered that
this revenge" was not sufficient. They
mad broken the images of the kings;
liOW lICN uSlCl llllliCo u dlldCh lllell lS-
mains.
a crowd of citizens of st. Denis,
Joined by several politicians from Paris,
slapped first before the tomb of Tu-
renne. They found the coffin in vault
placed Immediately under the marble
monument. They opened it. The feat
ureS of the hero OF SalZbach were I'M
changed. The body presented the ap-
pearance of a dried mummy. 1t was
placed IN the care OF man named Host.
lie placed lL III an oak box and deposited
it in the SacrlSty, and for eight months
he exhibited it as a curious relic and
charged lee of admission. Not being
satisfied with his profits i'll the exhibit
ton line, he took out the teeth of the
great Iurenne and sold them one by
one. When this outrage was discovered
the body was sent to the Jardin deS
PlanteS, and TWO years 9fterward it was
placed in the Temple of Mars, formerly
the Cnurch of the 1nvalides.
In the afternoon RoDeSpierre arrived.
he would not nave any nonsense over
the tyrantS of the middle ages. What
he wanted was to find the vault of the
BOurbOnS. AT last the entrance was
found. 1t was situated before the altar,
and little to the right. They descend
Ell into the crypt.and near the door they
y
ther on, ranged side by side, were twen-
ty-twO tOmbS at the left, and on the
right were those of Henry ~. and Marie
de Medicis.
The popular Imagination was still full
OF the souvenirs left by that good king.
1t was he whom they eXhumed the first
According to the records that have been
lett to us a certain emotion came over
the spectators when the workmen had
at last placed in the light the royal
corpse. Robespierre himself was filled
with respect. The face of Henry ".
was i'll no way changed. One would
fancy that he had just died. An eye
witness cited by Couraiod testified as
follows:
ANY countryman who, in his life
time, saw the image of Henry ". on
the Pout-Neuf, or anywhere else, would
have recognized him in the midst of a
thousand bodies, his features were so
little altered. 1t looked as if putrafac-
ton was afraid to approach his heroic
remains, and that it wished to preserve
them for all posterity. But profane