The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1903-01-31
ROYAL RELICS FROM FRANCE.
scepters, Funeral Robes, Etc,
Coming to America.

In the last years of the Second en-
pire a portion of the Ledru collection
of royal bones and other relics was
secretly sent to England and preserved
in London by Thomas Sherbroke. Now
it is coming to the United States, says
the New York Sun.
Mr.. Sherbroke repeatedly offered his
collection to the French government,
but evidently his offers have been re-
iected, because the remains of the kings
of France are now destined to orna-
ment the showcases Of some New York
museum, instead of being sent to the
Musee Cluny, to Carnavalet, or to the
Church of Saint Denis.
The story of this collection is Gu
rious. In 1850 at Fontenay-aux-Roses
in little house that formerly belonged
to the poet Scarron, there lived one
Ledru, son of the conjuror, Ledru, who
was called Comus, and a relative of the
famous Ledru-Rollin.
In his childhood this Ledru was pre-
sent at the violation of the tombs Of
Saint Denis. In August, 1898, he stood
by the side of Alexandra Lenoir, when
the mob rushed into the church and
tore the collins out of the vaults. He
picked up several souvenirs and formed
an ossuary which he concealed for
many years in the granary attached
to his fathers house.
Later on, under the empire, he pub
lished the story of his collection and of
the tragic events of which he was an
eyewitness. OF this story in the form
of letter to NJ. Nieuwerkerke, there
now only remain few leaves reprinted
in 1872.
The bodies of Henry ~, of Louis
Kill, and of Louis XIV, were in a
marvellous state of preservation, he
says. Henry w. looked as if he were
merely asleep. The face of Louis XIV,
although otherwise intact, was dis
colored.
The collins of Philip of Valois, of
Charles the Handsome, of King John
and of Charles. v. contained each one
the royal crown, the sceptre and the
hand of justice. In the coffin of Jeanne
de Bourbon, wife of Charles the Wise,
were found besides a gilded distaff,
large gold ring and pointed shoes en-
broidered in silver and ornamented
with precious stones.
The collins of Charles VII, and of
Charles WILL, contained only bones and
portions of ornaments. The other
collins, when broken open with axes,
exhibited merely dust or skeletons
that crumbled to dust on being re-
moved.
The body of Turenne would have
been tossed into potter's field,
like most of the remains of the kings,
If doctor had not claimed it, on ac-
count of its wonderful state of preser-
walton, for the National Museum of
Comparative Anatomy, the property
of Citizen Daubenton; and there it re-
NAMED exposed to the curiosity of the
crowd until the day when the first
consul, indignant at the outrage upon
the purest military glory of France,
had it placed with due solemnity in the
church of the Invalides on Sept. %,
1900.
Among other relics Ledru collected
crowns, sceptres, distaffs, winding
sheets, portions of funeral robes, rings,
spurs, and royal bones. A portion of
the ossuary was sold before the war
OF 1870 to an English collector by the
heirs OF Ledru. 1t is now in London
in the care of Mr.. Sherbroke, who in
turn is about to sell it to an American
amateur or curiosity shop man.
The other portion of the collection
is scattered, sold in detail to several
unknown persons. Possibly at the
present time the sword of a king of
France may be in some junk shop
among old pots and pans and rusty
knives.
NEW 0CCTTpATTON EnD UORIn