moustaches, and placed it upon his own lip,
giving vent, at the same time, to a vehement
burst of national enthusiasm.

There was no enthusiasm when the pick
and shovel had laid bare the cold and
vacillating features of the thirteenth Louis; which
were in perfect preservation also; but it was
not without respect and admiration that Louis
the Fourteenth, decrepid though he seemed
and deprived of wig and every other ornament
which adorned him when called " The
Great," was exposed to view. Near him
were discovered Maria Theresa and his son
the dauphin; on whose frame were visible
the traces of his violent and untimely
death.

For days and nights the search continued.
Some of the remnants of the House of Stuart
were taken from the ground. Among others,
the remains of Henrietta Maria, wife of
Charles the First, and her daughter,
Henrietta Stuart. Strange that of that family
the body of the father should be buried
in an unknown grave, and that, ages after,
the remnants of those he loved should be
desecrated, and thrown into a common ditch.
Philip of Orleans, father of Egalité, and
Regent of France, was next discovered; and
near to him Louis the Fifteenth, who seemed
still living, so rosy were the tints on his face
preserved. Mary of Medicis and Anne of
Austria, and, with them, all the relatives of
Henry the Fourth, Louis the Fifteenth, and
Louis the Sixteenth, lay close together near
the same spot.

Older monuments, more difficult of reach,
were then broken into. Charles the Fifth
of France, who died in thirteen hundred
and eighty, was found beside his wife, Joan
of Bourbon, and his daughter, Isabella. In
his coffin was a silver frosted crown, a hand
of justice, and a silver frosted sceptre four
feet long. In that of Joan there were the
remnants of a crown, a ring of gold, and the
fragments of a spindle and a bracelet. Her
feet — or the bones of them — were shod with
a pair of painted slippers, known in her
time as souliers à la poulaine, on which were
still the marks of gold and silver workman
ship. Charles the Sixth and his wife, Isabeau
of Bavaria, Charles the Seventh and Mary of
Anjou, were taken up immediately after; and
the ditch in which the remnants of all the
Bourbons had been thrown was closed for
ever.

A vault was then disclosed in which were
found Marguerite de Valois, the gay and
beautiful wife of Henry of Navarre; and near
her Alençon, whose love for her originated a
romantic chapter in history. The remains of
Francis the Second and Mary Elizabeth,
daughter of Charles the Ninth, were next
disinterred. The vault of Charles the Eighth,
which was next opened, contained Henry the
Second and his wife, Catherine de Medicis, and
her favourite son Henry the Third, who was
murdered. Louis the Twelfth and Anne of

Brittany were discovered a little further
on.

The workmen began at this time to reach
the oldest tombs and vaults in the Abbey.
They discovered Joan of France in a stone
coffin lined with lead in strips, leaden coffins
not being then invented (one thousand three
hundred and forty-nine). Hugues, the
father of Capet, was known by an inscription
on a stone sarcophagus, which contained his
ashes. The pulverized remains of Charles
the Bold were also found enclosed within a
leaden casket in a stone sarcophagus, and the
relics of Philip Augustus, cotemporary and
competitor of Coeur de Lion, were found in
the same state. The bones of Louis the
Eighth were found in perfect preservation in
a bag of leather, which retained its elasticity
although buried in the year one thousand two
hundred and twenty-six.

At dead of night and by the light of torches
held by weary troopers, the searchers stumbled
on the sealed stone vault which contained the
body of Dagobert, who died in six hundred
and thirty-eight. Did the profanators
know that he had founded that old church?
It was with difficulty that they pene
trated into it, so strongly was it buttressed
and closed up. They broke a statue at the
entrance and found inside a wooden box two
feet in length, which contained the bones of
Dagobert and his wife Nanthilde; who died in
six hundred and forty-five, both enveloped and
kept together in a silken bag.

The skeleton of the Knight of Brittany —
Bertrand Duguesclin — the terror of the
Spaniards, was found in the vaults of the
chapel of the Charles's.

It was not till after long and laborious search
that the vault of Francis the First was found.
The leaden coffin which held his body was of
gigantic proportions, and confirmed the
historical accounts of his enormous size. Near
him were his mother Louise of Savoy, his
wife Claude of France, his dauphin Charles,
and his other children the Duke of Orleans
and Charlotte of France. The thigh of
Francis on being measured was found to be
twenty inches long. Below the windows of
the choir the vault was opened which
contained the relics of St. Louis and his
immediate circle. They were chiefly bones and
dust confined in leaden caskets, and were
thrown into the grave where lay the
remnants of Philip Augustus, Louis the Eighth,
and Francis the First.

The last tombs discovered were those of
Philip of Valois, King of France and Duke
of Burgundy, and his wife Anne of Burgundy,
and that of John who was taken prisoner by
the Black Prince and brought to England,
where he died in one thousand three hundred
and sixty-four. In the tomb of Philip and
his wife were found a sceptre, and a bird of
copper, a spindle, and a ring; and in the tomb
of John a crown, a sceptre, and a hand of
justice of silver gilt. The searching after