A Sad Chapter Of French History.

son Louis Kill ., and that of his grandson Louis XIV . were added to this . The body of the Sun King ( as Loins XIV . ' s courtiers loved to call him ) was as " black as ink . " What a contrast to that majestic , beAAdgged head , as Ave see it on the canvas of Le Brun and Rigault , must not that poor blackened skidl have been ! The body of the Grand Monarch ' s wife and that of his son the Dauphin ( rather of Louis XV . ) followed . All these , and especially the latter , were in a state of shocking decay . The folloAving day poorharmless Marie Leczinska's body was torn from its

rest-, ing place , as also were those of the " Grand Dauphin , " the Duke of Burgundy and his AA'ife , and several other princes and p rincesses of the same race , including three daughters of Louis XV . AH these were in a state of terrible decomposition , and in spite of the use of gunpoAvder and vinegar the stench Avas so great that many of the Avorkmen were seized Avith fever , and others had to continue the gruesome work . By a strange chance , on the very morning that Marie Antoinette ' s sufferings came to an end on

the Place de la Revolution , the body of another unfortunate queen again saw the light of clay—it was on the 16 th of October that the body of our Queen Henrietta Maria , Avho had died in 1669 , was taken from its coffin and added to the ghastly heap in the " ditch of the Valois , " as the pit into which these royal remains were hurled was called ; that of her daughter , the once "Belle Henriette , " came next ; and then in quick succession the bodies of Philippe d'Orleans ; that of his son , the notorious Regentof his daughterthe no less notorious Duchesse de Berriof

; , , her husband , and half a dozen infants of the same family . On the same' day a coffin was cautiously opened . This was found at- the entrance of the royal vault ( the customary position for that containing the latest deceased king ) , and contained the remains of Louis "le Bien-aime . " No wonder that- the body-snatchers hesitated before withdrawing the corpse from its enclosure , for it was remembered that Louis had perished of a most terrible illnessand that an undertaker had died , in

, consequence of placing the already pestilent corpse in its coffin . Consequently , it was only on the brink of the ditch that the body was removed and hastily rolled over the edge ; but not without the precaution of discharging guns and burning much powder , and even then the air was terribly tainted far and near .

bhall I go on , or haA'e I already given you a surfeit of horrors , and talked charnel , skulls , and cross-bones too long ? I turn the page and find that we are only in the thick of all these dead men ' s bones and uncleanness , for the Republican Resurrectionists began by the Bourbons and had still to disentomb all the Valois , and further back , up t ) the Capetian line , and are not content until the almost legendary remains of Dagobert and Madame Dagobert reappear . But I will not make you sup too long on such grisly details . Suffice it to add thatafter Louis the Well-Beloved had been disposed ofcame

, , in succession , like the line of royal ghosts seen by Macbeth , Charles V ., who died in 1380 , whose body was one of the few Avell preserved , and Avas arrayed in royal robes , Avith a gilt crown and sceptre , still bright ; that of his wife , Jeanne de Bourbon , who still held in her bony hand a decayed distaff of AVOOC ! ; Charles VI . with his Queen , Isabeau de Baviere ; Charles VII . and his wife , Marie d'Anjou ; and then Blanche de Navarre , who died in 1391 . Charles VHLof whomnothing but dust remainedHenri II .

, , , , Catherine de Medecis , Charles IX ., and Henri III . were disinterred on the morning of the 18 th ; " after the workmen ' s dinner , " Louis XII . and his queen ; and among other less interesting royal remains , the bones of Hugues , Oomte de Paris , father of Hugues Capet . And so on the work went till one tires even of the details of the preservation of this or that king and queen . Naturally those who have not been lead-coffined were eitherbones or dust ; but after reading of the state of liquid putrefaction in which

^ Francis I . and his family are foimd , one strongly sympathises with Mr . Seymour Haden ' s objection to that form of interment . Can anything be more shocking than to knoAv that all the horrors of decay and decomposition will remain even after two or three centuries have passed over the lifeless form , and that , supposing one has the ill-luck to be thus coffined and one ' s body removed , " a black fluid , emitting a noxious smell , " will run from out our last home , as was the case with those Royal remains during that hot summer month at St . Denis in 1793 ?