REMAINS OF JAMES II

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 217, 15 September 1886, Page 3

REMAINS OF JAMES II

A curious account was given in " Netes and Queries," many yeara ago, by Mr Fitzeimmons, an Irish gentleman, of the remains of Jamea If. Ho said— " I was a prisoner in Paris in the Convent of the English Benedictines, in the Rue St. Jaequea, during part of the Revolution. In the year 1793 or 1784, the body of King James 11. ot England was in one of the chapels there, where it had been deposited fame time, under the expectation that It would one day be sent to England for interment io Westminster Abbey. It had never been buried. The body was in a wooden coffin, enclosed in a leaden one, and that again enclosed in a Eecond wooden one covered with black velvet. While I wa3 a prisoner, thesajiscuZotebrokeopenthecoffin to get at the lead to cast bullets. The body liy exposed nearly a whole day. It was swaddled like a mummy bound tight with garters. The sans culottcs\tx>ak out the body, which had been embalmed. There was a strong smell of vinegar and camphor. The corpse was beautiful and perfect. The hands and nails were very tine j I moved and bent every finger. I never saw so fine a set of teeth in my Ufa. A young lady, a fellow prisoner, wished muoh to have a tooth ; I tried. to gob one out for her, hut could not, they were so firmly fixed. The feet also were beautiful. The face and cheeks were just as it ha were alive. I rolled his eyes ; the eyeballs were perfectly firm under my finger." ....