only bespeak your thanks to me, for furnishing you with a likeness of
any one of these ladies.

[Illustration: Fac-simile of seal]

Matilda was interred in the middle of this choir; and, according to
Ordericus Vitalis, a monument of exquisite workmanship, richly
ornamented with gold and precious stones, and bearing a long inscription
in letters of gold, was raised to her memory. Her effigy was afterwards
added to the monument; the whole of which was destroyed in 1652, by the
Calvinists, who tore open the Queen's coffin, and dispersed her remains.
After a lapse of an hundred and forty years, the royal bones were again
collected, and deposited in this church. At the same time, the splendid
monument was replaced by a plain altar-tomb, which existed till the
revolution, when all was once more swept away. The marble slab,
inscribed with the original epitaph, alone remained entire, and was
carried to the abbey church of St. Stephen's, where it still forms a
part of the pavement in a chapel. The letters are finely sculptured and
perfectly sharp. However, it is not likely to continue there long; for
Count de Montlivault, the prefect of the department, has already caused
a search to be made for Matilda's remains, and he intends to erect a
third monument to her memory. The excavations for this purpose have
hitherto been unsuccessful: the Count met with many monumental stones,
and many coffins of various kinds, but none that could be mistaken for
the desired object; for one of the inscriptions on the late monument
expressly states, that the Queen's bones had been wrapped in a linen
cloth, and enclosed in a leaden box.

The inquiry, however, will not be discontinued[78]: there are still
hopes of success, especially in the crypt, which corresponds in its