[Footnote 78: A detailed account of the proceedings on this occasion, is given in the _Journal Politique du Département du Calvados_, for March 21, and May 6, 1819.--The first attempt at the discovery of Matilda's coffin, was made in March, 1818, and was confined to the chapter-house: the matter then slept till the following March, when Count de Montlivault, attended by the Bishop of Bayeux, Mr. Spencer Smythe, and other gentlemen, prosecuted his inquiries within the church itself, and, immediately under the spot where her monument stood, discovered a stone coffin, five feet four inches long, by eleven inches deep, and varying in width from twenty inches to eleven. Within this coffin was a leaden box, soldered down; and, in addition to the box, the head of an effigy of a monk, in stone, and a portion of a skull-bone filled with aromatic herbs, and covered with a yellowish-white membrane, which proved, upon examination, to be the remains of a linen cloth. The box contained various bones, that had belonged to a person of nearly the same height as Matilda is described to have been. No doubt seemed to remain but that the desideratum was discovered. The whole was therefore carefully replaced; and the prefect ordered that a new tomb should be raised, similar to that which was destroyed at the revolution; and that the slab, with the original epitaph, should be laid on the top; that copies of the former inscription, stating how the queen's remains had been re-interred by the abbess, in 1707, should be added to two of the sides; that to the third should be affixed the ducal arms of Normandy; and that the fourth should bear the following inscription:-- "Ce tombeau renfermant les dépouilles mortelles de l'illustre Fondatrice de cette Abbaye, renversé pendant les discordes civiles, et déplacé depuis une longue série d'années, a été restauré, conformément au voeu des amis de la religion, de l'antiquité et des arts, 1819. Casimir, comte de Montlivault, conseiller d'état, préfet. Léchaudé d'Anisy, directeur de l'Hospice." The ceremony of the re-interment was performed with great pomp on the fifth of May; and the Bishop of Bayeux pronounced a speech on the occasion, that does him credit for its good sense and affecting eloquence.] [Footnote 79: _Hist. Normannorum Scriptores_, p. 662.] LETTER XXVI. PALACE OF THE CONQUEROR--HERALDIC TILES--PORTRAITS OF WILLIAM AND MATILDA--MUSEUM--PUBLIC LIBRARY--UNIVERSITY--ACADEMY--EMINENT MEN--HISTORY OF CAEN. (_Caen, August_, 1818.) Within the precincts of the abbey of St. Stephen are some buildings, which do not appear to have been used for monastic purposes. It is supposed that they were erected by William the Conqueror, and they are yet called his palace. Only sixty years ago, when Ducarel visited Caen, these remains still preserved their original character.