134
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vi. AUG. 17, wist
the wound which had caused Ornano's
death, he was found to be alive. He after-
wards became a Marshal of France and
Governor of the Invalides. The anecdote
was related by himself to one of Gronow's
friends.
This year (1912) there was a case of pre- mature burial reported to have occurred in France. According to one account (Reuters telegram, Standard, 22 March) the incident took place at Seix in the Department of Ariege. According to another (Express correspondent, Daily Express, same date) it was near Toulouse. (Seix is over fifty miles south of Toulouse.) A knocking inside the coffin was heard. Unfortunately the opening of the coffin was too late, though the body was still warm.
In a chamber under the tower of St. Michel in Bordeaux there are, or there used to be, a large number of mummies, taken shortly before the Revolution from the churchyard which surrounded the tower. If I remember rightly, one of them was believed, from its contorted condition, to have been a case of premature burial.
The terrible death of the Abbe Prevost author of ' Manon Lescaut ' should be noted. Crossing the Forest of Chantilly on 23 Nov., 1763, he was seized with apo- plexy. His apparently lifeless body was taken to the house of a neighbouring cure. A legal functionary arrived to authenticate the finding of the body, &c. He ordered it to be opened. The knife was inserted. The victim shrieked, but the knife killed him. (See ' Manon Lescaut, from the French o\ the Abbe Prevost,' London, 1841 ; ' Life oj the Author,' p. xix.)
At 3 S. xii. 176 is cited the case of French bishop and senator at this moment (1867) living and well." The name of the bishop is not given. I think that I have read somewhere that he (or some other clerical senator) addressed the Senate on the subject of premature burial, giving hi? own experience without referring it to himself and that when the question " Who ? " was asked, he astonished the House by saying " I am the man." I should like to kno\\ who this bishop and senator was.
A friend of mine, who used to be an office: in the Rifle Brigade, has told me that in o about 1870, at Darjeeling, a man in th< regiment, supposed to be dead, was put int< & coffin, open. The weather being cool, the funeral was postponed until the next day when he was found, sitting up, alive. H died, however, a few hours later.
ROBERT PIERPOINT.
I do not see that any contributor has
instanced, in reply to this question, any
iersonal and authentic story, such as the
ne well known to me which I venture to
end you. (It happened in my husband's
amily, and the girl was his great-aunt. )
A young and beautiful girl, dearly loved ,y her family, and especially by her brothers two of whom were studying medicine died, or was believed to have died, in the old STorfolk manor which was her home in he opening years of the last century. The day of her funeral was fixed, but was post- poned so that her favourite brother could )e present. On arriving, he found her prepared for the grave, with her coffin in
- he room. Kissing her, he believed that
le had grounds for thinking that life was not extinct. He held a tiny pocket mirroi to her lips, and declared that she yet lived . and under his vigorous measures she was recalled from the very grave. The terroi of what she suffered during those days wher quite consciovis, though utterly powerless never left her, and she made her relations swear to her that they would not bury hei when death came at last till they had cm off her little finger so as to " mak' siccer."
This story, very well known in our family was first told me by one of the doctor': daughters, and corroborated by her sister and brothers, who had it direct from his lips As long as he lived, he cherished the littl mirror which had shown him that his siste yet breathed. She lived for several year after her escape from a cruel fate. Y. T.
LAST FATAL DUEL IN ENGLAND (11 S. vi 46). MR. FRANKS is quite correct. Som years ago I called the attention of th editor of a well - known encyclopaedia t( the fact, and he did not dispute it, though see that the last edition of the work ii question makes no mention of the Eghar duel. The objection was that it was a du< between foreigners.
The grave of Frederic Cournet is marke in Egham Churchyard by a flat stone, wit the following inscription :
The [sic] Democratic Frat^aise
a Frederic Cournet
Proscrit
L'orient le 21 st Fevrier 1808 Mort le 19 th Octobre 1852
It is said that Cournet won the toss, fire first, and missed. Barthelemy offered t waive his right to fire if Cournet would finis the duel with swords. This was refusec Barthelemy raised his pistol and pulle
