Nicolas Villeminot, the officer commanding the detachment of the grenadiers of the gendarmerie which escorted the delegation of the assembly; and others who have signed with us.

Brun; Gay Vernon, bishop and deputy; Deydier, deputy from the department of Ain; Rouyer; Benard; François Chabot; J. C. Mountflorence; Petit; Cambon fils aîné; Bravet; Beaupoil; P. H. Carlier; Durvosque; Lafontaine; Simonneau; Jacques Brival; Villeminot; Robouame; deputy; Marron; Perreaux; Mouquin; Empaytaz; R. Ghiselin, of Maryland; S. Blackden; Griffith, of Philadelphia.

Historians had differed as to the date of the death; the above-quoted certificate of burial fixes it definitely on July 18, 1792.

The best description of Paul Jones's last moments is given in a letter received a month after the funeral by his elder sister, Mrs. Jenny Taylor (sometimes spelled in the official documents Jeanne, Janet, and Janette), in Scotland, written by his intimate friend, a witness of his will and a pallbearer at his funeral, Col. Samuel Blackden, a planter from North Carolina, who had served with distinction in the American Revolution, and was in Paris on business at the time of Paul Jones's last illness and death. The following is an extract from his letter:

But for two months past he began to lose his appetite, grew yellow, and showed symptoms of jaundice. For this he took medical treatment and for a short time seemed to grow better. A few days before his death his legs began to swell, which proceeded upward to his body, so that for two days before his decease he could not button his waistcoat and had great difficulty in breathing.

I visited him every day, and, beginning to be apprehensive of his danger, desired him to settle his affairs; but he would not take that view of it, and put off the making of his will until the afternoon of July 18, when he was prevailed upon to send for a notary and made his will. M. Beaupoil and myself witnessed it and left him sitting in a chair in his parlor. A few minutes after we retired he walked into his chamber and laid himself upon his face on the bedside, with his feet on the floor. The Queen's physician, who was attending him, came soon after, and on entering the apartment found him in that position, and on trying to lift him up found that he had expired. His disorder had terminated in dropsy of the heart. His body was put into a leaden coffin on the 20th, that, in case the United States, which he had so essentially served and with so much honor, should claim his remains they might be more easily removed.

M. Beaupoil, whom he mentioned, was a major in the French army and an aid-de-camp to La Fayette, with whom he had served in the American Revolution.

I had been misled for some time by having been furnished with an alleged copy of the certificate of burial published in the "Bulletin of the Society of the History of Protestantism," in which there had been omitted after the word "anciens," doubtless through an error of the copyist, the following all-important phrase: "Was buried in the cemetery for foreign Protestants." Besides this, eight words of minor significance had been omitted. The fact that the French construction was defective without some additional words led to another search, and in the Bibliothèque Nationale was at last found a magazine called the

'Correspondance Littéraire," containing an article by Charles Read, giving the correct copy of the certificate of burial, which he had made from the register referred to and of which the above is a translation. The article expressed the conviction of Mr. Read that the cemetery for foreign Protestants was the long-since abandoned and almost forgotten cemetery of Saint Louis, situated upon a street formerly called L'Hôpital Saint Louis, at present Grange-aux-Belles.

As some writers had expressed, however vaguely, different opinions, I instituted a long and exhaustive search to verify the grounds upon which Mr. Read had based his belief.

Public records were found showing that in 1720 the Government, at the instigation of Holland, had set aside a lot for the burial of foreign Protestants near the Porte Saint Martin, called the "Saint Martin Cemetery," but which was closed in 1762. The Saint Louis Cemetery for foreign Protestants was opened about that time and officially closed in January, 1793, six months after Paul Jones's decease, although some interments were made thereafter.

The custodian in charge of each of these cemeteries was named "Corroy," and it was ascertained from certain old documents discovered that the position had descended from father to son, which was evidence tending to show that the Saint Louis was the immediate successor of the Porte Saint Martin Cemetery. A copy was afterwards found of a decree regarding the burial of foreign Protestants, issued May 26, 1781, officially confirming this fact, and approved by De Vergennes, minister of foreign affairs under Louis XVI. From this decree have been taken the following extracts:

By an order of council of June 20, 1720, it was decreed that there should be designated a place for the burial of the bodies of foreign Protestants. The ground which was chosen was situated near the Porte Saint Martin. * *

*

In the year 1762 the cemetery was transferred behind the Saint Louis Hospital.

This description clearly designated the Saint Louis Cemetery. To endeavor to obtain some authentic information as to whether there were any other cemeteries for foreign Protestants in existence at the time, and whether any further corroborative evidence could be found regarding the burial place of the Admiral, an examination requiring several months was made of all the journals and periodicals obtainable of about the date of the funeral, which took place July 20, 1792. Access was had to more than a hundred publications, which were found in the possession of libraries, societies, and individuals.

The Moniteur, Tome XIII, page 192, published a report of the proceedings of the National Assembly, session of July 19, 1792, the day after Paul Jones's death, which contained the following statement :

A letter was read from Colonel Blackden, a friend of Commodore Paul Jones, which announced that his friend having died in Paris, application was made to

M. Simonneau, commissary of the section, to have him buried without charge in accordance with a formality still existing in regard to Protestants. M. Simonneau was indignant and replied that if the expenses were not provided he would pay them himself. [Applause.]

The "formality" mentioned referred to a decree by which M. Simonneau, who was also "commissary of the King," was charged with the burial of all foreign Protestants. The letter of Colonel Blackden was published in the Boston Journal of that year, and is as follows:

Mr. PRESIDENT: I announce to you that Admiral Paul Jones died last evening in Paris; that the American minister has ordered the person at whose house the Admiral lodged to cause him to be interred in the most private manner and at the least possible expense!!! This person, on account of the formalities still existing relative to Protestants, found it necessary to apply to a commissary. He has done it, and M. Simonneau, the commissary, expresses his astonishment at the order given by the minister, and says that a man who has rendered such signal services to France and America ought to have a public burial. He adds that if America will not pay the expense he will pay it himself. The friends of the Admiral wait the orders of the Assembly respecting the mode of interment.

S. BLACKDEN,

Late Colonel in the Service of the United States.

In order to ascertain, if possible, whether M. Simonneau had actually paid the funeral expenses out of his own means, or whether some other provision had been made, I instituted a search in the various departments of the Government in the hope of finding some record of the action taken. Fortunately a letter was finally found in the national archives written by the then minister of justice, M. Déjoly, dated July 22, 1792, two days after the funeral, from which the following is an extract :

TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: M. Simonneau has furnished the cost of the interment of Admiral Paul Jones, of which the bill amounts to 462 francs. This is an homage which he has rendered to the remains of this celebrated man, and this act of good citizenship is worthy of M. Simonneau, brother of the mayor of Étampes, who died in executing the law.

This brought to light for the first time the mortifying fact that the hero who had once been the idol of the American people had been buried by charity, and that the payment of his funeral expenses was the timely and generous act of a foreign admirer.

I made a search to see whether any needy lineal descendants of M. Pierre François Simonneau, the generous commissary, could be found, with view to paying to them the amount, with interest, expended by their worthy ancestor, as a tardy recognition of his noble act. Six persons of that name were discovered and communicated with, but no proof could be obtained that anyone of them was a descendant.

Our minister to France at that time, Gouverneur Morris, who was on terms of close intimacy with Paul Jones and who superintended the drawing up of the schedule of his property the afternoon before his

death, says in a letter dated April 19, 1793, published in his "Diary and Letters," Volume II, page 46, and addressed to Robert Morris:

Before I quit Paul Jones I must tell you that some people here who like rare shows wished him to have a pompous funeral, and I was applied to on the subject; but as I had no right to spend money on such follies, either the money of his heirs or that of the United States, I desired that he might be buried in a private and economical manner. I have since had reason to be glad that I did not agree to waste money, of which he had no great abundance and for which his relatives entertained a tender regard.

The impression as to the Admiral's having no great abundance of means proved later to be erroneous. When his effects were sold, stocks converted into cash, and arrears of pay collected, the sum procured amounted to about $30,000, and much more was realized afterwards, which went to his heirs. And yet there seemed to be no ready money available at his death to provide for his funeral.

After finding the living successor to the notary who made the settlement of the estate and who was in possession of all the original papers in French, I had the detailed account examined, and ascertained that M. Simonneau had not been reimbursed for the money he expended. The inventory found among these papers and made after Paul Jones's death enumerates among the articles left by him 7 uniforms, 12 decorations, and 4 swords. It was natural to suppose that this large number included all such articles as he possessed, and as in those days they were regarded as valuable relics to be bequeathed to heirs, and as it was not customary to clothe the dead but to bury them in winding sheets, it seemed quite probable that no uniform, sword, or decoration would be found in the Admiral's coffin. Buell said of Paul Jones (page 366, Vol. II, first ed.): "He was buried in a shroud, without uniform or trappings of any kind." In the settlement of the estate all the abovenamed articles were sold except the sword presented to him by Louis XVI in recognition of his heroic achievement in capturing the Serapis. This the Admiral disposed of orally just before his death, bequeathing it to Richard Dale, his first lieutenant when he captured the Serapis, saying: "My good old Dick is better entitled to it than anyone else, because he did more than any other to help me win it."

M. Simonneau, having taken so much interest in Paul Jones and being in sole charge of the burial of foreign Protestants in Paris, would have naturally interred him in the officially designated and most prominent burial ground devoted to that purpose, if there were more than one in existence. The Saint Louis Cemetery was well known and officially designated, and as no mention could be found of any other in Paris for foreign Protestants at the time, the natural inference was that the burial had taken place there.

M. Hop, ambassador of Holland to France, had succeeded in securing the cemetery granted by decree in 1720, which was opened in 1724 for

foreign Protestants, and in that cemetery, as well as in its successors, all the burials of such persons could be made only upon certificates issued by the Dutch embassy.

With a view to ascertaining some information from that source, a search was made, at my request, of the records of the Dutch legation in Paris and in the foreign office at The Hague, but it was found that while some useful information was obtained, no copies of such certificates had been preserved.

The person who delivered Paul Jones's funeral oration was M. Paul Henri Marron, who had come from Holland and was pastor of a Protestant house of worship in Paris called the "Church of Saint Louis." The following is a copy of his rather florid address:

Legislators! Citizens! Soldiers! Friends! Brethren! and Frenchmen! We have just returned to the earth the remains of an illustrious stranger, one of the first champions of American liberty-of that liberty which so gloriously ushered in our own. The Semiramis of the North had drawn him under her standard, but Paul Jones could not long breathe the pestilential air of despotism; he preferred the sweets of a private life in France, now free, to the éclat of titles and of honors which, from an usurped throne, were lavished upon him by Catherine. The fame of the brave outlives him, his portion is immortality. What more flattering homage could we pay to the remains of Paul Jones than to swear on his tomb to live and die free? It is the vow, it is the watchword of every Frenchman-let never tyrants nor their satellites pollute this sacred earth! May the ashes of the great man, too soon lost to humanity, and eager to be free, enjoy here an undisturbed repose! Let his example teach posterity the efforts which noble souls are capable of making when stimulated by hatred of oppression. Friends and brethren, a noble emulation brightens in your looks; your time is precious—the country is in danger! Who among us would not shed the last drop of his blood to save it? Associate yourselves with the glory of Paul Jones, in imitating him in his contempt of danger, in his devotedness to his country, in his noble patriotism, which, after having astonished the present age, will continue to be the imperishable object of the veneration of future generations!

It is not a little singular that, notwithstanding the radical sentiments expressed by this pastor, he was several times arrested by the revolutionists and was once or twice in great peril of his life.

I found the book containing the minutes of the meetings of the consistory of M. Marron's church, but just at the date of Paul Jones's death four pages had been torn out. This was one of the many disappointments encountered during the researches. I then set to work upon the task of trying to trace the lost leaves. The name of a M. Coquerel, a former pastor of the church, was mentioned in a publication as an enthusiastic collector of papers relating to Protestantism in Paris. My search in junk shops and antiquarian stores revealed the fact that M. Coquerel's heirs had sold some old papers which had afterwards been purchased by the Society of the History of Protestantism, and in its library were finally found the four lost pages.

I now ascertained positively that M. Marron buried his parishioners in the Saint Louis Cemetery, and the fact that he had delivered the