Cowgill.
_Burial in an erect Posture_ (Vol. viii., pp. 5. 59. 233. 455. 630.; Vol.
ix., p. 279.).--How strange it is that all of us should have forgotten
Charlemagne. When his tomb at Aix-la-Chapelle was opened by the Emperor
Frederic Barbarossa in 1165, "he found the body of Charlemagne, not
reclining in his coffin, as is the usual fashion of the dead, but seated in
his throne, as one alive, clothed in the imperial robes, bearing the
sceptre in his hand, and on his knees a copy of the gospels." (See Murray's
{408} _Handbook to Belgium_.) The throne in which the body was seated, the
sarcophagus (of Parian marble, the work of Roman or Greek artists,
ornamented with a fine bas-relief of the Rape of Proserpine) in which the
feet of the dead king were placed, are still preserved in the cathedral,
where I saw them last year, together with some portions of the robes, and
some curious ancient embroidery: these last are not usually exhibited to
strangers.