He was accordingly shot on the 21st, at half
past four in the evening, in the ditch of the castle which looks
towards the forest, on the north side, and his body thrown into a
grave, ready dug to receive it, where he fell. The details of this
cruel and wanton act of barbarity are too well known to need any
repetition here.
This spot is now marked by a wooden cross, enclosed by an iron
railing. The remains of the Prince were dug out on the 20th March,
1816, by order of Louis XVIII. and deposited with solemn funeral
ceremony in a coffin which is placed in the same apartment where the
council of war condemned him to suffer! since transformed info a
chapel. Under a cenotaph, covered with a cloth of gold, is placed the
coffin, with a prodigious large stone lying on it, the same that was
found lying on his head, and which from its weight had crushed his
skull!
The apartment is hung with black cloth, and remains continually
lighted, with a guard placed over it. Mass is daily performed for the
repose of his soul, agreeable to the Catholic religion.
On the lid of the coffin is the following inscription:
Ici est Le Corps
De Tres-Haut, Tres-Puissant Prince
Louis-Antoine-Henri De Bourbon
Duc D'Enghien, Prince du Sang
Pair de France
Mort A Vincennes, Le 21 Mars 1804
A L'age de XXXI Ans VII mois XVIII Jours.
A marble bust of the Prince, by Bosio, is placed at the entrance.
During the periods of 1814 and 1815, when Paris was in possession
of the Allies, Vincennes continued under the command of General
Daumesnil, who declared that he held it for his country until the
Government was settled, and would not open its gates to a foreign
army.
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