A REMARKABLE MISTAKE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 850, 2 August 1878, Page 3

A REMARKABLE MISTAKE.

A correspondent, writing from Amelie les Bams, says !—A very singular blunder was committed the other cay by the officials of a railway station between Perpignan and Toulon. A gentleman who had been spending the winter here with his family, left last week for Marseilles, taking with him the body of his mother-in-law, who died six weeks ago, and who had expressed a wish to he buried in the family vault nt Marseilles. When he reached Marseilles and went with the Commissioner of I’olice —whose presence is required Upon these occasions—to receive the body from the railway officials, he noticed to his great surprise that the coffin was of a different shape and construction from that which he had brought away from here. It turned out upon further inquiry that a mistake had been committed by the officials, who had sent on to Toulon the coffin containing his mother-in-law’s body, believing that i; held tho remains of' a deceased admiral, which were to he embarked for interment in Algeria, while the coffin awaiting delivery was the one which should have been sent oh. The gentleman who was placed in this awkward predicament having requested the railway officials to communicate at once with Toulon by telegraph, proceeded thither himself with the coffin of the admiral, but the intimation had arrived too late. He ascertained when he got there that the coffin had been duly received, taken on board, amid ‘ the thunder of fort and of fleet,’the State vessel which was waiting for it, and despatched to Algeria. He at once called upon the maritime perfect of Toulon and explained the circumstances of the case, but though a despatch boat was sent in pursuit, the other vessel was uot overtaken. He is now at Toulon waiting her return, and I believe that he declines to givo up the coffin containing the deceased admiral until ho regains possession of his mother-in-law’s remains.