No lang syne it wis reportit abreid that the burrial steid o Charles de Batz de Castelmore – better kent as d’Artagnan - micht’a been fund. Dutch archaeologar Wim Dijkman, that’s a register-keeper in Maestricht (Maastricht), haes spoken anent a corp fund unner the kirk o St Peter an St Paul in Maestricht an is cawin cannie aboot wha it micht be. This is acause the’r nae registers fae the time tae shaw an actual burrial, but noo that a skelet haes been fund, the auld tradeetions micht turn oot richt.

Born aboot 1611 in the sooth o Fraunce, d’Artagnan’s faither wis a merchant-turnt-knab that haed coft the castle o Castelmore, an makkin uiss o his mither’s mair heich-cless name, d’Artagnan got ingait tae the Musketeers in 1632. He serred until thay war disbaundit in 1646 an syne becam a servitor tae Cardinal Mazarin. Whan the Musketeers wis refoondit in 1658 d’Artagnan jyned aince mair an serred King Lewis XIV - kent as the Sun King. Hooanever, cawed tae serr at the siege o Maestricht in King Lewis’s weir agin the Dutch Republict, d’Artagnan wis shot wi a musket baw an killt in 1673. It wis lang jaloused that he wis yirdit at the kirk o St Peter an St Paul in Maestricht, an whan the flair aboot the altar wis howkit up, in Mairch 2026, a skelet wis fund wi pairts o a musket baw, an a coin datit 1660.

It wis throu the screivings o Alexandre Dumas in the 1840s that d’Artagnan becam namely. Tho grundit on auld fernyears, the warks o Dumas maun be taen wi doads o saut. Nanetheless, the canna be mony fowk that haesna heard o the daeings o the Musketeers, rael or made up. As it stauns the noo, DNA wark is in hauns tae see whither fowk that claims tae be d’Artagnan’s affspring micht marra the samples. Aiblins time will tell.

The’r a soond file o this story in Scots abuin.

Photie taen fae Mémoires de M.d’Artagnan (1700) bi Courtilz de Sandras.