The following epitaphs used to be in the church, and are interesting; the two first for their quaintness; the last as a record of an architect of S. Eustache, if not the original builder:
BARTHÉLÉMI TREMBLET, SCULPTEUR DU ROY, DÉCÉDÉ A L'AGE
DE 61 ANS, EN 1629.
Louvre me donna l'être et Paris la fortune.
J'eus l'honneur d'être au roy, St. Eustache a mes os;
Passant, au nom de Dieu, si je ne t'importune,
Durant ce mien sommeil, pries pour mon repos.
————
Le monde n'a ésté à Françoise
Gallois que passage à l'éternité;
Elle y a demeuré comme toujours
Preste d'en sortir, Les XXIII années
De son âge, n'ont estées qu'innocence,
Les quarte de son mariage, que paix
Et concorde, les vertus furent ses
Exercices, la piété son contentement,
La crainte de Dieu la conduite de
Sa vie qu'elle finit le XXVIIe Aoust
MDCXVI. Si chrestiennement,
Que Richard Petit, son mary,
Conser secrét, du roy, M. et C. de
Fr. ne console l'affliction de son
Absence que par la souvenance
De sa mort.
————
Cy-devant git le corps
D'honorable homme Charles David, vivant sujet du Roy
Es-œuvres de maçonnerie, doyen des jurés et bourgeois
De Paris, architecte et conducteur du bâtiment de l'Eglise
De céans, lequel après avoir vescu avec Anne Lemercier
Sa femme l'espace de 53 ans, il décéda le quatrième jour
De décembre 1650 âgé de 98 ans.
S. Eustache has suffered much of late years by fire and the doings of wicked men. In 1844 fire attacked the organ, and smoke and water destroyed a great portion of the church. L'abbé Duguerry, who was shot in 1871 by the Communists, was curé at the time of the conflagration; and in order to rebuild the organ, he instituted a lottery, and appealed for aid to the whole country. Ten years later the new organ was built, and inaugurated under a new curé, Gaudereau, Duguerry having been appointed to the Madeleine. It was an exquisite instrument, of delicious tone and with a large number of stops. But alas! during the Commune it suffered again, several bombs having exploded in the church. Glass was smashed, organ pipes pierced, and a great deal of damage done to the roof; and it was several years before the church was restored to its pristine beauty. In 1879 the organ was finished, having been reconstructed and very much enlarged by J. Merklin, under a committee of organists and musicians; other instruments may be larger, but few are so beautiful in tone. Several of the Paris organs are fine, and the French school of organists is of all the least conventional. One is not bored by Rinck and his fellows; one does not hear choruses by Handel intended to be sung, or solos by the same master upon flute and clarionet stops with a poor tum-tum accompaniment, or sonatas written for the pianoforte or violin. That, to some of us, peculiarly irritating form of composition, the fugue, is rarely heard (except at the Madeleine), and Batiste, I think, must have held them in holy horror as did Berlioz, and, was it Chopin? Many a time for years I heard Batiste "touch" the S. Eustache organ, and surely no more divine sounds (if organ notes can be divine?) have ever been drawn from an instrument than when he played some soft, tender, pathetic melody upon the voix céleste or vox humana with accompaniment upon the far-off stops and tremolo; it was, in effect, what one might conceive a chorus of Angels accompanying some beautiful human voice. I know all the principal Paris organs, and most of them have been played upon by distinguished musicians; I also heard Lefebure-Wély frequently in former days; but no one seemed to equal or to excel Batiste in taste. His soft passages were perfection; and when he made the instrument thunder forth in all its fortissimo, it was grand in the extreme. Such an admiration had I for the musician, that I looked upon him as an invisible master, and my enthusiasm led me one day to waylay him as he came down the stairs. Query, if one admires an artist or an author, a poet or a musician, is it wise to see him in the flesh? Some painters and pianists, some violinists or singers, have been appropriately built, so to speak. Nature, sometimes unassisted, more often aided and pruned, has turned out bodies which are fitted to become the cases of distinguished minds. But everyone knows instances of actors and actresses who are nought minus their war-paint; of painters who might be grocers, and of poets as un-ideal in appearance as any publican or butterman. On the other hand, there are exquisites behind the counters, ethereal-looking butchers, and poetic vendors of cooked ham and beef. It is as if nature had made a number of bodies and minds, and shuffling them like a pack of cards, had tossed them together without any thought or heeding. Such seemed to have been the case with Batiste, for he was the exact model of the French Mossoo so dear to Punch—the Mossoo one so rarely sees out of that sportive periodical. Nevertheless, the soul within that commonplace body was able to peal forth in most sublime sounds which touched the hearts of all who heard them. Batiste's was essentially emotional playing of the highest order. Never shall I forget the thrill which went through the crowd when he played Chopin's "Funeral March" at the funeral of the dear old curé, l'abbé Simon—the very type of the courteous, fine-gentleman priests of other days, without their vices. When, years ago, the abbé Simon and Duguerry his friend, sat side by side, their finely chiselled features and longish hair, their elegant manner, and courteous bearing, reminded one of the portraits of Fléchier, Massillon and Bossuet.
It may interest musicians to know the composition of the S. Eustache organ, and as many of the stops are French, I may as well give them in their original names. It has four manuals, and 72 stops; 4356 pipes and 20 pedals.
| Grand Orgue | 54 | notes, | 16 | stops. |
| Positif | 54 | " | 14 | " |
| Récit expressif | 54 | " | 16 | " |
| Clavier Bombarde | 54 | " | 11 | " |
| Pédales | 30 | " | 15 | " |
| TOTAL | 72 |