Janet Jalil

Chantal Hartel has the story.

The story of the swashbuckling French soldier D'Artagnan, as told in one of the many stage adaptations of The Three Musketeers.

D'Artagnan, whose real name was Charles de Batz de Castelmour, was the right-hand man to France's most flamboyant king, Louis XIV, trusted with matters of espionage, secret missions and personal protection.

He died in battle in 1673 during the French siege of Maastricht in the Netherlands.

His body was rumoured to have been buried in a church in the Dutch city, but there was no record of a burial in the church archives and no evidence had emerged until last month when part of the church floor collapsed, revealing a skeleton.

The deacon Jos Valk called an archaeologist and says there was a moment of silence when they saw the first bone properly.

We had a few tiles that were loose and we wanted to repair them.

And when we took them out, we found a wall in the ground.

So that was interesting.

And we cleaned the wall a bit and then we found bones.

Vogue says he is 99% certain that these are the remains of d'Artagnan.

Not only were bones found under the floor, but a musket bullet at chest level and a French coin from 1660.

And he says the location of the grave, right beneath where the altar used to be, is also significant, as only royalty or other important figures would have been buried there at the time.

The archaeologist who took part in the excavation is more cautious.

Wim Dijkman is waiting for final confirmation of the skeleton's identity before getting his hopes up.

A DNA sample taken from the jawbone is currently being analysed to see if it matches that of d'Artagnan's descendants.

If the tests come back positive, Dijkman said this will be the highlight of his career, having spent almost 30 years trying to find the legendary musketeer's grave.

Chantal Hartle.

And that's all from us for now.

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