my soul to my Lady Mary, the holy mother of God," instantly expired. His last faint sigh was the signal for a general flight and scramble. The knights, priests, and doctors, who had passed the night near him, put on their spurs, mounted their horses, and galloped off to their several homes to have an eye to their own interests. CASTLE OF ROUEN. The king's servants and some vassals of inferior rank proceeded to rifle the apartments of the arms, silver vessels, linen, and royal dresses, and then were to horse and away like their betters. Some took one thing, some another; nothing worth the carrying was left behind-no, not so much as the bed-clothes. From prime to tierce,11 or for about three hours, the corpse of the mighty Conqueror, abandoned by sons, friends, servants, and all, lay in a state of almost perfect nakedness on the bare boards of the chamber in which he had expired. 6. The citizens of Rouen ran about the streets asking news and advice from every one they met, or busied themselves in concealing their money and valuables. At last, the clergy and the monks recovered the use of their faculties, and thought of the decent duties owing to the mortal remains of their Sovereign; and, arraying themselves in their best habits, and forming in order of procession, they went with crucifix, burning tapers, and incense, to pray over the abandoned and dishonoured body for the peace of its soul. The Archbishop of Rouen ordained that the King should be interred at Caen12 in the church of St. Stephen, which he had built and royally endowed. But even now there was none to do it honour: his sons, his brother, his relations, were all absent, and of all the Conqueror's officers and rich vassals, not one was found to take charge of the obsequies. 7. At length a poor knight, who lived in the neighbourhood, charged himself with the trouble and expense of the funeral, "out of his natural good nature and love of God." This poor and pious knight engaged the proper attendance and a wain; he conveyed the King's body on the cart to the banks of the Seine, and from thence in a barge down the river and its estuary to the city of Caen. Gilbert, abbot of St. Stephen's, with all his monks, came out of Caen to meet the body, and other churchmen and the inhabitants of the city joining these, a considerable procession was formed. But as they went along a fire suddenly broke out in the town; laymen and clerks ran to extinguish it, and the abbot and his monks were left alone to conduct the remains of the King to the church which he had founded. 8. Even the burial service was not undisturbed. The neighbouring bishops and abbots had assembled; the mass and requiem had been said; the incense was filling the church with its holy perfume, the Bishop of Evreux13 had pronounced the panegyric, and the body was about to be lowered into the grave, prepared for it in the church, between the altar and the choir, when a man, suddenly rising in the crowd, exclaimed, with a loud and angry voice, which made the prelates and monks start and cross themselves-" Bishop, the man whom thou hast praised was a robber! The very ground on which we are standing is mine, and is the site where my father's house stood. He took it from me by violence, to build this church upon it. I reclaim it as my right; and in the name of God, I forbid you to bury him here, or cover him with my glebe." The man who spoke thus boldly. was Asseline Fitz Arthur, who had often asked a just compensation from the King in his lifetime. Many of the persons present confirmed the truth of his statement; and, after some parley and chaffering, the bishop paid him sixty shillings for the grave alone, engaging to procure him hereafter the full value of the rest of his land. 9. The body, in royal robes, but without a coffin, was then lowered into the narrow tomb; the rest of the ceremony was hurried over, the people dispersed, the prelates went to their homes, and the abbot and monks of St. Stephen's went to their cloisters, leaving only one brother of the house to sprinkle holy water over the flat stone that covered the grave and to pray for the soul of the departed. The traveller may yet stand and muse over that grave in the quaint old Norman church at Caen; but the equestrian statue of the Conqueror, placed against one of the external pillars of the church, has been wantonly and barbarously mutilated. 7 William, afterwards William II. 8 Henry, afterwards Henry I. 10 the hour of prime, six in the 11 tierce, nine in the morning. "The third hour" from six. 12 Caen, a town about 80 miles S.E. of Rouen, in Normandy. 13 Evreux, a Norman town, PIECES FROM SHAKSPEARE. I. EVILS OF WAR. SINCE then my office hath so far prevailed, What rub, or what impediment there is, Why that the naked, poor, and mangled PEACE, Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges, |