The coffin of ebony and silver, partly open, so as to disclose the
face of the corpse, as was customary with Catholic burials of those of
high or priestly rank, and the lower part covered with a superb velvet
pall, rested before the high altar during the chanted service; at the
conclusion of which the coffin was closed, the lid screwed down, and
lowered with slow solemnity into the vault beneath. A requiem, chanted
by above a hundred of the sweetest and richest voices, sounding in
thrilling unison with the deep bass and swelling notes of the organ,
had concluded the solemn rites, and the procession departed as
it came; but for some days the gloom in the city continued; the
realization of the public loss seemed only beginning to be fully felt,
as excitement subsided.
Masses for the soul of the Catholic warrior, were of course sung for
many succeeding days. It was at midnight, a very short time after
this public interment, that a strange group were assembled within the
cathedral vaults, at the very hour that mass for the departed was
being chanted in the church above their heads; it consisted of monks
and travelling friars, accompanied by five or six of the highest
nobility; their persons concealed in coarse mantles and shrouding
hoods; they had borne with them, through the subterranean passages
of the crypt, leading to the vaults, a coffin so exactly similar in
workmanship and inscription to that which contained the remains of
their late companion, that to distinguish the one from the other was
impossible.
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