--The Calvinists were
masters of Caen, and, incited by the information of what had taken place
at Rouen, they resolved to repeat the same outrages. Under the specious
pretext of abolishing idolatrous worship, they pillaged and ransacked
every church and monastery: they broke the painted windows and organs,
destroyed the images, stole the ecclesiastical ornaments, sold the
shrines, committed pulpits, chests, books, and whatever was combustible,
to the fire; and finally, after having wreaked their vengeance upon
eyery thing that could be made the object of it, they went boldly to the
town-hall to demand the wages for their labors.--In the course of these
outrages the tomb of the Conqueror at one abbey, and that of Matilda at
the other, were demolished. And this was not enough; but a few days
afterwards, the same band returned, allured by the hopes of farther
plunder. It was customary in ancient times to deposit treasures of
various kinds in the tombs of sovereigns, as if the feelings of the
living passed into the next stage of existence;--
"... quae gratia currum
Armorumque fuit vivis, quae cura nitentes
Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos."
The bees that adorned the imperial mantle of Napoleon were found in the
tomb of Childeric.
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