With this detail I close my letter. The melancholy end of the Conqueror,
the strange occurrences at his interment, the violation of his grave,
the dispersion of his remains, and the demolition and final removal of
his monument, are circumstances calculated to excite melancholy emotions
in the mind of every one, whatever his condition in life. In all these
events, the religious man traces the hand of retributive justice; the
philosopher regards the nullity of sublunary grandeur; the historian
finds matter for serious reflection; the poet for affecting narrative;
the moralist for his tale; and the school-boy for his theme.--Ordericus
Vitalis sums the whole up admirably. I should spoil his language were I
to attempt to translate it; I give it you, therefore, in his own
words:--"Non fictilem tragoediam venundo, non loquaci comoedia
cachinnantibus parasitis faveo: sed studiosis lectoribus varios eventus
veraciter intimo. Inter prospera patuerunt adversa, ut terrerentur
terrigenarum corda. Rex quondam potens et bellicosus, multisque populis
per plures Provincias metuendus, in area jacuit nudus, et a suis, quos
genuerat vel aluerat, destitutus. Aere alieno in funebri cultu indiguit,
ope gregarii pro sandapila et vespilionibus conducendis eguit, qui tot
hactenus et superfluis opibus nimis abundavit.
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