Secus incendium a
formidolosis vectus est ad Basilicam, liberoque solo, qui tot urbibus et
oppidis et vicis principatus est, caruit ad sepulturam. Arvina ventris
ejus tot delectamentis enutrita cum dedecore patuit, et prudentes ac
infrunitos, qualis sit gloria carnis, edocuit[79]."
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 76: _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 45.]
[Footnote 77: See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t.
24-33.]
[Footnote 78: A detailed account of the proceedings on this occasion, is
given in the _Journal Politique du Departement du Calvados_, for March
21, and May 6, 1819.--The first attempt at the discovery of Matilda's
coffin, was made in March, 1818, and was confined to the chapter-house:
the matter then slept till the following March, when Count de
Montlivault, attended by the Bishop of Bayeux, Mr. Spencer Smythe, and
other gentlemen, prosecuted his inquiries within the church itself, and,
immediately under the spot where her monument stood, discovered a stone
coffin, five feet four inches long, by eleven inches deep, and varying
in width from twenty inches to eleven. Within this coffin was a leaden
box, soldered down; and, in addition to the box, the head of an effigy
of a monk, in stone, and a portion of a skull-bone filled with aromatic
herbs, and covered with a yellowish-white membrane, which proved, upon
examination, to be the remains of a linen cloth.
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