promise a long life. The intestines were, according to the prescribed
custom, at once forwarded to St. Denis; while the Jesuits demanded the
heart, in order to convey it to their church of La Flèche; and it was no
sooner removed from the body, and placed in a silver basin, than it was
eagerly pressed to the lips of all the nobles who assisted at the
operation; each of those who carried away traces of the blood which
issued from it upon his moustachios, esteeming himself highly honoured
by the vestiges of the contact.[24]

The royal remains were then embalmed, and placed in a sumptuous coffin
upon a bed of state, in one of the most spacious apartments of the
Louvre, which was hung with the richest tapestry appertaining to the
crown. A magnificent canopy of cloth of gold surmounted the bier, and on
either side of the catafalque were placed two temporary altars; ten
others having been erected in the state-gallery, at which the bishops
and the curés of the several metropolitan parishes daily performed six
high and one hundred low masses. Platforms covered with cloth of gold
had been prepared for the cardinals and prelates; and at the foot of the
royal body, cushions of black velvet were arranged for the Princes of
the Blood and the higher nobility. A golden crucifix and a silver vase
containing holy water were deposited on a table of carved oak; and at
the extremity of the room were grouped enormous tapers of wax, near
which stood two heralds-king-at-arms, in their splendid state costume,
leaning upon their swords. The face of the corpse was exposed, the head
covered by a cap of crimson velvet laced with gold, and the body attired
in a vest of white satin, over which was flung a drapery of cloth of
gold, having in the centre a cross elaborately embroidered in
silver.[25]

On the day which succeeded the embalmment, while the clergy were praying