his thoughts to the concealing of his property. When the alarm had in some
measure subsided, the monks and clergy made a solemn procession to the
abbey of St. George, where they offered their prayers for the repose of
the soul of the departed duke: and Archbishop William commanded that the
body should be carried to Caen, to be interred in the church of St.
Stephen, which William had founded. But the lifeless king was now deserted
by all who had participated in his bounty. Every one of his brethren and
relations had left him; nor was there even a servant to be found to
perform the last offices to his departed lord. The care of the obsequies
was finally undertaken by Herluin, a knight of that district, who, moved
by the love of God and the honour of his nation, provided at his own
expense, embalmers and bearers, and a hearse, and conveyed the corpse to
the Seine, whence it was carried by land and water to the place of its
destination.

Upon the arrival of the funeral train at Caen, it was met by Gislebert,
bishop of Evreux, then abbot of St. Stephen's, at the head of his monks,
attended by a numerous throng of clergy and laity; but scarcely had the
bier been brought within the gates, when the report was spread that a
dreadful fire had broken out in another part of the town, and the duke's
remains were a second time deserted. The monks alone remained; and,
fearful and resolute, they bore their founder "with candle, with book, and
with knell," to his last home. Ordericus Vitalis enumerates the principal
prelates and barons assembled upon this occasion; but he makes no mention
of the Conqueror's son Henry, who, according to William of Jumieges, was
the only one worthy of succeeding such a father. Mass had now been
performed, and the body was about to be committed to the ground, "ashes to
ashes, dust to dust," when, previously to this closing part of the
ceremony, Gislebert mounted the pulpit, and delivered an ovation in honour
of the deceased. He praised his valour, which had so widely extended the