CHAPTER XXXII.

_Of the King's Death._

Soon after, the King's approaching death was revealed to me; for,
behold, as I was praying in the church of Vienne, I fell into a trance,
as I was singing psalms, and saw innumerable companies of soldiers pass
before me by the Lorraine road. A certain one, black as an Ethiop,
followed them, of whom I inquired whither he was going, and received for
answer that he was awaiting the death of Charles to take possession of
his soul. "I conjure you, then," said I, "by the name of the Lord Jesus,
to return when you have completed your errand." When I had rested some
time, and begun to explain the psalms, behold they returned back, and,
speaking to the same person I before addressed, I inquired whom he had
been seeking, and was answered, "the Gallician;" but the stones and
timber of the churches he founded balanced so greatly in his favour,
that his good works outweighed his bad, and his soul was snatched from
us, and at this the demon vanished. Thus I understood Charles died that
day, and was carried into the bosom of God and St. James. But as I had
requested him, before we parted at Vienne, to send me notice of his
decease in case it preceded mine, being then grievously sick, and
remembering his promise, he encharged a certain learned soldier to bring
me word the moment he died. What more need I add? The messenger arrived
on the fifteenth day after it happened. He had, indeed, been grievously
afflicted with illness from the hour he left Spain, and suffered still
more in mind than in body for the friends he lost on the unfortunate
16th of June. On the same day that I saw the vision, namely, on the 5th
of February, in the year of our Lord 814, he departed this life, and was
sumptuously buried in the round church of St. Mary, which he had himself
built; and this sign I was credibly informed happened yearly for three
years together before his death,--"The Sun and Moon became dark, and
his name, Charles the Prince, inscribed on the church, was totally
obliterated of itself; and the portico likewise, between the church and
the palace, fell to the very foundation." The wooden bridge also which
he built six years before over the Rhine at Mentz was destroyed by fire,
self-kindled. And the same day, as a traveller was on his journey, he
saw a great flame, like the flame of a funeral pile, pass from right to
left before him; which terrifying him greatly, he fell from his horse,
but was pres