d on the 19th. One arm was brought by a dog to its master, a doctor
of physic of Rochester, who was out for a walk near, and a search was
then instituted. Two contemporary accounts of his death and of his
funeral, which took place on Tuesday, the 22nd, have been found. From
one of these, in the "Mercurius Publicus" of October, 1661, the
following is taken: "His body being brought to the parish of Strood was
accompanied from thence to the west door of the Cathedral Church of
Rochester by the Prebendaries of the said church in their formalities,
with the gentry and commonalty of the said City and places adjacent,
with torches before them. Near the Cathedral they were met by the choir
who sung Te Deum before them; when Divine service was ended, the Choir
went before the body to the grave (which was made in the body of the
Church) singing Nunc dimittis. Thousands of people flockt to this
Cathedral, amongst whom many gave large commendations of the Dean and
Chapter, who bestowed so honourable an interment on a stranger at their
own proper cost and charges." The exact site of this grave cannot be
pointed out. An account of the other funeral is to be seen in the diary
of John Evelyn for 1672. We there read: "June 2, Trinity Sonday, I
pass'd at Rochester; and on the 5^th, there was buried in the
Cathedral Mons^r Rabiniere, Reare Admiral of the French squadron, a
gallant person, who died of the wounds he received in the fight. This
ceremonie lay on me, which I perform'd with all the decency I could,
inviting the Mayor and Aldermen to come in their formalities; Sir Jonas
Atkins was there with his guards, and the Deane and Prebendaries; one of
his countrymen pronouncing a funeral oration at the brink of his grave,
which I caus'd to be dug in the quire." Such was the funeral of a brave
ally; the English and French were then fighting together against the
Dutch.[9] It is interesting to note here that the corner of his coffin,
in a position such as Evelyn describes, beneath the choir, was touched
when the tunnel was being made, in Sir G. Scott's time, to connect the
organ with its bellows in the crypt.

[9] A longer account of the funeral was published in the Gazette at the
time. Its date is given as the 6th May in the Cathedral Registers, but
this must be wrong.

The steeple, a little later, had much attention devoted to it. It was in
a dangerous way in 1679, and Mr. Guy, a celebrated architect, was asked
to report on it. He s