d five thousand pounds to Henry. And now, his
violent deeds lay heavy on his mind. He ordered money to be given to
many English churches and monasteries, and--which was much better
repentance--released his prisoners of state, some of whom had been
confined in his dungeons twenty years.

It was a September morning, and the sun was rising, when the King was
awakened from slumber by the sound of a church bell. 'What bell is
that?' he faintly asked. They told him it was the bell of the chapel of
Saint Mary. 'I commend my soul,' said he, 'to Mary!' and died.

Think of his name, The Conqueror, and then consider how he lay in death!
The moment he was dead, his physicians, priests, and nobles, not knowing
what contest for the throne might now take place, or what might happen in
it, hastened away, each man for himself and his own property; the
mercenary servants of the court began to rob and plunder; the body of the
King, in the indecent strife, was rolled from the bed, and lay alone, for
hours, upon the ground. O Conqueror, of whom so many great names are
proud now, of whom so many great names thought nothing then, it were
better to have conquered one true heart, than England!

By-and-by, the priests came creeping in with prayers and candles; and a
good knight, named HERLUIN, undertook (which no one else would do) to
convey the body to Caen, in Normandy, in order that it might be buried in
St. Stephen's church there, which the Conqueror had founded. But fire,
of which he had made such bad use in his life, seemed to follow him of
itself in death. A great conflagration broke out in the town when the
body was placed in the church; and those present running out to
extinguish the flames, it was once again left alone.

It was not even buried in peace. It was about to be let down, in its
Royal robes, into a tomb near the high altar, in presence of a great
concourse of people, when a loud voice in the crowd cried out, 'This
ground is mine! Upon it, stood my father's house. This King despoiled
me of both ground and house to build this church. In the great name of
GOD, I here forbid his body to be covered with the earth that is my
right!' The priests and bishops present, knowing the speaker's right,
and knowing that the King had often denied him justice, paid him down
sixty shillings for the grave. Even then, the corpse was not at rest.
The tomb was too small, and they tried to force it in. It broke, a
dreadful smell ar