herald, accompanied by men on foot, who carried torches
to light the way, and followed by twenty gentlemen and their servants.
In this manner, at two o'clock in the morning, they reached Peterborough,
where there is a splendid cathedral built by an ancient Saxon king, and
in which, on the left of the choir, was already interred good Queen
Catharine of Aragon, wife of Henry VIII, and where was her tomb, still
decked with a canopy bearing her arms.

On arriving, they found the cathedral all hung with black, with a dome
erected in the middle of the choir, much in the way in which 'chapelles
ardentes' are set up in France, except that there were no lighted candles
round it. This dome was covered with black velvet, and overlaid with the
arms of Scotland and Aragon, with streamers like those on the chariot yet
again repeated. The state coffin was already set up under this dome: it
was a bier, covered like the rest in black velvet fringed with silver, on
which was a pillow of the same supporting a royal crown.

To the right of this dome, and in front of the burial-place of Queen
Catharine of Aragon, Mary of Scotland's sepulchre had been dug: it was a
grave of brick, arranged to be covered later with a slab or a marble
tomb, and in which was to be deposited the coffin, which the Bishop of
Peterborough, in his episcopal robes, but without his mitre, cross, or
cope, was awaiting at the door, accompanied by his dean and several other
clergy. The body was brought into the cathedral, without chant or
prayer, and was let down into the tomb amid a profound silence. Directly
it was placed there, the masons, who had stayed their hands, set to work
again, closing the grave level with the floor, and only leaving an
opening of about a foot and a half, through which could be seen what was
within, and through which could be thrown on the coffin, as is customary
at the obsequies of kings, the broken staves of the officers and the
ensigns and banners with their arms. This nocturnal ceremony ended,
Melville, Bourgoin, and the other deputies were taken to the bishop's
palace, where the persons appointed to take part in the funeral
procession were to assemble, in number more than three hundred and fifty,
all chosen, with the exception of the servants, from among the
authorities, the nobility, and Protestant clergy.

The day following, Thursday, August the 9th, they began to hang the
banqueting halls with rich and sumptuous stuffs, and that