"We cannot rest satisfied," wrote the Duchess of Aerschot from Nancy, "without hearing the latest accounts of my uncle, and trust the bearer will bring us good news, please God! My sister, Madame de Lorraine, is so anxious about him that she feels she must send over again. I cannot tell you, my dear aunt, how much she thinks of you, and how anxious she is to do you any service in her power. As for myself, if there is anything that I can do, you have only to speak, and you will be obeyed."[420] After a long illness, Claude of Guise breathed his last on the 12th of April, and was followed to the grave within a month by his brother, Cardinal Jean, who died at Nogent-sur-Seine, on his return from Rome. The Duke's funeral was solemnized in the Church of St. Laurent at Joinville, with all the elaborate ceremonial common on these occasions. Antoinette made a great point of Christina's attendance, and Anne promised to do her best to gratify her aunt's wish in the matter. "I shall be very glad," she wrote, "if it is possible for Madame my sister to be present at the obsequies of my uncle--to whom God grant peace!--and will do my utmost to effect this, not only because of my own anxiety to see you and my cousins, but because I would gladly give you pleasure."[421] Accordingly, the two Duchesses, accompanied by the Count and Countess of Vaudemont and several nobles, arrived at Joinville on Saturday, the 29th of June, to condole with the widow and attend the funeral rites that were protracted during the next three days. Never was there a more attached family than this of the Guises. "I cannot tell you the grief I feel," wrote the Queen of Scotland to her bereaved mother. "You know as well as I do that I have lost the best father that ever child had, and am left both orphaned and widowed." An imposing monument, adorned with rich marbles and bas-reliefs of the dead Prince's battles, was raised by Antoinette to her husband's memory in the church at Joinville. In the centre the Duke and Duchess were both represented clad in robes of state, kneeling with hands clasped together, and a long Latin epitaph relating the hero's great deeds was inscribed below, ending with the words: "Antoinette de Bourbon, his wife, and her six sons, have erected this tomb, in token of undying sorrow and love for an incomparable husband and the best of fathers."[422] V. [Sidenote: SEPT., 1550] CHARLES THE BOLD'S REMAINS]