Four Years in France: or, Narrative of an English Family's Residence there during that Period; Preceded by some Account of the Conversion of the Author to the Catholic FaithBeste, Henry Digby
Religion
Four Years in France: or, Narrative of an English Family's Residence there during that Period; Preceded by some Account of the Conversion of the Author to the Catholic Faith
Beste, Henry Digby
France -- Description and travel
On the morning of the first of October, the clergy of the cathedral came
to the house to convey the body to the church: they were requested not
to begin their chant of the office for the dead, till at such a distance
as not to be heard by the surviving brother. The church was filled by a
crowd whom divine charity, or the best feelings of humanity, brought to
assist at the solemn rite, and to witness a scene which the early youth,
the well-known virtues, the afflicted state of the family of him who lay
before them, conspired to render interesting. High mass was celebrated:
the body was then carried to the cemetery to the north of the city, and
interred towards the middle of the wall enclosing the cemetery on the
north; the head resting near the wall, the feet turned towards Avignon.
Eighteen masses, without chant, were said for the repose of the soul of
the defunct. On Friday following, high mass was again sung, when,
according to custom, the friends of the family were invited to be
present: a great concourse again attended to join their prayers to the
powerful intercession of the spotless victim, and testify their sympathy
and compassion.
On a tablet of white marble, inserted in a sepulchral stone from the
quarries of Barbentanne, is inscribed, in the Latin language, his name,
his country, his religion, his age, and the date of the day and year of
his death. Henry Kenelm was tall, more than five feet ten inches in
height, strong and well-made, but not large-limbed; with light hair,
dark blue eyes, and dark eye-lashes, and a fair complexion. The
expression of his countenance was, like his mind, benevolent, frank,
cheerful, and intelligent. When we were at Florence, a year after his
death, a cast, from a statue in the public gallery, was sent to our
lodging as a model for drawing. All of us were struck by the resemblance
of this bust to him whom we regretted, whose features were still so
fresh in our recollection. Antoine was called; the bust was shown to
him; nothing was said: "It is like M. Kenelm," said he. My son took two
copies of this bust: the original is an _athleta_, as it is called,
bearing and looking down upon an urn: it is the third or fourth statue
from the entrance of the gallery on the left hand. We showed the bust to
a friend: "It is like the son whom we have lost."--"Your son was a very
fine young man." The face of the statue is certainly handsome: that of
Kenelm had more animation. His manners were those of good society,
wanting nothing but that ease and confidence which time and experience
would have given.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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