Stately figures are kneeling round the coffin, where it remains for a while, ready to be borne to its last resting-place, and among the mourners one is discerned in the dress of a nun. Again the coffin is upborne, and the queen's daughters fall behind, with a train of shadowy forms, ladies, and earls, and viscounts, moving onward to St. George's chapel. Strange it seems, that neither plumes nor scutcheons are to be seen; that when the dirge is being sung, the twelve old men, whose office it is to chant the requiem for the dead, are not even clad in sable vestments: appearing rather like a dozen old men indiscriminately and hastily brought together for the purpose, and permitted to retain the garments of poverty, in which they were found, and, instead of flambeaux, they light on the funeral with old torches and torches ends.[61] Some say, that the queen, when dying, expressed an earnest wish for a speedy and private funeral. If so, her request was punctually fulfilled. Yet still it is remarkable that no more of pomp should appertain to the obsequies of her who had been Queen of England--that scutcheons and nodding plumes, and other mourning tokens, were wanting to distinguish that illustrious one's last sojourn on earth. THE END. Joseph Rickerby, Printer, Sherbourn Lane. FOOTNOTES: [1] Gloucestershire. [2] South Wales. [3] Lingard. [4] Southey's visit to Godstow nunnery.--CAMDEN. [5] Roger de Hoveden. [6] Hatcher's Account of Salisbury. [7] The Old Peerage, by Brooke. [8] Dugdale incorrectly says months, instead of years, a mistake corrected by Bowles. [9] History of Lacock Abbey. Monsieur de Saint Palage's great work on the History of Troubadours. [10] Book of Lacock. [11] Close Rolls, May 2. Rhymer's Foedore, 1207. [12] Book of Lacock. [13] A most beautiful copy was deposited, and may still be seen, in the chamber of Records at Salisbury Cathedral. [14] Clause Rolls. [15] Dugdale, from a MS. Oxon, in Bibl. Bodl. n. 11. f. 177, et 178. p. a. [16] Matt. of Paris. Clause Rolls. [17] Register of Osmund, among the MSS. of the Cathedral. Narrative, by William de Wanda, published in the first volume of Wilkins's Concilia. [18] Matt. Paris. Foedera. [19] Matt. Paris. [20] William de Wanda's Church History. [21] History of Lacock. Matt. Paris. [22] History of Lacock Abbey. [23] Matt. of Westminster. [24] Chron. of W. de Wanda. Wilkin's Concilia, vol. 1 page 559. [25] Annals and Antiquities of Lacock Abbey. [26] Book of Lacock Abbey. [27] Annals of Lacock, p. 180. [28] Madox's History of the Exchequer, p. 218. [29] Book of Lacock. [30] Book of Lacock. [31] Historian of Lacock Abbey. [32] Marian is the legendary name of the Countess of Huntingdon. [33] Rom. viii. 21. [34] Rapin. [35] M. Paris. [36] Hen. Knyghton. [37] A small silver cross of beautiful workmanship was found buried a few years since, near the fatal tree. [38] Mentioned by Walter Hennyngforde, and quoted in Grafton's Chronicle.