When the body was to be let down into the vault, no one can describe the groans, tears, and lamentations that filled the church from the duke's officers, and all present. Indeed all his subjects ought to have bewailed his death, for they had lost a prince, the most renowned for virtue and goodness that was in Christendom! full of honour, liberality, courage, and prudence, with a mind adorned with every generous virtue, who had preserved his countries in peace as well by his own good sense, and the prudence of his counsellors, as by the point of his sword, without personally sparing himself, against any one, however great he might be. He afforded an asylum to those who came to him to seek it, even though they were his enemies, doing good to all, and returning good for evil,--and he never had his equal for modesty. Even those who had never seen him, and who had disliked him for any cause, the moment they were acquainted with him, and knew his liberality, had an attachment and affection to him. The heart and body of the duke were each put separately in a flat coffin, covered with a bier of irish oak. On the morrow, the obsequies were performed, when the bishop of Tournay celebrated the mass; after which, he made a brief harangue in praise of the deceased, in order that all present might offer up their prayers for the salvation of his soul, which may God, out of his most gracious mercy, admit into his holy Paradise! Amen. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 62: The Franc--consists of a number of villages and hamlets separated from the _quartier_ of Bruges, and has a separate jurisdiction.--See _La Martiniere_.] [Footnote 63: Hybernie,--an ancient name for Ireland.] CHAP. LVI. PROLOGUE TO THE CHRONICLES OF THE MOST CHRISTIAN, MOST MAGNIFICENT, MOST VICTORIOUS, AND MOST ILLUSTRIOUS KINGS OF FRANCE, LOUIS XI. OF THE NAME, AND HIS SON CHARLES VIII.[64] Considering the saying of Seneca, that it is right to follow the ways of our elders and governors, provided they have acted properly,--and remembering the words of the sage, in his proverbs, that right foolish is he who follows Idleness, for, according to Ecclesiasticus, she leads to wickedness,--I have collected, with the utmost diligence, several facts relative to the reigns of those illustrious princes, Louis XI. and Charles VIII. his son, kings of France, that seemed to me worthy of remembrance; together with many marvellous events that happened during their reigns, as well in the kingdom of France as in the duchies of Brittany, Burgundy, Normandy, Savoy and Lorraine,--the counties of Flanders, Artois, and Burgundy; including likewise what may have passed extraordinary in the adjacent countries, and also in the kingdoms of England, Spain, and Sicily, at Rome, in Lombardy, and the duchy of Milan, according to that famous chronicler, eloquent orator, and excellent historian, the late Robert Gaguin,[65] during his lifetime doctor en decret, and general of the order of the Holy Trinity.