ssive heat of the sun they remained immovable on that and
the following day, their zeal and love for their king, which burn
most brightly in their hearts, being preponderant in them. The
parade having passed, all the soldiers fell in behind, captained
by the sargento-mayor himself, the commandant of the regiment. They
entered by one door of the royal chapel and went out by the other,
with drums muffled and banners trailing, and the soldiers carrying
their arquebuses under the arm with the butt-ends reversed, with an
order so regular and so in keeping with military rules that that action
deserved the acclamation and even the admiration of all. The father
chaplain-in-chief of the regiment, namely, the presentado father Fray
Joseph Fayol, of the Order of Nuestra Senora de la Merced, was present,
as were also all the royal chaplains, at the door of the royal chapel,
with cross and wax tapers [ciriales] held aloft while the procession
was entering. After they had entered, the royal crown was placed on
its royal catafalque--or rather a funeral pyre of fire, crowned with
candles as is the firmament with stars, where the brilliant and the
majestic glowed in competition. I leave the description of that for
the crown of this historical compilation. Those in the procession took
possession of and even filled all the seats which were provided for
the tribunals and the communities, distributing themselves therein
according to the same order of their seniority. With this began the
vespers for the dead, which was in charge of the chaplain-in-chief,
assisted by the royal chaplains, with all the requisites of solemnity
and pomp, accompanied by the piety, devotion, and silence of so grave
an assembly who were present, at the verge of tears. They paid with
fervent suffrages the debt of their love and the obligations of their
loyalty to the prince, their deceased sovereign, whose obsequies they
were performing; and they refreshed their memories with his heroic
virtues, and his brilliant deeds in the tender and flowery years of
his age--gifts that assured us that he was glorious and triumphant in
the court of Heaven. The complement of the solemn splendor of that day
was the reverend father, Fray Vicente Argenta, of the seraphic order,
and past provincial of this province of San Gregorio. He, occupying the
pulpit, took up the space of an hour with a funeral panegyric, where
his eloquence had an opportunity to exercise itself in all its colors,