th,
and with great naivete, as well as feeling, by De Bourgueville,[47] who
was present on the occasion; and they have lately been translated into
English,[48] with the addition of some interesting details that
accompanied the death and funeral of the monarch. Nearly a hundred years
before that time, a cardinal, upon a visit to Caen, had opened the tomb
through curiosity. After the tumults caused by the Huguenots had
subsided, the monks of the convent, who had gotten possession of one of
the thigh-bones that had been preserved by the Viscount of Falaise,
re-interred it, and, out of gratitude to their founder, raised, in 1642,
a new monument of black marble, at great expense. One side of it bore
the original metrical epitaph, composed by Thomas, Archbishop of York,
beginning with the following line:--

"Qui rexit rigidos Normannos atque Britannos;"

on the other side, was an inscription[49] commemorative of the
circumstances attendant on the tomb; but this second tomb was also taken
away in 1742, by virtue of an order from Louis XV. empowering the
governor of Caen to remove the monarch's remains into the sanctuary, as
interfering, in their original position, with the ceremonies of the
church. A flat stone, in front of the high altar, succeeded to the
monument; and even this, the democrats of 1793 tore up. It was, however,
replaced by General Dugua, while Prefect of Caen, and it still holds its
situation.[50] There are no other monuments of any kind in the church.

Extensive buildings were attached to the abbey of St. Stephen; and,
among the rest, what was generally supposed to have been a royal palace,
and passed commonly under the name of the Palace of the Conqueror. As
every thing connected with the abbey was naturally referred by the
public to that sovereign, it will not appear surprising that this
edifice was so likewise, however little ground there may have been for
the appellation. Its having been called a palace, arose probably from
the circumstance of the French monarchs always residing in this
monastery, during their visits to Caen. The names of St. Louis, of John,
of Henry V. and of Francis I. are to be found in the list of those who
honored it with their presence. The greater part of the palatial
buildings were destroyed by the Huguenots; but portions of them were
standing in 1752, when Ducarel made his tour in Normandy; and he has
figured them. Among these was the most interesting part of the whole,
th