,
the intercession of the saint, and manifesting every outward symbol of
humility and faith. She took her place in the religious services of the
monastery, and conformed to its usages, as if she had been in the
humblest private station. But all was in vain. The health of her beloved
daughter continued to fail, until at length she died; and Matilda,
growing herself more feeble, and almost broken hearted through grief,
shut herself up in the palace at Caen.

It was in the same palace which William had built, within his monastery,
many long years before, at the time of their marriage. Matilda looked
back to that period, and to the buoyant hopes and bright anticipations
of power, glory, and happiness which then filled her heart, with sadness
and sorrow. The power and the glory had been attained, and in a measure
tenfold greater than she had imagined, but the happiness had never come.
Ambition had been contending unceasingly for twenty years, among all the
branches of her family, against domestic peace and love. She possessed,
herself, an aspiring mind, but the principles of maternal and conjugal
love were stronger in her heart than those of ambition; and yet she was
compelled to see ambition bearing down and destroying love in all its
forms every where around her. Her last days were embittered by the
breaking out of new contests between her husband and her son.

Matilda sought for peace and comfort in multiplying her religious
services and observances. She fasted, she prayed, she interceded for the
forgiveness of her sins with many tears. The monks celebrated mass at
her bed-side, and made, as she thought, by renewing the sacrifice of
Christ, a fresh propitiation for her sins. William, who was then in
Normandy, hearing of her forlorn and unhappy condition, came to see her.
He arrived just in time to see her die.

They conveyed her body from the palace in her husband's monastery at
Caen to the convent which she had built. It was received there in solemn
state, and deposited in the tomb. For centuries afterward, there
remained many memorials of her existence and her greatness there, in
paintings, embroideries, sacred gifts, and records, which have been
gradually wasted away by the hand of time. They have not, however,
wholly disappeared, for travelers who visit the spot find that many
memorials and traditions of Matilda linger there still.

William himself did not live many years after the death of his wife. He
was severa