town, and the attendants, actuated either by a sense of duty
requiring them to aid in extinguishing the flames, or by curiosity to
witness the conflagration, abandoned the funeral cortege. The
procession was broken up, and the whole multitude, clergy and laity,
went off to the fire, leaving the coffin, with its bearers, alone. The
bearers, however, went on, and conveyed their charge to the church
within the abbey walls.

When the time arrived for the interment, a great company assembled to
witness the ceremonies. Stones had been taken up in the church floor,
and a grave dug. A stone coffin, a sort of sarcophagus, had been
prepared, and placed in the grave as a receptacle for the body. When all
was ready, and the body was about to be let down, a man suddenly came
forward from the crowd and arrested the proceedings. He said that the
land on which the abbey stood belonged to him; that William had taken
forcible possession of it, for the abbey, at the time of his marriage;
that he, the owner, had been compelled thus far to submit to this wrong,
inasmuch as he had, during William's life-time, no means of redress, but
now he protested against a spoliation. "The land," he said, "is mine; it
belonged to my father. I have not sold it, or forfeited it, nor pledged
it, nor given it. It is my right. I claim it. In the name of God, I
forbid you to put the body of the spoiler there, or to cover him with my
ground."

When the excitement and surprise which this denunciation had awakened
had subsided a little, the bishops called this sudden claimant aside,
examined the proofs of his allegations, and, finding that the case was
truly as he stated it, they paid him, on the spot, a sum equal to the
value of ground enough for a grave, and promised to take immediate
measures for the payment of the rest. The remonstrant then consented
that the interment might proceed.

In attempting to let the body down into the place prepared for it, they
found that the sarcophagus was too small. They undertook to force the
body in. In attempting this, the coffin was broken, and the body,
already, through the long delays, advanced in decomposition, was burst.
The monks brought incense and perfumes, and burned and sprinkled them
around the place, but in vain. The church was so offensive that every
body abandoned it at once, except the workmen who remained to fill the
grave.

* * * * *

While these things were transpiring i