Part 5

"There was nothing extraordinary in the funeral last night. All the magnificence consisted in a prodigious number of torches carried by the different orders of priests, the expense of which in lights, they say, amounted to 12,000 crowns. The body was in a sort of a coach quite open, with a canopy over her head; two other coaches followed with her ladies. As soon as the procession was passed by Madame Suares's, I went a back way to St. Laurence, where I had been invited by the master of the ceremonies; here was nothing very particular but my being placed next to Lady Walpole, who is so angry with me that she would not even give me the opportunity of making her a bow, which for the future, since I see it will be disagreeable to her, I will never offer to do again."

[Decoration]

NOTHING could be imagined more picturesque than a Venetian funeral in bygone days. The state gondola of the family, containing the body, and also the attendant priests and friars, was covered with black velvet, and blazed with candelabra full of lighted candles; and from the stern of the boat hung an immense train of black velvet, which was permitted to touch the water, but prevented from sinking underneath it by golden tassels, which were held by members of the family in the gondolas which followed close behind. All those persons who took part in the funeral of course carried lights in their hands. If the individual happened to belong to one of the numerous confraternities, or _scuole_, which existed in Venice up to the end of the last century, a grand musical mass was celebrated in the chapel belonging to the order; and on these occasions some of the finest music ever composed was heard for the first time, such, for instance, as Paesiello's Requiem, an infinitely beautiful one by Marcello, and the majestic mass for four voices, by Lotti.

THE funeral of a Pope is attended by many curious ceremonies, not the least remarkable of which is, that so soon as His Holiness' death is thoroughly assured, the eldest Cardinal goes up to the body, and strikes it three times gently on the breast, saying in Latin, as he does so, "The Holy Father has passed away." The body is then lowered into the Church of St. Peter's, where it is exhibited--as was the case when Pope Pius IX. died in '78--for three days to the veneration of the faithful, after which it is conveyed in great state to the church which the Pope has selected for his burial-place. As it passed along the streets of Rome in the good old times, the members of the nobility assembled at the entrance of their houses, each carrying a lighted taper in his hand, and answering back the prayers of the friars and clergy in the procession. It will be remembered that it was this sort of spontaneous illumination which so offended a rabble of freethinkers, on the occasion of the funeral of the late Pope, that they stoned the coffin, and created a riot of a most disgraceful character. After the Pope is buried, it is usual for his successor or his family to build a stately monument over his remains, and this custom accounts for the amazing number of fine Papal monuments in the Roman basilicas and churches.

At a time when everybody is talking about the Stuart dynasty, owing to the great success of the recent exhibition of their relics (1888-9), the following curious account of the interment of the Old Pretender will prove of interest:--

"On the 6th of January, 1756, the body of his 'Britannic Majesty' was conveyed in great state to the said Church of the Twelve Apostles," says a correspondent from Rome of that date, "preceded by four servants carrying torches, two detachments of soldiers; and by the side of the bier walked twenty-four grooms of the stable with wax candles; the body of the deceased was dressed royally, and borne by nobles of his household, with an ivory sceptre at its side, and the Orders of SS. George and Andrew on the breast.

"On the 7th, the first funeral service took place, in the Church of the Twelve Apostles. The _façade_ of the church was hung with black cloth, lace, and golden fringe, in the centre of which was a medallion, supported by skeletons with cypress branches in their hands, and bearing the following inscription:

'Clemens XIII. Pont. Max. Jacobo III. M. Britanniæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ Regi. Catholicæ fidei Defensori, Omnium urbis ordinum Frequentia funere honestato. Suprema pietatis officia Solemni ritu Persolvit.'

"On entering the church, another great inscription to the same purport was to be seen; the building inside was draped in the deepest black, and on the bier, covered with cloth of gold, lay the corpse, before which was written in large letters:

'Jacobus III. Magnæ Britanniæ Rex. Anno MDCCLXVI.'

"On either side stood four silver skeletons on pedestals, draped in black cloth, and holding large branch candlesticks, each with three lights. At either corner stood a golden perfume box, decorated with death's-heads, leaves and festoons of cypress. The steps to the bier were painted in imitation marble, and had pictures upon them representing the virtues of the deceased. Over the whole was a canopy ornamented with crowns, banners, death's-heads, gilded lilies, etc.; and behind, a great cloth of peacock colour with golden embroidery, and ermine upon it, hung down to the ground. Over each of the heavily draped arches down the nave of the church were medallions with death's-head supporters, and crowns above them, representing the various British orders and the three kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland; and on the pilasters were other medallions, supported by cherubs, expressing virtues attributed to the deceased, each with an inscription, of which the following is an instance:

'Rex Jacobus III. vere dignus imperio, quia natus ad imperandum: dignus quia ipso regnante virtutes imperassent: dignissimus quia sibi imperavit.'

"On the top of the bier, in the nave, lay the body, dressed in royal garb of gold brocade, with a mantle of crimson velvet, lined and edged with ermine, a crown on his head, a sceptre in his right hand, an orb in his left. The two Orders of SS. George and Andrew were fastened to his breast.

"Pope Clement regretted his inability to attend the funeral, owing to the coldness of the morning, but he sent twenty-two cardinals to sing mass, besides numerous church dignitaries.

"After the celebration of the mass, Monsignor Orazio Matteo recited a funeral oration of great length, recapitulating the virtues of the deceased, and the incidents of the life of exile and privation that he had led. After which, the customary _requiem_ for the soul of the departed was sung, and they then proceeded to convey his deceased Majesty's body to the Basilica of St. Peter.

"The procession which accompanied it was one of those gorgeous spectacles in which the popes and their cardinals loved to indulge. Every citizen came to see it, and crowds poured in to the Eternal City from the neighbouring towns and villages, as they were wont to do for the festivals at Easter, of Corpus Domini.

"All the orders and confraternities to be found in Rome went in front, carrying amongst them 500 torches. They marched in rows, four deep; and after them came the pupils of the English, Scotch, and Irish College in Rome, in their surplices, and with more torches.

"Then followed the bier, around which were the gaudy Swiss Papal Guards. The four corners of the pall were held up by four of the most distinguished members of the Stuart household.

"Then came singers, porters carrying two large umbrellas, such as the Pope would have at his coronation, and all the servants of the royal household, in deep mourning, and on foot. After them followed the papal household; and twelve mourning coaches closed the procession.

"The body was placed in the chapel of the choir of St. Peter's, and after the absolution, which Monsignor Lascaris pronounced, it was put into a cypress-wood case, in presence of the major-domo of the Vatican, who made a formal consignment of it to the Chapter of St. Peter's, in the presence of the notary of the 'Sacred Apostolic Palace,' who witnessed the consignment, whilst the notary of the Chapter of St. Peter's gave him a formal receipt.

"The second funeral was fixed for the following day, when everything was done to make the choir of St. Peter's look gorgeous. A large catafalque was raised in the midst, on the top of which, on a cushion of black velvet embroidered with gold, lay the royal crown and sceptre, under a canopy adorned with ermine; 250 candles burnt around, and the inscription over the catafalque ran as follows:

'Memoriæ æternæ Jacobi III., Magnæ Britanniæ Franciæ et Hyber, regis Parentis optimii Henricus Card. Dux Eboracensis moerens justa persolvit.'

"Then the cardinals held service, thirteen of whom were then assembled; after which, the Chapter of St. Peter's and the Vatican clergy, with all the Court of the defunct king who had assisted at the mass, accompanied the body to the subterranean vaults beneath St. Peter's, where the bier was laid aside until such times and seasons as a fitting memorial could be placed over it."

AMONG the Jews, according to Buxtorf (who published, in the 17th Century, perhaps the most valuable work upon the Jewish ceremonies which still existed in various parts of Europe in his time, many of which have been modified or have entirely disappeared since), it was the fashion when a person died, after having closed the eyes and mouth, to twist the thumb of the right hand inward, and to tie it with a string of the _taled_, or veil, which covered the face, and was invariably buried with the corpse. The reason for this doubling of the thumb was that, when it was thus turned inward, it represented the figure Schaddai, which is one of the names of God. Otherwise, the fingers were stretched out so as to show that the deceased had given up all the goods of this world. The body was most carefully washed, to indicate that the dead was purified by repentance. Buxtorf tells us that in Holland, with the old-fashioned Jews, it was the custom to break an egg into a glass of wine, and to wash the face therewith. The more devout persons were dressed in the same garments that they wore on the last feast of the Passover. When the body is placed in the coffin, it is the habit even now, among the Polish and Oriental Jews, for ten members of the family, or very old friends, to walk processionally round it, saying prayers for the repose of the soul. In olden times, for three days after the death, the family sat at home in a darkened room and received their friends, who were indeed Job's comforters; for they sought to afflict them in every way by recalling the virtues of the dead person, and exaggerating the misery into which they were thrown by his or her departure. Seven days afterwards, they were employed in a less rigorous form of mourning, at the end of which the family again went to the synagogue and offered up prayers, after which they followed the customs of the country in which they lived, retaining their mourning only so long as accorded with the prevailing fashion of the day.

[Decoration]

ONE of the saddest, and certainly the simplest of royal funerals, was that of King Charles I. After his lamentable execution, his body lay at Whitehall from January 28, 1649, to the following February 7, when it was conveyed to Windsor, placed in the vault of St. George's Chapel, near the coffins of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour. The day had been very snowy, and the snow rested thick on the coffin and on the cloaks and hats of the mourners. The remains were deposited without any service whatever, and left inscriptionless, save for the words "Charles Rex, 1649," the letters of which were cut out of a band of lead by the gentlemen present, with their penknives, and the lead fastened round the coffin. In this state it remained until the year 1813, when George IV. caused it to be more fittingly interred. In striking contrast were the obsequies of the unfortunate King's great rival and enemy, Cromwell, "who lay in glorious state" at Somerset House, all the ceremonial being copied from that of the interment of Philip II. of Spain. The rooms were hung with black cloth, and in the principal saloon was an effigy of the Protector, with a royal crown upon his head and a sceptre in his hand, stretched upon a bed of state erected over his coffin. Crowds of people of all ranks went daily during eight weeks to see it, the place being illuminated by hundreds of candles. The wax cast of the face of Cromwell after death is still preserved in the British Museum. His body, however, was carried away secretly, and at night, and buried privately at Westminster, for fear of trouble. Later, in 1660, the remains of the great Protector, and those of his friends Ireton and Bradshaw, were sacrilegiously taken from their graves, dragged with ignominy through the streets, and hanged at Tyburn, to the apparent satisfaction of Mrs. Pepys and her friend Lady Batten, and all and sundry in London, as is recorded in the "immortal diary." By the way, Mr. Pepys himself, who died in 1703, was buried with much state and circumstance in Crutched Friars Church, but at night, the service being said by Dr. Hickes, the author of the _Thesaurus_.

[Decoration]

PERHAPS the strangest funeral recorded in modern history was that of the translation of the remains of Voltaire, popularly known as his "apotheosis." The National Assembly in May, 1791, decreed that the bones of the poet should be brought from the Abbey of Scellières, and carried in state to the Pantheon. In Voltaire's lifetime it was boasted that he had buried the priests and the Christian religion, but now the priests were going to bury him, having very little of Christian religion left amongst them. The day of the procession was fixed for July 10; but the 10th was a deluging, rainy day, and the ceremony was postponed to the next day, or till the weather should be fine. The next day was as wet, and the Assembly was about to renew the postponement, when about two o'clock it cleared up. The coffin was placed on a car of the classic form, and was borne first to the spot on which the Bastille had stood, where it was placed on a platform, being covered with myrtles, roses, and wild flowers, and bearing the following inscriptions:--"If a man is born free, he ought to govern himself." "If a man has tyrants placed over him, he ought to dethrone them." Besides these, there were numerous other inscriptions in different parts of the area, including one on a huge block of stone: "Receive, O Voltaire! on this spot, where despotism once held thee in chains, the honours thy country renders thee!"

From the Bastille to the Pantheon all Paris seemed to be following the procession, which consisted of soldiers, lawyers, doctors, municipal bodies, a crowd of poets, literary men, and artists carrying a gilded chest containing the seventy volumes of Voltaire's works; men who had taken part in the demolition of the Bastille, bearing chains, fetters, and cuirasses found in the prison; a bust of Voltaire, surrounded by those of Rousseau, Mirabeau, and Montaigne, borne by the actors from the different theatres, in ancient costume; and lastly came the funeral car, now surmounted by a statue of the philosopher, which France was crowning with a wreath of immortelles. The immense procession halted at various places for the effigy to receive particular honours. At the opera houses the actors and actresses were waiting to present a laurel crown and to sing to Voltaire's glory; at the house of M. Villette--where was yet deposited the heart of the great man, previous to being sent to Fernay--four tall poplars were planted, and adorned with wreaths and festoons of flowers, and on the front of the house was written in large letters: "His genius is everywhere, and his heart is here." Near this was raised a sort of amphitheatre, on which were seated a crowd of young girls in white dresses with blue sashes, crowned with roses, and holding wreaths in honour of the poet in their hands. The names of all Voltaire's works were written on the front of the Theatre Français. The next halt was made on the site of the Comédie Française, and a statue of the poet was there crowned by actors costumed as Tragedy and Comedy. Thence the procession wended its way to the Pantheon, where the mouldering remains of Voltaire were placed beside those of Descartes and Mirabeau. All Paris that evening was one festal scene; illuminations blazing on the busts and figures of the patriot of equality.

The obsequies in England of Lord Nelson, which took place on January 9, 1806, were extremely imposing. I transcribe from a contemporary and inedited private letter the following account of it:--"I have just returned from such a sight as will never be seen in London again. I managed at an inconveniently early hour to get me down into the Strand, and so down Norfolk Street to a house overlooking the river. Every post of vantage wherever the procession could be seen was swarming with living beings, all wearing mourning, the very beggars having a bit of crape on their arms. The third barge, which contained the body, was covered with black velvet and adorned with black feathers. In the centre was a viscount's coronet, and three bannerols were affixed to the outside of the barge. In the steerage were six lieutenants of the navy and six trumpets. Clarencieux, King-at-Arms, sat at the head of the coffin, bearing a viscount's coronet on a black velvet cushion. The Royal Standard was at the head of the barge, which was rowed by forty-six seamen from the 'Victory.' The other barges in the cortege were rowed by Greenwich pensioners. The fourth barge contained Admiral Sir Peter Parker, the chief mourner, and other admirals, vice-admirals, and rear-admirals; whilst the Lords of the Admiralty, the Lord Mayor of London, members of the various worshipful Companies, and other distinguished mourners occupied the remaining barges, which were seventeen in number, and were flanked by row-boats, with river fencibles, harbour marines, etc., etc. All, of course, had their colours half-mast high. On the following morning, the 9th, the land procession, which I also contrived to see, started from the Admiralty to pass through the streets of London to St. Paul's, between dense crowds all along the route. This procession was of great length, and included Greenwich pensioners, sailors of the 'Victory,' watermen, judges and other dignitaries of the law, many members of the nobility, public officers, and officers of the army and navy; whilst in it were carried conspicuously the great banner, gauntlets, helmet, sword, etc., of the deceased. The pall was supported by four admirals. Nearly 10,000 military were assembled on this occasion, and these consisted chiefly of the regiments that had fought in Egypt, and participated with the deceased in delivering that country from the power of France. The car in which the body was conveyed was peculiarly magnificent. It was decorated with a carved resemblance of the head and stern of the 'Victory,' surrounded with escutcheons of the arms of the deceased, and adorned with appropriate mottoes and emblematical devices, under an elevated canopy, in the form of the upper part of a sarcophagus, with six sable plumes, and a viscount's coronet in the centre, supported by four columns, representing palm trees, entwined with wreaths of natural laurel and cypress. As it passed, all uncovered, and many wept. I heard a great deal said among the people about 'poor Emma' (Emma, Lady Hamilton), and some wonder whether she will get a pension or not. On the whole, the processions were most imposing, and I am very glad I saw it all, although I am much fatigued at it, from standing about so much and pushing in the crowd, and faint from the difficulty of getting food, every eating-place being so full of people; and surely, though a nation must mourn, equally certain is it that it must also eat."

LOUIS PHILLIPPE, who, by the way, had neglected no opportunity to render justice to the genius of Napoleon, obtained, in 1840, the permission of the British Government to remove his body from St. Helena; and on December 15 it was solemnly interred in the gorgeous chapel designed by Visconti, at the Invalides. The Prince de Joinville had the honour of escorting the remains of the Emperor from the lonely island in the Indian Ocean to Paris. Words cannot paint the emotion of the inhabitants of the French capital, as the superb procession descended the long avenue of the Champs Élysées, or that of the privileged company which witnessed the striking scene in the chapel itself, as the Prince de Joinville formally consigned the body to the King, his father, saying, as he did so, "Sire, I deliver over into your charge the corpse of Napoleon." To which the King replied, "I receive it in the name of France," and then taking the sword of the victor of Austerlitz, he handed it to General Bertrand, who, in his turn, laid it on the coffin. Many years later, when another Napoleon reigned in France, a Lady who had not yet reached the _mezzo camin di nostra vita_, stood silently, with bowed head, before the grave of the mighty enemy of the glorious empire over which she rules, and it was observed that there were tears in the eyes of Queen Victoria when she quietly left the chapel.