Owing to the perpetuation of an
error in some of the English guides to Normandy, it is often thought that a
thigh-bone of the founder of the abbey is still lying beneath the marble
slab in the sanctuary, but this is a great mistake, for that last poor
relic of William the Conqueror was lost during the Revolution. The whole
story of the death, the burial, and the destruction of the tomb and remains
of the founder of the abbey are most miserable and even gruesome. William
was at Rouen when he died, and we need scarcely remind ourselves of that
tragic scene discovered by the clergy when they came to the house not long
after the great man had expired. Every one of William's suite had
immediately recognised the changed state of affairs now that the inflexible
will that had controlled the two kingdoms had been removed, and each,
concerned for himself, had betaken himself with indecent haste to England
or wherever his presence might be most opportune. In this way, there being
no one left to watch the corpse, the Archbishop of Rouen discovered that
the house and even the bed had been pillaged, so that the royal body was
lying in great disorder until reverently tended by a Norman gentleman named
Herluin.
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