CHAPTER V. Matilda stillgoverns Normandy—Deathof her second son, Richard, andseconddaughter^ Constance—Her visit to St. Furale—lier liberality—Profuse table—Income—Fresh dissensions between the Conqueror and Robert—Matilda's sorrow—Application to a German hermit—His pretended dream depresses Matilda's spirits—She sinks intc a sloic nervous fever—Her malady increases—She becomes charitable andpenitent— The Conqueror hastens to her presence—Her death—Funeral—Tomb—Sepulchre phmdered—Curiousivill—The Conqueror's deep grief for her loss—His excesses—Illness—Rage at the French King's jeu d'esprit—His vengeance—He meets with a fatal accident—His death—His body plundered and neglected—His obsequies thrice interrupted—His tomb—His grave ransacked—Finally destroyed by the French re volutionists—Matilda's children. Wm Bp ÏÏÏnI iaSs'lΜ™Θκ!Ιχ|β ATT LD A did not again return to Eng dcr of her days she occupied in governing Normandy, and deploring her domestic misfortunes. Her second son, Richard, a prince of promising endowments, and a pupil of the learned Lanfranc, had scarcely been consigned by fever to the cold grasp of death, when her daughter, Constance, whilst yet in the prime of womanhood, breathed her last. This princess had been married seven years to Alan Fergeant, Duke of Brittany, without giving birth to an heir, which so preyed upon her mind, as to occasion the lingering sickness of which she died. Her remains were conveyed to England, and interred with due solemnity in the abbey of St. Edmund's Bury. For the recovery of this beloved daughter, Matilda paid a ceremonious but vain visit to the monastery of Ouche, and at the venerated shrine of St. Furale, offered prayers and costly presents, and vowed to bestow other and yet more valuable gifts, should her prayers be favourably answered. She afterwards retired to'the refectory, and dined with the monks, where she behaved with great humility and condescension, and delighted the holy brethren with her liberality in providing so goodly a feast, for she maintained all the pomp and state of an English queen. The table at which she herself usually dined being furnished at a * "Waltheof was the only English daily expense of forty shillings—a most extravagant sum for those times, whilst, at a lower table, one hundred attendants were provided for at the high charge of twelve-pence each per day. It was principally out of her income from England, that the fair regent of Normandy supported the splendour of her dignity. The citizens of London paid for the oil for her lamps, and the wood for herfires; she received the tolls imposed on merchandise at Qucenhithe, and a tenth part of the voluntary fines paid to the crown, besides other incomes and immunities. As years rolled on, Matilda found the clouds of trouble thicken around her. Whilst yet mourning for the bereavement of her daughter Constance, she received the sorrowful tidings that her beloved son Robert had again rankled his father's wrath, by refusing to marry the beautiful daughter of Waltheof, the Saxon earl, to whom the Conqueror had espoused his niece, Judith, at York, but who, having joined in a plot against the Normans, was betrayed by his treacherous wife into the hands of her uncle, and by his order beheaded at Winchester.* Sorely grieved at the renewed breach between her royal lord and darling son, Matilda sent to a German hermit, who was renowned for sanctity, learning, and prophetic gifts, and requested his advice in the matter. The sage, after a lapse of three days, pretended to have had a wondrous dream, to the effect that if Matilda did not succeed in restoring amity between her royal lord and her son; nobleman executed in this reign.