FUNERAL OF HENRY V. IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

HENRY V. died in Paris, August 31, 1422. His nobles and officers resolved to give him a most magnificent funeral; they caused the body to be embalmed, and carried in great pomp to the cathedral of Notre Dame, where a solemn service was performed. The funeral then proceeded to Rouen, and there it lay in state several days. The coffin was then placed within a car drawn by four splendid horses; over the coffin, on a bed of crimson and gold, lay a figure representing the king to the life, with a rich crown of gold on the head, a sceptre on the right hand, the globe and cross on the left, and with a face looking heavenward. When it passed through any town, a canopy of silk, like to what is carried over the host on Corpus Christi Day, was borne over it. In this state the body was conveyed, by slow journeys, from Rouen to Abbeville, where it was placed in the cathedral of St. Ulfran, with rows of priests on each side of the coffin to chant requiems all through the night. During the slow, sad progress from town to town, the funeral car was preceded and flanked by heralds, persons bearing banners and achievements, and a host of men, all clad in white sheets, and carrying lighted torches in their hands; it was followed by the royal household, in deep mourning, by some hundreds of knights and esquires in black armour and plumes, with their lances reversed, and by the princes of the blood, and the king of Scotland, who acted as chief mourner. At about a league in the rear of all travelled the youthful widow, with a numerous retinue. The night after leaving Abbeville, they rested at Hesdin, the next night at Montreuil, the next at Boulogne, and then at Calais, where a fleet was in readiness to convey them to Dover. From Dover they travelled by the usual road through Canterbury and Rochester to London, where they arrived on Martinmas Day. As the melancholy procession approached London, fifteen bishops in their pontifical attire, many mitred abbots and churchmen, with a vast multitude of persons of all conditions, went out to meet it. The churchmen chanted the service for the dead as it passed over London Bridge and through the street of the Lombards to St. Paul's. After the obsequies had been performed at St. Paul's in presence of the whole parliament, the body was carried to Westminster Abbey, and there interred near the shrine of Edward the Confessor. "At this funeral," continues Monstrelet, who wrote some years later, "greater pomp and expense were made than had been done for two hundred years at the burying of any king of England; and even now, as much reverence and honour are paid every day to his tomb as if it were certain that he is a saint in heaven."

PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

Corpse of KING HENRY V. lying in state; attended by the DUKES of Bedford, GLOUCESTER, and EXETER, &c. &c.

Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night! Comets, importing change of times and states,

Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky;
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars,
That have consented unto Henry's death!
King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long!
England ne'er lost a king of so much worth.

Glo. England ne'er had a king until his time.
Virtue he had, deserving to command:

His brandish'd sword did blind men with his beams;
His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings:
His sparkling eyes, replete with wrathful fire,
More dazzled and drove back his enemies,

Than mid-day sun, fierce bent against their faces.

What should I say? his deeds exceed all speech :

He ne'er lift up his hand but conquered.

Exe. We mourn in black: Why mourn we not in blood? Henry is dead, and never shall revive:

Upon a wooden coffin we attend ;
And death's dishonourable victory
We with our stately presence glorify,
Like captives bound in a triumphant car.
What? shall we curse the planets of mishap,
That plotted thus our glory's overthrow?
Or shall we think the subtle-witted French
Conjurors and sorcerers, that, afraid of him,
By magic verses have contrived his end?