non dubium est, quod, miserante Deo, sopita adversa valetudine, sanctitatem refouit, et Monachos suos, Monachos Beccenses, qui prae omnibus, et super omnes pro ipsius sospitate, jugi labore supplicandi decertando pene defecerant, aura prosperae valetudinis ejus afflatos omnino redintegravit.—­Nec supprimendum illud est silentio, imo, ut ita dicatur, uncialibus literis exaratum, seculo venturo transmittendum; quod antequam convalesceret postulaverat patrem suum, ut permitteret eam in CA"nobio Beccensi humari.  Quod Rex primo abnuerat, dicens non esse dignum, ut filia sua, Imperatrix Augusta, quae semel et iterum in urbe Romulea, quae caput est mundi, per manus summi Pontificis Imperiali diademate processerat insignita, in aliquo Monasterio, licet percelebri et religione et fama, sepeliretur; sed ad civitatem Rotomagensium, quae metropolis est Normannorum, saltem delata, in Ecclesia principali, in qua et majores ejus, Rollonem loquor et Willelmum Longamspatam filium ipsius, qui Neustriam armis subegerunt, positi sunt, ipsa et poneretur.  Qua deliberatione Regis percepta, illi per nuncium remandavit, animam suam nunquam fore laetam, nisi compos voluntatis suae in hac duntaxat parte efficeretur.—­O femina macte virtutis et consilii sanioris, paruipendens pompam secularem in corporis depositione!  Noverat enim salubrius esse animabus defunctorum ibi corpora sua tumulari, ubi frequentius et devotius supplicationes pro ipsis Deo offeruntur.  Victus itaque pater ipsius Augustae pietate et prudentia filiae, qui ceteros et virtute et pietate vincere solitus erat, cessit, et voluntatem, et petitionem ipsius de se sepelienda Becci fieri concessit.  Sed volente Deo ut praefixum est, sanitati integerrimae restituta convaluit.”—­Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni, p. 305.]

[Footnote 60:  Histoire de la Haute Normandie, II. p, 281.]

LETTER XXI.

BERNAT—­BROGLIE—­ORBEC—­LIS
IEUX—­CATHEDRAL—­ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

(Lisieux, July, 1818.)

Instead of pursuing the straight road from Brionne to this city, we deviated somewhat to the south, by the advice of M. Le Prevost; and we have not regretted the deviation.

Bernay was once celebrated for its abbey, founded in the beginning of the eleventh century, by Judith, wife of Richard IInd, Duke of Normandy.  Some of the monastic buildings are standing, and are now inhabited:  they appear to have been erected but a short time before the revolution, and to have suffered little injury.—­But the abbey church, which belonged to the original structure, is all desolate within, and all defaced without.  The interior is divided into two stories, the lower of which is used as a corn market, the upper as a cloth hall.  Thus blocked up and encumbered, we may yet discern that it is a noble building:  its dimensions are grand, and in most parts it is a perfect specimen of the semi-circular style, except the windows and the apsis, which are of later dates.  The pillars in the nave and choir are lofty, but massy:  the capitals of some of them are curiously sculptured.  On the lower member of the entablature of one capital there are still traces of an inscription; but it is so injured by neglect and violence, that we were unable to decipher a single word.  The capital itself is fanciful and not devoid of elegance.