The Viscount of Lavedan officiated as grand master of the
ceremonies, and special seats were assigned to the States of Navarre,
Foix, Beam, and Bigorre, and to the chancellor, counsellors, and barons
of the country; whilst on a platform surrounded by lighted tapers
there was displayed an effigy of the Queen robed in black.(1) After the
ceremony a banquet was served in accordance with Bearnese custom, the
chief mourners being invited to the Duke of Vendome's table, whilst the
others were served in different rooms.(2)
1 _Lettres de Marguerite (Pieces justificatives_. No. xi.).
2 Bascle de Lagreze's _Chateau de Pau, &c._
A few years later--in June 1555--the remains of King Henry, Margaret's
husband, were in turn brought to Lescar for burial. The tombs of husband
and wife, however, have alike vanished, having been swept away during
the religious wars, when Lescar was repeatedly stormed and sacked, when
Huguenot and Catholic, in turn triumphant, vented their religious frenzy
upon the graves of their former sovereigns; and to-day the only tombs
to be found in the old cathedral are those of personages interred there
since the middle of the seventeenth century.
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