lesson to those who survived, and full of hope for him who was called." So says Saint Simon; and, after alluding to the sorrow and consternation generally felt through Flanders at Fénelon's death, he goes on to remark, what must have astonished the worldly-wise courtier, that "all M. de Cambrai's affairs were in such perfect order that he neither owed nor left behind him a sou."

Fénelon's will is dated May 5, 1705. It begins by saying: "Though my health is as good as usual, I wish to prepare for death, and with this view I write this present will with my own hand." He then reaffirms his position with respect to his book and the errors imputed to him, and his entire submission in the matter of his condemnation, adding that he had cherished no thought concerning those who attacked him, save in sincere prayer for them, and in desiring to abide in brotherly love with them. There were certain legacies to his servants, and then he directs:"I wish my burial to be in the metropolitical church of Cambrai, as simple as may be and with the least possible expenditure. This is not a mere conventional expression of humility, but because I think the money laid out on funerals other than simple had better be kept for more useful purposes; and also I think the modesty of a Bishop's funeral should set the example to the

FENELON'S WILL.

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laity, and lead them to diminish the useless outlay in their burial arrangements."

Fénelon goes on to nominate his nephew the Abbé de Beaumont (" who has been to me all his life as the best of sons to a father") as his residuary legatee, giving him no special directions, but leaving to him, with perfect confidence, the disposal of whatever possessions might be found.

He named de Chanterac ("my counsellor in this diocese, whose friendship has been proof against every trial, and for whom I have a great veneration ") and de Langeron ("the precious friend whom God gave me while we were yet both young, and who has been one of the greatest comforts of my life") as his exe

cutors.

The last clause says:-"While I love my family deeply, and am aware of the needy state of their affairs, I do not think it right to leave anything to them. Ecclesiastical property is not meant to supply family wants, and ought not to pass out of the hands of those who minister in the Church. I trust that God will bless the nephews I have educated, and love dearly, by reason of the uprightness and religion in which they seem to me to be confirmed."

According to the Archbishop's express commands, his letter to Père Le Tellier was sent off immediately that he was dead, and was doubtless speedily laid by

him before the King. Of what Louis XIV.'s feelings may have been in reading it we have no record. The Marquis de Fénelon, in a brief sketch of his uncle's life, says that on hearing of the Archbishop's death, Louis XIV. exclaimed bitterly, "Il nous manque bien au besoin!" Mme. de Maintenon alludes coldly enough to it in a letter to the Curé de Saint Sulpice. Saint Simon speaks of the Archbishop's letter as dignified and touching in a way which probably indicates the general feeling concerning it at Court. Little enough it signified to him who wrote it what reception his parting words might meet with. To few could S. Paul's words have come home with more force :-"With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self but He that judgeth me is the Lord . . . Who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God” (1 Cor. iv. 3-5).

Warm and well-deserved regrets for their Archbishop were expressed by the Chapter of Cambrai ; but it is noticeable that they threw on the executors (de Chanterac and the Abbé de Fénelon) the responsibility of deciding whether it were expedient to pronounce the customary oraison funèbre over him, a hesitation probably arising from the fear of displeasing

the King. Those who knew Fénelon's mind best had no hesitation in dispensing at once with a ceremony which they no doubt rightly felt could add no lustre or grace to the memory of one who was certain to live in the hearts of those of his own time, and in the future history of the Church through his own merits, better than through any oratory, however eloquent or well conceived. So Fénelon was the only Archbishop of Cambrai who was laid in the grave without a funeral oration; and it was also remarked that in the Académie Française, neither Dacier the Directeur, nor de Boze, Fénelon's successor, dared mention Télémaque, albeit in those days considered as one of the greatest chefs-d'œuvre of literature.

Cardinal Quirini stated that Pope Clement XI. wept when he heard that the Archbishop of Cambrai was dead, partly for the Church's loss, and partly for his own weakness in not having carried out his wish to make Fénelon a Cardinal, because of his fear to offend Louis XIV.

The King never made the least expression of interest or sympathy for any of Fénelon's family, although one might have thought that when the Archbishop himself and the Duc de Bourgogne had both passed beyond the reach of his jealousy, it would have been a graceful act, reflecting more credit upon the King than any one else, had he made some

reparation for long years of unkindness and petty

revenge.

In 1716, the Duke of Orléans appointed de Beaumont to the Bishopric of Saintes; Saint Simon says at his suggestion, not from any personal friendship, but because de Beaumont was a worthy man, who had been about the Princes, and a nephew of Fénelon's ; above all, out of affection for the Duc de Beauvilliers' memory.'

Fénelon was laid to rest, then, as he had desired, in all simplicity and without ostentation, beneath the High Altar of his Cathedral; nor was it till 1724 that his nephew the Marquis placed an inscription to him in the Cathedral of Cambrai, written by a Jesuit Father Sanadon, in the somewhat pompous, ponderous style that was popular at that day, and which we may be excused for repeating here.

In 1793, during the mad fury of the Revolution, the Cathedral was destroyed, and Fénelon's tomb was torn up, and the popular idea is that the body was thrown aside, and the leaden coffin melted into bullets. But this was not the case. There are official documents describing the finding of the body. by the Mayor of Cambrai, the leaden coffin being unsoldered and damaged, the wooden one within in a state of decomposition. The skull was found Mémoires, vol. xxvi. p. 28.

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