Now go about your task, and place your sepulchre
in the best position in the cemetery, where it ought rightfully
to be." John replies: "Very well, my lord." John at once takes
his leave, and prepares the sepulchre with great skill; a
feather-bed he placed inside, because the stone was hard and
cold; and in order that the odour may be sweet, he spreads
flowers and leaves about. Another reason for doing this was that
no one might perceive the mattress he had laid within the grave.
Already Mass had been said for the dead in the churches and
parishes, and the bells were tolling continuously as is proper
for the dead. Orders are given to bring the body to be laid in
the sepulchre, which John with all his skill has constructed so
richly and handsomely. In all Constantinople none remains,
whether small or great, who does not follow the body in tears,
cursing and reproaching Death. Knights and youths alike grow
faint, while the ladies and damsels beat their breasts as they
thus find fault with Death: "O Death," cries each, "why didst
thou not take ransom for my lady? Surely, thy gain was slight
enough, whereas the loss to us is great." And in this grief
Cliges surely bears his part, as he suffers and laments more than
all the others do, and it is strange he does not kill himself.
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