"_ But superlatives often have a
value in inverse ratio to their intention. There is a curious story
told by the Catholic historian, Novaes, that, after the death of
Innocent, which took place in 1655, no one could be found willing to
assume the charge of burying him. Word was sent to Donna Olympia that
she should provide a coffin for the corpse; but she replied that she
was only a poor widow. Of the cardinals he had made, of the relations
he had enriched, none was to be found who had charity enough to treat
his remains with decency. His body was taken to a room where some
masons were at work, and one of them out of compassion put a tallow
candle at its head, while another, fearing lest the mice, of which
there were many in the apartment, might disturb the corpse, secured a
person to watch it through the night. At length one of the officers of
the court procured a cheap coffin, and one of the canons of Saint
Peter's gave five crowns to pay the expenses of the burial.[13] A
moralist might comment on this story, and might compare it with
another which is told in a life of Innocent, written during the reign
of his successor, and published with approval at Rome. In this we are
told that at the time of his death a marvellous prodigy was observed;
for that, when his corpse was borne on a bier from Monte Cavallo to
the Vatican, at the moment of a violent storm of wind and rain, not a
drop of water fell upon it, but the bier remained perfectly dry, and
the torches with which it was accompanied were none of them
extinguished.
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