Note 442 — BOOK X[399]
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
Lamennais died in Paris on the 27th of February 1854, six years after Chateaubriand. His funeral was held almost by stealth, on the 1st of March. The hour of the funeral was accelerated by the authorities, who were afraid of disturbances; six or eight persons followed the hearse, from which the crowd was kept off by an armed force.
"The coffin," says M. Blaize, in his Essai biographique sur M. F. de La Mennais, "was lowered into one of those long and hideous trenches in which the common people are buried. When it was covered with earth, the grave-digger asked:
"'Is there to be a cross?'"
M. Barbet answered:
"'No. M. de La Mennais said, "They must put nothing on my grave.'"
"Not a word was spoken over the tomb."—B.