Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/94

 74 THE CECILS

ceremony was performed in Westminster Abbey " with all the rites that belonged to so great a personage," the number of mourners exceeding five hundred ; the body was then taken to Stamford and buried in St. Martin's Church, where between the north aisle and the chancel stands a fine monu- ment to his memory. 1

To the Queen, the death of her old and trusted minister Pater pads patrice, as she called him at his funeral 2 was a severe blow, and on hearing the news she burst into tears. She had treated him as she treated no one else, allowing him to sit in her presence, and saying, " My lord, we make much of you not for your bad legs, but for your good head." She used to visit him when ill, and would hold the Council in his chamber. On one occasion the story goes that she went to see him at Cecil House, wearing the high head-dress then in fashion, and Burghley's servant requested her to stoop on going through the door : " For your master's sake I will stoop," replied the Queen, " but not for the King of Spain." She knew how to value his sound, level-headed judgment, and shrewd common sense ; and no doubt she appre- ciated him all the more because, almost alone among her councillors, he never flattered or cajoled her, and never used his position to gain undue benefits for himself or his friends.

1 " Many kinds of marble are used, and its colour and gilding and excellent state of preservation make it one of the finest specimens of its kind in existence" (Victoria County History, Northamptonshire, II. 528).

2 Goodman, Court of James I., I. 21.

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