In the church of St. John of Lyons there is a very dark chapel, and inside it a stone tomb with figures of great personages raised life-like upon it, whilst several men-at-arms lie all around it.

1 We believe that the incident here narrated occurred early in 1525, when Margaret is known to have been at Lyons.  She and her husband (on his return from Pavia) resided there at the house of the Obediencier de St. Just, and it was in the church of St. Just that the Duke of Alencon was buried.  Doubtless it was during his illness that the novena alluded to in the final tale of the Heptameron was performed by Queen Margaret at the church of St. John of Lyons, where the two most important chapels, according to Quincarnon’s Antiquites et la fondation de la Metropole des Gaules, &c., Lyons, 1673, were the Most Holy Eucharist, or Bourbon chapel, built in 1449 by Charles de Bourbon, Primate of Gaul, and the Holy Sepulchre, or Good Friday chapel, erected at the beginning of the fifteenth century by Philip de Turey, Archbishop of Lyons.  Unfortunately the church of St. John was in 1652 devastated by the Huguenots, who in their insensate fury destroyed almost all the tombs.  It is therefore now impossible to identify the chapel and tomb to which the Queen of Navarre refers in the above story, though her allusion to the dimness of the light would incline us to place the incident she recounts in the Chapelle du St. Sepulcre.—­L. and Ed.

One day a soldier, walking in the church at the very height of summer, felt inclined to sleep, and, looking at this dark, cool chapel, resolved to go and guard the tomb in sleep like the rest; (2) and accordingly he lay down beside them.  Now it chanced that a very pious old woman came in while his sleep was the soundest, and having performed her devotions, holding a lighted taper in her hand, she sought to fix this taper to the tomb.  Finding that the sleeping man was nearest to her, she tried to set it upon his forehead, thinking that it was of stone; but the wax would not stick to such stone as this, whereupon the worthy dame, believing that the reason of it was the coldness of the statue, applied the flame to the sleeper’s forehead, that she might the better fix the taper on it.  At this, however, the statue, which was not without feeling, began to cry out.

     2 Meaning the recumbent statues of the men-at-arms.—­Ed.

The good woman was then in exceeding fear, and set herself to shout, “A miracle! a miracle!” until all who were in the church ran, some to ring the bells, and the rest to view the miracle.  The good woman forthwith took them to see the statue that had stirred, whereupon many found food for laughter; though the greater number were unable to feel any content, inasmuch as they had really determined to make profit out of the tomb, and to gain as much money by it as by the crucifix on their pulpit, which is said to have spoken. (3) But when the woman’s folly became known the farce came to an end.  If all knew of their follies, they would not be accounted holy nor their miracles true.  And I would beg you, ladies, to see henceforward to what saints you offer your candles. (4)