Europe could show no more magnificent place of sepulture.

A staircase encrusted with jasper led down from the stately church of the Escurial into an octagon situated just beneath the high altar.

The vault, impervious to the sun, was rich with gold and precious marbles, which reflected the blaze from a huge chandelier of silver.
On the right and on the left reposed, each in a massy sarcophagus, the departed kings and queens of Spain.

Into this mausoleum the King descended with a long train of courtiers, and ordered the coffins to be unclosed.

His mother had been embalmed with such consummate skill that she appeared as she had appeared on her death bed.