But to return to the chapel. It was begun by Henry I and mutilated as usual by the soldiers of the Puritans, and restored again by Charles II and his successors, but Victoria has perhaps done most for it.
HENRY VIII GATEWAY.
There are many tiny chapels around the various walls, in the fashion of the churches of Europe. We noticed, especially, the Braye chapel to the right of the entrance. On the walls hung a sword and swordbelt, showing evident marks of service in the field. An inscription explained that they belonged to Captain Wyatt-Edgall, who recovered the body of the Prince Imperial, in Zululand. He, himself, was also killed in South Africa. The same chapel contains the monument to Prince Imperial—son of Napoleon III and Eugènie,—who fought with the English in South Africa, and there died.
A translation of the inscription at the foot of the marble figure—a figure of the recumbent prince, grasping his sword which lies along his body—reads: “The well-beloved youth, the comrade of our soldiers, slain in the African war, and thence carried to the tomb of his fathers, and represented in funereal marble in this holy domicile of kings, Queen Victoria receiveth as her guest.”
There is also an interesting extract from the will of the prince, which reads: “I shall die with a feeling of profound gratitude for her Majesty, the Queen of England, and for the royal family, and for the country in which, during eight years, I have received so cordial a hospitality.”
The choir, a church within the church, is situated in the center of the chapel and at the east end. A passage runs the entire way round the sides and rear. It is raised some four feet above the level of the floor and is a long gallery with two rows of lateral seats, and an organ, said to be the finest choir organ in Europe, at the farthest end. The seats, on either side, are the stalls of the Knights of the Garter. They are most elaborately carved from floor to ceiling, decorated with crests and emblems.
The remains of Henry VIII and Lady Jane Seymour, who was neither divorced nor beheaded, since she lived only a year after her marriage, are buried beneath the center of the choir. Under the entire chapel a royal vault was constructed by George III, cut out of the chalk rocks below. It is seventy by twenty by fifteen feet and designed for eighty-one bodies.
THE ROUND TOWER, WINDSOR CASTLE.