Saturday September 6 1:40 PM EDT 

Princess Diana is Buried at Family Home

By Robert Woodward 

LONDON (Reuter) - Princess Diana, escorted by her beloved sons
and surrounded by millions who adored her, was honored by the royal
family at a funeral service tinged with bitterness Saturday. 

Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, electrified the 2,000-strong
congregation during his tribute to the "people's princess" with a coded
attack on the royal family and an open assault on the media he blames
for her death in a car crash in Paris last Sunday. 

Diana was "someone with a natural nobility who was classless and
who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue
to generate her particular brand of magic," the 33-year-old earl told
the Westminster Abbey congregation and radio listeners and
television viewers around the world. 

After her divorce from heir to the throne Prince Charles in August
1996, the court stripped her of the title of Royal Highness. Only in the
past 36 hours has she apparently been welcomed back into the royal
fold. 

Spencer, condemning the media for hounding his sister to her death,
vowed that her beloved sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, would
not suffer a similar fate. 

"We will not allow them to suffer the anguish that used regularly to
drive you to tearful despair," he said in his moving tribute to the "big
sister who mothered me." 

Queen Elizabeth inclined her head in a "neck bow" to her former
daughter-in-law as Diana's cortege passed the gates of Buckingham
Palace. 

It was escorted on the last leg of its two-hour journey to Westminster
Abbey by her sons and her former husband. 

Charles's father, Prince Philip, and her brother also fell in behind a
hearse draped in the royal standard and carrying three bouquets of
white flowers. The smallest carried an envelope with the single word
"Mummy." 

The bell of the abbey tolled once a minute as the coffin approached. It
was carried up the abbey steps by eight pallbearers. 

For three hours Britain came to a standstill and London was thronged
by crowds bigger than any seen since the wedding of Charles and
Diana in 1981. The television audience almost certainly exceeded the
700 million who watched the wedding. 

Despite the crush of people, the procession was watched in almost
total silence. As the service ended and the coffin was carried toward
the abbey's west door, the whole nation stood for a minute, lost in
their memories of a princess, dead at the tragically early age of 36. 

Inside the abbey, Diana's boys broke down as Elton John sang a
version of "Candle in the Wind" adapted to their mother's memory.
But Spencer did not let grief cloud his other feelings. 

Spencer pledged that the "blood family" of William, 15, and Harry, 12,
would ensure that the boys would not be "simply immersed by duty
and tradition but can sing openly as you (Diana) planned" and
disclosed that Diana had often talked of leaving England to escape the
press. 

"I don't think she ever understood why her genuinely good intentions
were sneered at by the media, why there appeared to be a permanent
quest on their behalf to bring her down. It is baffling. 

"My own and only explanation is that genuine goodness is threatening
to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum. 

"It is a point to remember that, of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps
the greatest was this: a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of
hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age." 

Spencer ended his speech from the heart barely in control of his
emotions. As he stepped from the pulpit, applause from the crowds
outside rolled into the abbey and most of the congregation joined in. 

Paparazzi photographers are accused of having a hand in Diana's
death by mercilessly pursuing her and companion Dodi Al Fayed as
their driver speeded up. 

Dodi also died in the crash and his multimillionaire father, Mohamed
Al Fayed, attended the funeral. 

At the end of the service, the coffin was taken by road 80 miles to the
Spencer family home at Althorp, central England, through crowds, 20
deep in places, which lined the roads and highway and crowded on to
bridges. 

Many mourners dropped flowers on to the hearse as it passed
underneath or threw bouquets from the roadside, forcing the driver to
use his wipers to clear the windshield. By the time it approached
Althorp, the roof of the slowly moving car was piled high with
flowers. 

It entered the estate for the private burial at 10:32 a.m. EDT, giving
the world its last glimpse of Diana. She was laid to rest on an island in
a lake in the grounds of Althorp Park, home of the Spencers since the
16th century, the BBC reported. 

Police, who had been ready for up to six million to pack central
London, said they had given up counting the crowds, which were 20
deep at crash barriers along the cortege's path. 

Grief was the overwhelming emotion but forgiveness was also in the
air. The queen was accompanied to the abbey by another former
daughter-in-law who had strayed from the royal path of rectitude,
Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. 

The queen, condemned by press and public this week for not
responding quickly enough to the public grief over Diana's death,
made a significant gesture as she left Buckingham Palace for the
funeral. 

In another unprecedented breach of royal protocol, the monarch's
personal standard was lowered and replaced by a national flag, hoisted
to half staff. Protocol had finally been broken by the will of the people.

Buckingham Palace had promised a "unique funeral for a unique
person" and the hourlong service, combining tradition and
informality, moved all who witnessed it. 

The congregation was a mirror of Diana's interests and good works.
U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton, actor Tom Cruise and opera singer
Luciano Pavarotti sat alongside AIDS victims, the disabled and
charity workers. 

Elton, comforted by Diana at fashion designer Gianni Versace's
funeral in July, accompanied himself on a grand piano to "Candle in
the Wind," a song dedicated to Marilyn Monroe and adapted by its
composer, Bernie Taupin, to laud Diana's legacy. 

"Goodbye England's Rose, may you ever grow in our hearts. You were
the grace that placed itself where lives were torn apart," sang
ashen-faced John, holding back the tears. 

People listening to the service broke into spontaneous applause as he
finished, emotionally drained. 

Diana's two elder sisters read poems and Prime Minister Tony Blair
delivered a stirring reading of 1 Corinthians 13 -- "For now we see
through a glass darkly ... And now abideth faith, hope, love, these
three: but the greatest of them is love."