Chapter 5

"No singer vast of voice; yet one who leavesHis native air the sweeter for his song,"

that we instinctively turn for the words:

IN THE CHURCHYARD AT TARRYTOWN.Here lies the gentle humorist, who diedIn the bright Indian summer of his fame!A simple stone, with but a date and name,Marks his secluded resting-place besideThe river that he loved and glorified.Here in the autumn of his days he came,But the dry leaves of life were all aflameWith tints that brightened and were multiplied.How sweet a life was his; how sweet a death!Living, to wing with mirth the weary hours,Or with romantic tales the heart to cheer;Dying, to leave a memory like the breathOf summers full of sunshine and of showers,A grief and gladness in the atmosphere.

IN THE CHURCHYARD AT TARRYTOWN.

Here lies the gentle humorist, who diedIn the bright Indian summer of his fame!A simple stone, with but a date and name,Marks his secluded resting-place besideThe river that he loved and glorified.Here in the autumn of his days he came,But the dry leaves of life were all aflameWith tints that brightened and were multiplied.How sweet a life was his; how sweet a death!Living, to wing with mirth the weary hours,Or with romantic tales the heart to cheer;Dying, to leave a memory like the breathOf summers full of sunshine and of showers,A grief and gladness in the atmosphere.

Isaiah(spelled in the New Testament Esaias which means "salvation of Jehovah." He is the greatest of the Hebrew Prophets, and his poetical genius is ranked with that of Homer),b. c.765-660. "Go ye to the country of Tyre and Sidon, for the Lord hath mixed the cup for me alone."

There is a tradition that the prophet Isaiah suffered martyrdom by a saw. The ancient book entitled, "The Ascension of Isaiah the Prophet," accords with the tradition. It says: "Then they seized Isaiah the son of Amos and sawed him witha wooden saw. And Manasseh, Melakira, the false prophets, the princes and the people, all stood looking on. But he said to the prophets who were with him before he was sawn, 'Go ye to the country of Tyre and Sidon, for the Lord hath mixed the cup for me alone.' Neither while they were sawing him did he cry out nor weep, but he continued addressing himself to the Holy Spirit until he was sawn asunder."

Jackson(Thomas Jonathan, "Stonewall Jackson," distinguished Confederate general), 1824-1863. "Let us go over the river, and sit under the refreshing shadow of the trees."

He was accidentally shot and mortally wounded by his own soldiers, in the darkness of night. His last words were spoken in delirium.

James II. (of England), 1633-1701. "Grateful—in peace!" Louis XIV. visited James II. when the latter was upon his death-bed, and moved, no doubt, by pity, said to him in the presence of courtiers who ill concealed their surprise: "I come to tell Your Majesty, that whenever it shall please God to take you from us, I will be to your son what I have been to you, and will acknowledge him as King of England, Scotland and Ireland." James was so near death that he was hardly sensible of what was said to him, but it was thought he murmured with much that was irrelevant the words, "Grateful—in peace!"

The final disposition of the remains of James II. is involved in some uncertainty. Stanley in Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey says: "The body had been placed in the Chapel of the English Benedictines at Paris, and deposited there in the vain hope that, at some future time, they would be laid with kingly pomp at Westminster among the graves of the Plantagenets and Tudors." Clarke, in his Life of James II. says that at his burial the rites of the Church of England were not used, but this is contradicted by the account preserved in Herald's College. The King's brains, it is said, were deposited in an urn of bronze-gilt standing upon the monument raised to him in the Chapel of the Scotch College in the Rue des Fossés Saint Victor. This, according to a correspondent of the Notes and Queries, Vol. ii, p. 281, was "smashed, and the contents scattered about during the French Revolution." Pettigrew, in his Chronicles of the Tombs, says: "It is conjectured that portions of the King's body were collected together, and entombed at St. Germain en Laye, soon after the termination of the war in 1814; but it being necessary to rebuild the church, the remains were exhumed and re-interred in 1824."

The following curious account was given in 1840 by Mr. Fitzsimmons, an Irish gentleman upward of eighty years of age, who taught French and English at Toulouse and claimed to be a runaway monk:

"I was a prisoner in Paris, in the convent of theEnglish Benedictines in the Rue St. Jacques, during part of the Revolution. In the year 1793 or 1794, the body of King James II. of England (died 1701) was in one of the chapels there, where it had been deposited some time, under the expectation that it would one day be sent to England for interment in Westminster Abbey. It had never been buried. The body was in a wooden coffin, inclosed in a leaden one; and that again inclosed in a second wooden one, covered with black velvet. While I was a prisoner thesans-culottesbroke open the coffins to get at the lead to cast into bullets. The body lay exposed nearly a whole day. It was swaddled like a mummy, bound tight with garters. Thesans-culottestook out the body, which had been embalmed. There was a strong smell of vinegar and camphor. The corpse was beautiful and perfect. The hands and nails were very fine. I moved and bent every finger. I never saw so fine a set of teeth in my life. A young lady, a fellow prisoner, wished much to have a tooth; I tried to get one out for her, but could not, they were so firmly fixed. The feet also were very beautiful. The face and cheeks were just as if he were alive. I rolled his eyes; the eye-balls were perfectly firm under my finger. The French and English prisoners gave money to thesans-culottesfor showing the body. The trouserless crowd said he was a goodsans-culotte, and they were going to put him into a hole in the public churchyard like othersans-culottes;and he was carried away, but where the body was thrown I never heard. King George IV. tried all in his power to get tidings of the body, but could not. Around the chapel were several wax moulds of the face hung up, made probably at the time of the king's death, and the face of the corpse was very like them. The body had been originally kept at the palace of St. Germain, from whence it was brought to the convent of the Benedictines."

James V.(of Scotland), 1512-1542. "It came with a lass, and it will go with a lass." He referred to the Scotch crown.

Jefferson(Thomas, third President of the United States), 1743-1826. "I resign my spirit to God, my daughter to my country."

His death was very remarkable: it occurred on July 4, 1826, while the nation was celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which he had written. On the same day, and almost at the same hour, John Adams, the second President, who had signed with him the Declaration, died in New England.

Jerome(of Prague, the companion of John Huss, was born at Prague in the latter half of the fourteenth century, and suffered at the stake, May 30, 1416). "Bring thy torch hither; do thine office before my face; had I feared death I might have avoided it." These brave words were addressed tothe executioner who was about to kindle the fire behind him. Some give his last words thus: "This soul in flames I offer, Christ, to thee."

JewellorJewel(John, Bishop of Salisbury), 1522-1571. "This day let me see the Lord Jesus."

Joan of Arc(Jeanne d'Arc, surnamed "the Maid of Orleans," burned at the stake May 31, 1431, in the twenty-first year of her age. "The Virgin-Martyr of French Liberty"), 1410-1431. "Jesus! Jesus!"

She died declaring that her "voices" had not deceived her, and with the name of Jesus on her lips.

Johnson(Dr. Samuel, "Colossus of English literature"), 1709-1784. "God bless you, my dear!" to Miss Morris.

Joseph II.(of Germany), 1741-1790. "Let my epitaph be, Here lies Joseph, who was unsuccessful in all his undertakings."

Josephine(Marie Joseph Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, wife of Napoleon I. of France), 1763-1814. "Napoleon! Elba! Marie Louise!"

Judson(Adoniram, missionary to Burmah and translator of the Bible into the language of that country), 1788-1850. "Brother Ranney, will you bury me? bury me?—quick! quick!" These words were prompted perhaps by the thought of burial atsea. A moment later he said to his servant, "Take care of poor mistress," meaning Mrs. Judson.

Judson(Mrs. Ann Hasseltine, wife of Adoniram Judson, and with him a missionary in Burmah), 1789-1826. "I feel quite well, only very weak."

Jugurtha(an African prince carried in chains to Rome where he was cast into the Mamertine prison and starved to death). "Heracles, how cold your bath is!" Jugurtha referred to the cold and dark prison into which he was plunged as into an icy bath. "Heracles" is the ordinary Greek interjection, and is not here an address to a god. Longfellow in his little poem "Jugurtha," has substituted, it is hard to say by what authority, the name of Apollo for that of Heracles:

How cold are thy baths, Apollo!Cried the African monarch, the splendid,As down to his death in the hollowDark dungeons of Rome he descended,Uncrowned, unthroned, unattended;How cold are thy baths, Apollo!How cold are thy baths, Apollo!Cried the Poet, unknown, unbefriended,As the vision, that lured him to follow,With the mist and the darkness blended,And the dream of his life was ended;How cold are thy baths, Apollo!—Longfellow.

How cold are thy baths, Apollo!Cried the Poet, unknown, unbefriended,As the vision, that lured him to follow,With the mist and the darkness blended,And the dream of his life was ended;How cold are thy baths, Apollo!—Longfellow.

The Jugurthine war, which was terminatedb. c.106, is the subject of one of the histories of Sallust.

Julian(Julianus Flavius Claudius, surnamed "The Apostate," on account of his renunciation of Christianity. He was Roman emperor from 361 to 363), 331-363. "Thou hast conquered, O Galilean! thou hast conquered!" Some authorities give his last words thus: "Sun, thou hast betrayed me!" Julian was a worshipper of the sun.

And Julian being carried to his tent, he took a handful of the blood which flowed from his wound, and flung it into the air, exclaiming with his last breath, "Thou hast conquered, O Galilean! thou hast conquered!" Then the demons received his parting spirit.—Mrs. Jameson.

The historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, who was in the army of Julian, states that when he was wounded his admirers compared the scene that followed in his tent to that which Plato has drawn in the prison of Socrates; not without the confession that it was an affected imitation. This testimony is preferable to the imaginary pictures of Christian orators of the apostate clutching the sand and crying, "O Galilean, thou hast conquered!" The real triumph of Christianity needs no such melodramatic inventions conceived in the spirit of an age of ornate rhetoric.—Smith's "Universal History, iii, 717."

Kalakaua(David, King of the Hawaiian Islands), 1836-1892. The monarch was unconscious of what was going on around him, and seemed to be dreaming of his early days. Colonel Baker heardhim murmur something and leaning over the bedside could make out that he was speaking to himself in his native tongue of the oceans and mountains and natural scenery of Hawaii.

He died at San Francisco, Cal., while on a visit to the United States.

Kant(Immanuel, one of the greatest of German metaphysicians, founder of the Critical or Transcendental school of philosophy), 1724-1804. "Est ist gut," said as he declined a refreshing draught, offered him by one who thought he was suffering from thirst.

Keats(John), 1796-1821. "I feel the flowers growing over me." Some say his last words were: "I die of a broken heart."

The severity of an article written by Gifford in review of "Endymion" in the Quarterly Review affected the young poet very deeply, and is even said to have occasioned the consumption from which he died at Rome where he had but just completed his twenty-fourth year.

Over the grave of Keats in the Old Protestant cemetery at Rome is the inscription: "This grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet, who, on his death-bed, in the bitterness of his heart at the malicious power of his enemies, desired these words to be engraved on his tombstone: 'Here lies one whose name was writ in water.' February 24, 1821."

In the "Letters and Memorials of Archbishop Trench," occurs the following distressing letter on the last days of Keats, addressed to Trench by a friend in Rome:

"I have made Severn's acquaintance. He is a very fine fellow, and I like him amazingly. My only introduction to him was our common admiration of Keats, whose memory he cherishes most affectionately, and of whom he is never tired of speaking when he finds one who listens with gladness. I sat in his studio for hours while he painted a design which Keats suggested to him, and all the while he was telling me particulars of his last days. His sufferings were terrible and prolonged. Shelley and Hunt had deprived him of his belief in Christianity, which he wanted in the end, and he endeavored to fight back to it, saying if Severn would get him a Jeremy Taylor he thought he could believe; but it was not to be found in Rome. Another time (which is to me peculiarly painful, though it shows at the same time how little way he had proceeded in a particular line of thought), having been betrayed into considerable impatience by bodily and mental anguish, he cried, on recovering himself, 'By God, Severn, a man ought to have some superstition, that he may die decently.'"

Ken(Thomas, Bishop of Bath and Wells, author of several volumes of sermons and of some very beautiful hymns, among which is the famous Doxology. "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow"—the Protestant "Te Deum laudamus"), 1637-1711. "God's will be done."

Bishop Ken was one of the seven bishops committed to the Tower for disobedience by James II., but proved his loyalty by refusing to take the oaths to William and Mary, and was therefore deprived of his bishopric. He was a man of devoted piety, expansive benevolence, and great tenderness of spirit.—Allibone.

King(Thomas Star, Unitarian clergyman), 1824-1864. "Dear little fellow—he is a beautiful boy." This he said of his little son who had been brought in to see him.

Kingsley(Charles, clergyman, novelist, and poet), 1819-1875. "Thou knowest, O Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not Thy merciful ears to our prayer, but spare us, O Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, Thou most worthy Judge Eternal, suffer us not at our last hour, from any pains of death, to fall from Thee."—Episcopal "Burial Service."

In the night he was heard murmuring, "No more fighting: no more fighting." Then followed intense earnest prayers, which were his habit when alone. His warfare was accomplished; he had fought the good fight; and, on one of his last nights on earth, his daughter heard him exclaim, "How beautiful God is!" The last morning, at five o'clock, justafter his eldest daughter and his physician, who had sat up all night, had left him, and he thought himself alone, he was heard, in a clear voice, repeating the Burial Service. He turned on his side after this, and never spoke again.

"Letters and Memoirs of Charles Kingsley," by his wife.

Klopstock(Friedrich Gottlieb), 1724-1803. He died reciting his own beautiful verses, descriptive of the death of Mary, the sister of Lazarus. The Song of Mary was sung at the public funeral of the poet.

Knox(John, Scotch reformer), 1505-1572. "Now it is come." Some give his last words thus: "Live in Christ, live in Christ, and the flesh need not fear death."

Labédoyère(Charles Angélique Huchet de, Count and French general "noted for graceful manners and chivalrous spirit." He was charged with treason, rebellion and military seduction, and was executed as one of the "authors and instigators of the horrible plot which had brought back Buonaparte"), 1786-1815. "Above all do not miss me!"

At half past six in the evening Labédoyère was escorted to the plain of Grenelle by a strong detachment ofgen d'armerie. On arriving at the place of execution, he knelt down and received the benediction of the confessor who accompanied him. Hethen rose, and, without waiting for his eyes to be bandaged, uncovered his breast to the veterans who were to shoot him, and exclaimed, "Above all do not miss me!" In a moment after he was no more.

Christopher Kelly: "The Battle of Waterloo."

Lacordaire(Jean Baptiste Henri, French ecclesiastic celebrated for his funeral orations), 1802-1861. "Open to me, O God!"

La HarpeorLaharpe de(Jean François, French critic and dramatist), 1739-1803. "I am grateful to Divine Mercy for having left me sufficient recollection to feel how consoling these prayers are to the dying." These are his last recorded words, and refer to the prayers for the sick to which he was attending, but later he conversed with M. Fontanes, and did not die until the next day.

Lambert(John, English teacher of languages who suffered as a martyr. His true name was Nicholson, but he changed it for greater safety in time of persecution),—1538. "None but Christ! none but Christ!"

After his legs were consumed to the stumps, two inhuman monsters who stood on each side of him pierced him with their halberds, and lifted him up as far as the chain which fastened him to the stake would reach, while he raised his half consumedhands dripping with blood and fire, and said, "None but Christ! none but Christ!"

Latimer(Hugh, early English reformer and martyr), about 1472-1555.

"Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out."

Latimer and Ridley suffered martyrdom at Oxford at the same time, October 16, 1555.

Laud(William, Archbishop of Canterbury and favorite minister of Charles I.), 1573-1645. "Lord, receive my soul," spoken to the headsman as a signal to strike. According to some authorities his last words were: "I am coming, O! Lord, as quickly as I can. I know I must pass through death before I can come to Thee, but it is only a mere shadow—a little darkness upon nature. Thou hast broken the jaws of death."

Laud was declared guilty of treason, and executed on Tower Hill, January 10, 1645.

Laurentius("Saint," a deacon of Rome who was roasted alive on a gridiron before a slow fire), abouta. d.258. "Assatus est; jam versa et manduca" (I am roasted,—now turn me, and eat me.) According to some authorities he said later: "I thank thee, O my God and Saviour, that I have been found worthy to enter into thy beatitude."

Lee(Robert Edmund, distinguished Confederate general, and President of Washington College, at Lexington, Virginia), 1806-1870. "Tell Hill he must come up." During his last hours his mind wandered, and he was living over again in his disordered imagination the military campaign through which he had passed.

His body lies in the mausoleum erected at the rear of the College chapel, and beside him are laid his wife and his daughter Agnes. Above the tomb, and visible from the chapel hall, is Valentine's recumbent marble figure of Lee the soldier taking his rest, with his sword sheathed at his side and his martial cloak around him.—White.

Leo X.(Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, elected Pope March 11, 1513), 1475-1521. "I have been murdered; no remedy can prevent my speedy death." It is believed that he was poisoned.

The circumstances attending the death of the pontiff are involved in mysterious and total obscurity, and the accounts given of this event by Varillas and similar writers in subsequent times, are the spurious offspring of their own imagination.

Roscoe "Life of Leo the Tenth."

Leo X. expired upon the 1st day of December, 1521. The vacillating game he played in European politics had just been crowned with momentary success. Some folk believed that the Pope died of joy after hearing that his Imperial allies had entered thetown of Milan; others thought that he succumbed to poison. We do not know what caused his death. But the unsoundness of his constitution, overtaxed by dissipation and generous living, in the midst of public cares for which the man had hardly nerve enough, may suffice to account for a decease certainly sudden and premature.

Symond: "Life of Michelangelo Buonarotti."

Lieber(Francis, German author, political refugee, and, later, Professor of History and Political Science in Columbia College, New York), 1800-1872.

On the afternoon of the 2nd of October, 1872, he was sitting quietly, listening to his wife, who was reading aloud to him as was her custom, when he gave one cry and immediately died.[27]

Perry's "Life and Letters of Lieber."

Lindsey(Theophilus, English Unitarian clergyman), 1723-1808. "No, whatever is, is best,"—said to a friend who suggested that his fortitude sprang from his recollection of the maxim, "Whatever is, is right."

Ligne(Charles Joseph, Prince de, "The Friend of Kings," author of "Commentaries on the Art ofWar." He was a brave and good soldier, but a great beau and dandy), 1734-1814. "Back, thou accursed phantom!" As he felt the approach of death he sprang from a recumbent to a sitting posture, and ordered the door to be closed; but finding that he could not prevent the last great enemy from entering, he gave the phantom battle; and in the midst of the conflict he threw up his arms and cried, "Back thou accursed phantom!" In a moment he was dead.

At seventy-two he was still a fop and still a gallant. "His delicately malicious and gayly ironic wit," wrote Count Ouvaroff, who knew him only in old age, "was allied with a sweetness of character and an equality of temper that were unparalleled." "Gravity only was distasteful to him, and he would always turn the conversation with a word or a nod from too serious a topic. His pride was flattered by the eagerness wherewith the curious pointed their finger at him in the street, and he was yet anxious to attract the attention which was his due. He would walk abroad in the Field Marshal's cloak, which became his youthful figure, or, still more splendid, he would drive in his gray coach, whose white horses were the wonder of all Vienna. His happiness had suffered no eclipse; his talk was as marvelous as when he astonished the Court of Versailles, and not even his wrinkles obscured the dazzle of his smile. The best of life had been his, and he waited the end in placid content, and it isin his triumph in Vienna, rather than in his cumbrous books, that you catch the last glimpse of the Prince de Ligne."

Charles Whibley: "The Pageantry of Life."

Lippard(George, American author), 1822-1854. "Is this death?" to his physician.

Lippard wrote a number of sensational novels, and a book on "Washington and his Generals." He was the founder of the once strong and useful Brotherhood of the Union, a secret charitable institution.

Lisle(Sir George, English royalist officer, taken prisoner at Colchester, where he was put to death August 29th, 1648),—1648. "I have been nearer to you when you have missed me," said to a soldier of the squad appointed to shoot him, and who had, to Sir George Lisle's request that he would not miss or merely wound him, replied, "I'll warrant, sir, we will hit you." Lisle thought the distance between himself and the firing party was too great and he wished the soldiers to come nearer to him.

Fairfax sullied his victory by an act of great cruelty. In a council of war, it was resolved that Sir Charles Lucas, Sir George Lisle, and Sir Bernard Gascoign, the governors of Colchester, should be put to death: but the life of Gascoign was spared, on account of his being a foreigner. When the other two were brought out to be shot, Lucas gave the word to fire, as if he had been at the head of hisown company. Lisle kissed him eagerly after he was dead; and desired the executioners to come nearer.—The Percy Anecdotes.

Livingstone(David, distinguished missionary, traveler and discoverer), 1813-1873. His last words, which are not recorded, were about Chilanebo's village, in Ilala, and the neighboring country, and especially about the Luapula. His mind wandered, and the questions were often disconnected and indistinct, but his last thoughts were of Africa. His attendants constructed for him a rude hut, and when it was completed they took him into it and laid him upon a rough bed—the best they could procure. He spoke only once or twice during the night. Next day he lay undisturbed. He asked a few wandering questions about the country—especially about the Luapula. His people knew that the end could not be far off. Nothing occurred to attract notice during the early part of the night, but at four in the morning, the boy who lay at his door called in alarm for Susi, fearing that their master was dead. By the candle still burning they saw him, not in bed, but kneeling at the bedside with his head buried in his hands upon the pillow. The sad yet not unexpected truth soon became evident: he had passed away on the furthest of all his journeys, and without a single attendant. But he had died in the act of prayer—prayer offered in that reverential attitude about which he was always so particular; commending his own spirit, with all his dear ones, as was his wont, into the hands of his Saviour; and commendingAfrica—his own dear Africa—with all her woes and sins and wrongs, to the Avenger of the oppressed and the Redeemer of the lost.

So soon as the death of Livingstone was known to his men, they resolved to carry their master's remains to Zanzibar. Arrangements were made for drying and embalming the body, after removing the heart and other viscera. For fourteen days the body was dried in the sun. After being wrapped in calico, and the legs bent inward at the knees, it was enclosed in a large piece of bark from a Myonga tree in the form of a cylinder; over this a piece of sail-cloth was sewed; and the package was lashed to a pole, so as to be carried by two men. Jacob Wainwright carved an inscription on the Moula tree under which the body had rested, and where the heart was buried, and Chitambo was charged to keep the grass cleared away, and to protect two posts and a cross-piece which they erected to mark the spot.

The remains were brought to Aden on board the "Calcutta," and thereafter transferred to the steamer "Malwa," which arrived at Southampton on the 15th of April. Mr. Thomas Livingstone, eldest surviving son of the Doctor, being then in Egypt on account of his health, had gone on board at Alexandria. The body was conveyed to London by special train and deposited in the rooms of the Geographical Society in Saville Row.

In the course of the evening the remains were examined by Sir William Fergusson and several other medical gentlemen, including Dr. Loudon, of Hamilton, whose professional skill and great kindness to his family had gained for him a high place in the esteem and love of Livingstone. To many persons it had appeared so incredible that the remains should have been brought from the heart of Africa to London, that some conclusive identification of the body seemed to be necessary to set all doubt at rest. The state of the arm, the one that had been broken by the lion, supplied the crucial evidence. "Exactly in the region of the attachment of the deltoid to the humerus" (wrote Sir William Fergusson in a contribution to theLancet, April 18, 1874), "there were the indications of an oblique fracture. On moving the arm there were the indications of an ununited fracture. A closer identification and dissection displayed the false joint that had so long ago been so well recognized by those who had examined the arm in former days.... The first glance set my mind at rest, and that, with further examination, made me as positive as to the identification of these remains as that there has been among us in modern times one of the greatest men of the human race—David Livingstone."

The black slab that now marks the resting-place of Livingstone in Westminster Abbey bears this inscription:

BROUGHT BY FAITHFUL HANDSOVER LAND AND SEA,HERE RESTSDAVID LIVINGSTONE,MISSIONARY, TRAVELER, PHILANTHROPIST,BORN MARCH 19, 1813,AT BLANTYRE, LANARKSHIRE.DIED MAY 4,[28]1873,AT CHITAMBO'S VILLAGE, ILALA.

For thirty years his life was spent in an unwearied effort toevangelize the native races, to explore the undiscovered secrets,and abolish the desolating slave-trade of Central Africa,and where, with his last words he wrote:"All I can say in my solitude is, may Heaven's rich blessingcome down on every one—American, English, Turk—whowill help to heal this open sore of the world."

Along the right border of the stone are the words:

TANTUS AMOR VERI, NIHIL EST QUOD NOSCERE MALIMQUAM FLUVII CAUSAS PER SÆCULA TANTA LATENTES.

And along the left border:

OTHER SHEEP I HAVE WHICH ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD,THEM ALSO I MUST BRING, AND THEY SHALL HEAR MY VOICE.

Blaikie's "Personal Life of Livingstone."

The late E. J. Glane, who crossed Africa in the interest ofThe Century, makes the following entry in his journal:

July 9. To-day I revisited the tree where Livingstonedied, and in order to guide others to the exact spot, in case this tree should disappear from any cause, I selected another big tree likely to last many years, cleared away two and a half square feet of its bark, and in the space marked as follows: "This tree is magnetic southwest of the tree where Livingstone's remains are buried, and is forty-five paces from it." I brought away a bit of the bark of the memorable tree—a dead part, so as not to be guilty of vandalism.[29]

Livingstone's grave is in a quiet nook, such as he himself desired, in the outskirts of a forest bordering on a grass plain where the roan buck and eland roam in safety. When I visited the place turtle-doves were cooing in the tree-tops, and a litter of young hyenas had been playing near by; in the low ground outside the hole leading to the cave were their recent tracks; they had scampered into safety at our approach.

Locke(John, author of the celebrated "Essay Concerning the Human Understanding"), 1632-1704. "O, the depth of the riches of the goodness and knowledge of God!"

Some authorities say his last words were, "Cease now;" to Lady Masham who was reading to him a Psalm of David.

Longfellow(Henry Wadsworth), 1807-1882. "Now I know that I must be very ill, since you have been sent for," said to his sister who came from Portland, Me.

His last written lines (nine days before his death) were:

"Out of the shadows of night,The world rolls into light;It is daybreak everywhere."—The Bells of San Blas.

Louis I.(Louis le Débonnaire), 778-840. "Huz! huz!"

He turned his face to the wall and twice cried, "Huz! huz!" ("Out! out!") and then died.

Bouquet.

Louis IX.("Saint Louis," canonized by Pope Boniface VIII. in 1297), 1215-1270. "I will enter now into the house of the Lord."

Some authorities say his last words were "We will go to Jerusalem."

Louis XIII.(son of Henry IV. and Marie de Médicis), 1601-1643. "Well, my God, I consent with all my heart," to his physician who told him he had but two hours to live.

Louis XIV.(surnamedLe Grand, often calledLouis Quatorze, the most magnificent of the Bourbon Kings), 1638-1715. "Why weep ye? Did you think I should live forever?" then after a pause, "Ithought dying had been harder." Some say his last words were: "O God, come to mine aid! O Lord, make haste to help me!"

On Sunday, August 31, towards eleven o'clock in the evening, the prayers for the dying were said for Louis XIV. He recited them himself in a louder voice than any of the spectators; and seemed still more majestic on his death-bed than on his throne. When the prayers were ended he recognized Cardinal de Rohan and said to him, "These are the graces of the Church." Several times he repeated: "Nunc et in hora mortis." Then he said, "O God, come unto mine aid; O Lord, make haste to help me." These were his last words. The agony was beginning. It lasted all night, and on Sunday, September 1, 1715, at a quarter past eight in the morning, Louis XIV., aged seventy-seven years lacking three days, during sixty-two of which he had been a king, yielded his great soul to God.

Imbert de Saint-Amand.

Louis XV.(of France), 1710-1774. "Repeat those words Monsieur the almoner, repeat them," to Cardinal de La Roche-Aymon, who read aloud the public apology made by the sovereign to his people.

Some authorities give his last words thus: "I have been a great sinner, doubtless, but I have ever observed Lent with a most scrupulous exactness; I have caused more than a hundred thousand massesto be said for the repose of unhappy souls, so that I flatter myself I have not been a very bad Christian."

A candle burning in the King's chamber, which was to be extinguished at the same moment as the life of the King, was the signal agreed on for the measures to be taken and the orders to be given as soon as he should have breathed his last. The candle was put out at two o'clock in the afternoon of May 10, 1774. Instantly a great tumult, comparable to a clap of thunder, shook the arches of Versailles. It was the crowd of courtiers leaving the antechambers of the dead man and noisily hastening to meet the new monarch.

Imbert de Saint-Amand: "The Last Years of Louis XV."

Louis XVI.(guillotined by a wild and bloodthirsty mob, called the French Republic, the 21st of January, 1793), 1754-1793. "Frenchmen, I die innocent of all the crimes which have been imputed to me. I forgive my enemies; I implore God, from the bottom of my heart, to pardon them, and not to take vengeance on the French nation for the blood about to be shed."

He was proceeding, when Santerre, who was on horseback near the scaffold, made a signal for the drums to beat, when the assistants seized the victim, and the horrid murder was completed.

When the king's head was severed from the body,one of the executioners held it up by the hair, dancing at the same time around the scaffold, with the most savage exultation.

Contemporary History of the French Revolution.

Louis XVII.(second son of Louis XVI. He became dauphin at the death of an elder brother in 1789, and was recognized as king in January, 1793, by the French royalists and several foreign courts, but he was closely confined by the Jacobins. The cruel treatment which he received in prison hastened his death), 1785-1795. "I have something to tell you."

Louis XVIII.(Louis Stanislas Xavier), 1755-1824. "A King should die standing."

Louise(Auguste Wilhelmine Amelie, Queen of Prussia), 1776-1810. "I am a Queen, but have no power to move my arms."

Lovat(Lord Fraser of Lovat, Scottish Jacobite conspirator. In the rebellion of 1745 he was detected in treasonable acts against King George, for which he was executed), about 1666-1747.

He was beheaded on Tower Hill. On reaching the scaffold, he asked for the executioner, and presented him with a purse containing ten guineas. He then asked to see the axe, felt its edge, and said he thought it would do. Next he looked at his coffin, on which was inscribed:

Simon, Dominus Fraser De Lovat.Decollat April 9, 1747Ætat suae 80.

After repeating some lines from Horace, and next from Ovid, he prayed, then bade adieu to his solicitor and agent in Scotland; finally the executioner completed his work, the head falling from the body. Lord Lovat was the last person beheaded in England.

Andrews: "Bygone Punishments."

LucanorLucanus(Marcus Annæus, Roman epic poet, nephew of the philosopher Seneca), 38-65.

Lucan exhibited great apparent serenity at the approach of death. After the veins of his arm had been voluntarily opened, and he had lost a large quantity of blood, he felt his hands and his legs losing their vitality. As the hour of death approached, he commenced repeating several lines out of his own "Pharsalia," descriptive of a person similarly situated to himself. These lines he repeated until he died:

"Asunder flies the man—No single wound the gaping rupture seems,Where trickling crimson flows the tender streams;But from an opening horrible and wideA thousand vessels pour the bursting tide:At once the winding channel's course was broke,Where wandering life her mazy journey took."Winslow: "Anatomy of Suicide."

Lucas(Sir Charles. He commanded the right wing of the royal army at Marston Moor, was taken prisoner at Colchester, where he was put to death August 29th, 1648),—1648. "Soldiers, fire!" to the soldiers appointed to shoot him.

LulliorLully(Jean Baptiste, Italian composer, called "the Father of French Dramatic Music"), 1633-1687. "Sinner, thou must die." In sign of his repentance he died with a halter around his neck, repeating and, sometimes singing, with tears of remorse, "Sinner, thou must die."

Luther(Martin, the greatest of the Protestant reformers), 1484-1546. "Yes," in response to the question whether he stood by the doctrines of Scripture as he had taught them.

The same man who could scold like a fishwife could be as gentle as a tender maiden. At times he was as fierce as the storm that uproots oaks; and then again he was as mild as the zephyr caressing the violets.... The refinement of Erasmus, the mildness of Melancthon, could never have brought us so far as the godlike brutality of brother Martin.—Heine.

Lyttelton(George, first Lord, English statesman, author of "Dialogues of the Dead," and "History of Henry II."), 1709-1773. "Be good, be virtuous, my lord, you must come to this," to his son-in-law, Lord Valentia.

Macaulay(Thomas Babington, Lord), 1800-1859. "I shall retire early; I am very tired," said to his butler, who asked him if he would not rest on the sofa.

His mother resolved to spend the night at Holly Lodge. She had just left the drawing-room to make her preparations for the visit (it being, I suppose, a little before seven in the evening), when a servant arrived with an urgent summons. As we drove up to the porch of my uncle's house, the maids ran, crying, out into the darkness to meet us, and we knew that all was over. We found him in the library, seated in his easy chair, and dressed as usual; with his book on the table beside him, still open at the same page. He had told his butler that he should go to bed early, as he was very tired. The man proposed his lying on the sofa. He rose as if to move, sat down again, and ceased to breathe. He died as he had always wished to die—without pain; without any formal farewell; preceding to the grave all whom he loved; and leaving behind him a great and honorable name, and the memory of a life every action of which was clear and transparent as one of his own sentences.—G. Otto Trevelyan.

Maccail(his given name has not been preserved, a Scots Covenanter who expired under torture in the time of Charles II. of England), 1668. He died in an ecstasy of joy, and his last words were: "Farewell sun, moon and stars; farewell, world and time;farewell, weak and frail body; welcome, eternity; welcome, angels and saints; welcome, Saviour of the world; welcome, God, the Judge of all."

Machiavelli, orMacchiavelli, sometimesMachiavel(Nicholas, a celebrated atheist, and the author of "The Prince"), 1469-1530. "I desire to go to hell, and not to heaven. In the former place I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings, and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks, hermits, and apostles."

Mackintosh(Sir James, philosopher and politician), 1765-1832. "Happy!"

Malherbe(François de, the "Father of French lyric poetry"), 1555-1628. "Hold your tongue; your wretched style only makes me out of conceit with them," to his confessor, who was presenting the joys of heaven in vulgar and trite phrases.

His ruling passion was purity of diction. He would destroy a quire of paper in composing a single stanza; and it is said that during the twenty-five most prolific years of his life he made only about thirty-three verses a year.

Marat(Jean Paul, court-physician, author of several scientific works, and later the main promoter of the Reign of Terror in France), 1743-1793. "Help, my dear—help!" As Marat uttered these words he fell at the feet of Charlotte Corday, and immediately expired.

Charlotte, motionless, and as if petrified at her crime, was standing behind the window curtain. The transparent material allowed her form to be easily distinguished. Laurent, taking up a chair, struck her a clumsy blow on the head, which knocked her to the floor, where Marat's mistress trampled her under foot in her rage. At the noise that ensued, and the cries of the two women, the occupants of the house hastened thither, neighbors and persons passing in the streets ascended the staircase and filled the room, the courtyard, and very speedily the whole quarter, demanding, with fierce exclamations, that they would throw the assassin out to them, that they might avenge the dead—yet still warm—body of the people's idol. Soldiers and national guards entered, and order was, in some measure, re-established. Surgeons arrived, and endeavored to stanch the wound. The reddened water gave to the sanguinary democrat the appearance of having died in a bath of blood.—Larmartine.

The veneration for the monster Marat knew no bounds. Hymns were written in his honor. On divers stamps he was placed by the side of Christ. Men swore by the sacred heart of Marat. The new worship was complete, it had prostitutes for goddesses, and a man of violence and blood for a martyr and a saint. All it yet lacked was to engage in persecution; and it failed not in this worthy business.—De Pressensé.

Marcus(of Arethusa), being hung up in a basket smeared with honey, to be stung to death by bees, exclaimed,[30]"How am I advanced, despising you that are upon the earth!"

Margaret(of Scotland, wife of Louis XI. of France), 1420-1445. "Fi de la vie! qu'on ne m'en parle plus."

Margaret was devoted to literature, and, while she lived, patronized men of learning and genius. Her admiration for the poet Alain Chartier is said to have induced her to kiss his lips as he sat asleep one day in a chair. Her attendants being astonished at this act of condescension, the princess replied that "she did not kiss the man, but the lips which had given utterance to so many exquisite thoughts." She died at the age of twenty-five, before her husband had ascended the throne.

Mrs. Hale's "Sketches of Distinguished Women."

Margaret(of Valois, Queen of Navarre and sister of Francis I., of France), 1492-1549. "Farewell, and remember me." Some say, upon what authority I do not know, that the queen's last words were: "I never departed from the true church."

She inclined to the Protestant faith, but Roman Catholic writers assert that before her death she acknowledged her religious errors, and De Remond even goes so far as to imply that she denied on her death-bed having ever swerved from the standard of Roman authority.—Memoir of Margaret, attached to the English translation of her Heptameron.

She was a brilliant writer in both prose and verse, and was called the "Tenth Muse." Several authors speak of her as "Margaret the Pearl, surpassing all the pearls of the Orient." She composed a religious work called "Miroir de l'âme Pècheresse," which was condemned by the Sorbonne, on the ground that it inclined to Protestant doctrines. She also wrote the "Heptameron, or Novels of the Queen of Navarre."

Marie Antoinette(Marie Antoinette Josephine Jeanne de Lorraine, daughter of Francis I., Emperor of Germany, and Maria Thérèsa, and wife of Louis XVI., of France; she was guillotined October 16, 1793), 1755-1793. "Farewell, my children, forever. I go to your father."

The king perished on the scaffold January 21, 1793. The queen had four children, Marie Thérèse Charlotte, who married the oldest son of Charles X.; the dauphin, Louis, born in 1781 and died in 1789; Charles Louis, who died a victim to the brutality of the cobbler Simon; and a daughter who died in infancy.

Martineau(Harriet, English author, and translator of "The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte"), 1802-1876. "I have had a noble share of life, and I do not ask for any other life. I see no reason why the existence of Harriet Martineau should be perpetuated."

During the last one-and-twenty years of her life, death was the idea most familiar and most welcome. It was spoken of and provided for with an easy freedom that I never saw approached in any other home, yet she never expressed a wish respecting a place of burial. But a few days before her death, when asked if she would be laid in the burial-place of her family, she assented; and she lies with her kindred, in the old cemetery at Birmingham.[31]

Maria Weston Chapman.

Mary(Queen of Scots), 1542-1587. "O Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit."

The first blow of the executioner inflicted a ghastly wound on the lower part of the skull. Not a scream nor groan, not a sigh escaped her, but the convulsion of her features showed the horrible suffering caused by the wound. The eye-witness of the execution, whose account is published, thus relates this incident: "Thereupon the headsman brought down his axe, but missing the proper place, gave her a horrible blow upon the upper extremity of the neck; but, with unexampled fortitude, she remained perfectly still, and did not even heave a sigh. At the second stroke the neck was severed and the head held up to the gaze of bystanders with 'God save Queen Elizabeth!'"—Meline's "Mary Queen of Scots."

When the psalm was finished she felt for the block, and laying down her head muttered: "In manus, Domine, tuas commendo animam meam." The hard wood seemed to hurt her, for she placed her hands under her neck. The executioners gently removed them lest they should deaden the blow, and then one of them, holding her slightly, the other raised the axe and struck. The scene had been too trying even for the practised headsman of the Tower. His arm wandered. The blow fell on the knot of the handkerchief and scarcely broke the skin. She neither spoke nor moved. He struck again, this time effectively. The head hung by a shred of skin, which he divided without withdrawing the axe, and at once a metamorphosis was witnessed strange as was ever wrought by wand of fabled enchanter. The coif felloff and the false plaits; the labored illusion vanished; the lady who had knelt before the block was in the maturity of grace and loveliness. The executioner, when he raised the head as usual to show it to the crowd, exposed the withered features of a grizzled, wrinkled old woman.

Froude's "History of England."

Mary(Countess of Warwick),—1678. "Well, ladies, if I were one hour in heaven, I would not be again with you, as much as I love you."

She is the author of the famous question: "Why are we so fond of that life which begins with a cry, and ends with a groan?"

Mary I.(Queen of England, commonly called "Bloody Queen Mary" on account of her violent and cruel persecution of the Protestants), 1517-1558. "After I am dead, you will find Calais written upon my heart."

The loss of Calais just before her death affected her deeply.

Of the first Mary, long and too deservedly known by the title of "Bloody Mary," we confess we can never think without commiseration. Unamiable she certainly was, and deplorably bigoted. She sent two hundred and eighty-four people to the stake during a short reign of five years and four months; which, upon an average, is upwards of four a week! She was withal plain, petty of stature, ill-colored, and fierce-eyed, with a voice almost as deep as a man's;had a bad blood; and ended with having nobody to love her, not even the bigots in whose cause she lost the love of her people.

Leigh Hunt: "Men, Women and Books."

Mary II.(Queen of England and wife of William III.), 1662-1694. "My Lord, why do you not go on? I am not afraid to die." Said to Archbishop Tillotson who, reading to her, when she was upon her death-bed, the commendatory prayer in the office for the sick, was so overcome by grief that he was compelled to pause.

Masaniello(Tommaso Aniello, the fisherman of Amalfi, who headed the revolt which occurred in Naples in 1647 against the Spanish viceroy, the Duke of Arcos. His victory lasted nine days, during which time he had one hundred and fifty thousand men under arms and at his command. He was murdered by his own soldiers), 1623-1646. "Ungrateful traitors!" said to the assassins.

Mather(Cotton), 1633-1728. "I am going where all tears will be wiped from my eyes," to his wife, who wiped his eyes with her handkerchief.

Just before this he exclaimed: "Is this dying? Is this all? Is this all that I feared when I prayed against a hard death? Oh! I can bear this! I can bear it! I can bear it!"

He was a masterful man, abundant in labors, the organizer of over twenty charitable societies, aleader of all movements in church and state, an omnivorous reader, and the author of 382 separate publications, besides his enormous "Biblia Americana," which remains to this day in manuscript. He surmounted the prejudices of his age in defending inoculation, but not with regard to witchcraft and some other matters. His character was marred by certain restless infirmities; "it was his unconcealed grief that he was never elected to preside over Harvard." His greatest work, "Magnalia Christi Americana," 1702, was reprinted in two volumes, with memoir, and translations of the numerous Hebrew, Greek, and Latin quotations, Hartford, 1855.

Biographical Dictionary.

Mather(Increase, distinguished New England divine), 1639-1723. "Be fruitful."

Mather(Richard, celebrated Congregational minister in Dorchester, Mass. He was a voluminous author), 1596-1669. "Far from well, yet far better than mine iniquities deserve," in response to a question about his health.

Mathews(Charles, English Comedian), 1776-1836. "I am ready."

Maurice(John Frederick Denison, English divine and leader of the Broad Church party), 1805-1872. "The knowledge of the love of God—the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son andthe Holy Ghost be amongst you—amongst us—and remain with us forever."

During the early days of his last sickness he suffered greatly in mind, but as the end approached the sky cleared as after a shower, and his spirit passed away under the bright rainbow of hope.

Mazarin(Jules, cardinal and chief minister of France during the minority of Louis XIV.), 1602-1661. "O, my poor soul, what is to become of thee? Whither wilt thou go?"

Mazarin(Hortense Mancini, sister of the celebrated cardinal), 1647-1699. "Debt!"

She was so heavily in debt at the time of her death that her body was seized by her creditors.

Maximilian I.(Emperor of Germany), 1459-1519. His last words are not recorded, but just before his death he left directions that as soon as he was dead all his hair should be plucked out of his body, all his teeth should be drawn, and that both his teeth and his hair should be burned. His body was to be scourged, and then wrapped in quicklime, after which, clad in silk and damask, it was to be buried under the high altar in such position that the priest who said mass should always rest his feet above the emperor's breast. His body is entombed in Wienerisch Neustadt under the altar as he directed.

Maximilian(Ferdinand Joseph, Emperor of Mexico and Archduke of Austria), 1832-1867. "Lotte." His last word would seem to indicate that he was thinking of his wife, the unfortunate Carlotta, daughter of Leopold, King of Belgium.

In 1865 Maximilian was tempted by Napoleon III. to act the part of Emperor of Mexico, then partly governed by the republican President Juarez and partly conquered by the French. He arrived at the Mexican capital in June 1864. He issued a decree that all who adhered to the republic or resisted his authority should be shot. Many prisoners, including General Orteaga, accordingly suffered death by his order. According to the "New York Evening Post" of July 1st, 1867, he ordered the enslavement of the whole laboring population of Mexico. The United States refused to recognize him as Emperor, and required Napoleon to withdraw his army. Maximilian was embarrassed by want of money, and offended the clerical party (which had favored him) by refusing to restore the property of the Church, which had been confiscated by the Liberals. The French troops departed about the end of 1866, after which the republicans gained several victories and the empire quickly collapsed. Maximilian was captured at Quéretaro, and shot on the 19th of June 1867.—Lippincott.

Melanchthon(Philip. His original German name was Schwarzerdt, which he Grecized intoMelanchthon, or, as he sometimes spelled it Melanthon. Both names denote "black earth"), 1497-1568. "Nothing else but heaven," in answer to a friend who enquired if he wanted anything further.

Mericourt(Anne Joseph Théroigne de, the famous "Goddess of Reason"[32]), 1760-1817. This woman's last words were partly reminiscent and partly the incoherent ravings of a disordered brain. The old scenes rose before her with startling vividness.

"Died, within these few days, in the hospital ofpauper lunatics of Saltpêtrière, where she had lived unpitied and unknown for many years, the famous Théroigne de Mericourt (the Goddess of Reason), the most remarkable of the heroines of the revolution."—A Paris paper of August 1, 1817.

Metastasio(Pietro Bonaventura, originally named Trapassi, but changed to Metastasio, "a changing," in allusion to his adoption by the celebrated jurist Gravina, from whom he received a large property), 1698-1782. After he had received the sacrament, and a few minutes before his death, the poet uttered with unusual enthusiasm the following beautiful stanzas:

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