Part 10

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 the English 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 the _sans-culottes_ broke 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. The _sans-culottes_ took 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 the _sans-culottes_ for showing the body. The trouserless crowd said he was a good _sans-culotte_, and they were going to put him into a hole in the public churchyard like other _sans-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 to the 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."

JEWELL or JEWEL (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 at sea. 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 hollow Dark 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._

The Jugurthine war, which was terminated B. 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 heard him 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, just after 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 of _gen d'armerie_. On arriving at the place of execution, he knelt down and received the benediction of the confessor who accompanied him. He then 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 HARPE or LAHARPE 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 consumed hands 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), about A. 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 the town 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."_

[27] It has been thought that Lieber's death was occasioned by rupture of the heart. See the last words of Charles Sumner and the foot note on his sudden death. See also the last words of John Palmer and the account of his death appended from the Annual Register.

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 of War." 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 is in 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 his own 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 commending AFRICA--his own dear Africa--with all her woes and sins and wrongs, to the Avenger of the oppressed and the Redeemer of the lost.