Part 12

[31] Her Will, by which her personalty, sworn under £10,000, is suitably divided among her brothers and sisters, an old servant, and a few friends, contains one peculiar provision which indicates the desire of the testatrix, even when dead, to benefit the living. "It is my desire," she says, "from an interest in the progress of scientific investigation, that my Skull should be given to Henry George Atkinson, of Upper Gloucester Place, London, and also my Brain, if my death should take place within such distance of his then present abode, as to enable him to have it for the purposes of scientific observation." By the second codicil, dated October 5th, 1872, this direction is revoked; "but," the codicil proceeds, "I wish to leave it on record that this alteration in my testamentary directions is not caused by any change of opinion as to the importance of scientific observation on such subjects, but is made in consequence merely of a change of circumstances in my individual case." The "circumstances" alluded to were doubtless these. When the removal of Miss Martineau to London took place, the "Burke and Hare" murders, and "body-snatching" generally, were the special horrors of the day. The only authorized supply of "subjects" for dissection was from the gallows; and philanthropic persons sought by selling the reversion of their bodies (a transaction which, legally, does not hold good), or like Jeremy Bentham, leaving them to some institution, or medical expert, by a special bequest (also nugatory), to dissolve the association of disgrace with the necessary procedure of dissection. The difficulty was, in great measure, relieved by the passing of Mr. Warburton's Bill; and hence the necessity for such an arrangement as that made by Miss Martineau ceased to exist. The singular provision, had however, become known; and shortly after the execution of the document, the testatrix received a letter from the celebrated aurist, Mr. Toynbee, asking her point-blank to bequeath him a "legacy of her ears." She had suffered from deafness all her life; a large amount of mischief and misery was caused by the ignorance of surgeons with regard to the auditory apparatus; and this ignorance could only be removed by such means as he proposed. The lady to whom this strange request was made, says with grim humour, that she felt "rather amused when she caught herself in a feeling of shame, as it were, at having only one pair of ears,--at having no duplicate for Mr. Toynbee, after having disposed otherwise of her skull." She, however, told him how the matter actually stood; and a meeting took place between the doctor and the legatee, "to ascertain whether one head could, in any way, be made to answer both their objects."

An autopsy of her body was eventually made by Dr. T. M. Greenhow, of Leeds; a full detail of the appearances at which will be found in the _British Medical Journal_, for April 14th, 1877, p. 449.--_William Bates in "The Maclise Portrait Gallery._"

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 fell off 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, a leader 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 and the 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 into Melanchthon, 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 of pauper 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._

[32] Mlle. Maillard, the actress, is mentioned by Lamartine as one of the Goddesses, who was compelled to play the part much against her will. "Chaumette, assisted by Laïs, an actor of the Opera, had arranged the fête of December 20, 1793. Mademoiselle Maillard, an actress, brilliant with youth and talents, played the part of the goddess. She was borne in a palanquin, the canopy of which was formed of oak branches. Women in white, with tri-colored sashes, preceded her. Attired with theatrical buskins, a Phrygian cap and a blue chlamys over a transparent tunic, she was taken to the foot of the altar and seated there. Behind her burnt an immense torch, symbolizing 'the flame of philosophy,' the true light of the world. Chaumette, taking a censer in his hands, fell on his knees to the goddess, and offered incense, and the whole concluded with dancing and song."--_Lamartine._

There was also a Goddess of Liberty. The wife of Momoro went attended by the municipal officers, national guards and troops of ballet girls to the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. Gobet (the archbishop of Paris), and nearly all the bishops, vicars, canons, priests, and curés of Paris stripped themselves of their canonicals, donned the red nightcap, and joined in this blasphemous mockery.

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:

"_T'offro il tuo proprio Figlio, Che già d'amore in pegno, Racchiuso in picciol segno Si volle a noi donar.

A lui rivolgi il ciglio. Guardo chi t'offro, e poi Lasci, Signor, se vuoi, Lascia di perdonar._"

I offer to Thee, O Lord, Thy own Son, who already has given the pledge of love, inclosed in this thin emblem; turn on Him thine eyes; oh! behold whom I offer to Thee and then desist, O Lord! if Thou canst desist from mercy.

MIRABEAU (Honoré Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de), 1749-1791. "_When nature has abandoned an unhappy victim, when a miracle only can save his life, how can you have the barbarity to let him expire on the wheel?_" spoken in support of a request for laudanum.

At daybreak he said to Cabanis:--"My friend I shall die to-day. When one is in this situation, there remains but one thing more to do, and that is to perfume me, to crown me with flowers, to environ me with music, so that I may enter sweetly into that slumber wherefrom there is no awaking."[33]

Later in the day he uttered these memorable words:--"I carry in my heart the dirge of the monarchy, the ruins whereof will now be the prey of the factions."

His death, although that of a sceptic, had something in it sublime. He was no stranger to his approaching dissolution; but, far from being intimidated by the prospect, he gloried in the name he was to leave. Hearing the cannon discharge upon some public event, he exclaimed, "I already hear the funeral obsequies of Achilles--after my death, the factions will tear to shreds the remnants of the monarchy." His sufferings were severe at the close of his illness: at one period, when the power of speech was gone, he wrote on a slip of paper the words of Hamlet, "To die is to sleep." "When a sick man is given over, and he suffers frightful pains, can a friendly physician refuse to give him opium?" "My pains are insupportable; I have an age of strength, but not an instant of courage." A few hours before his death, the commencement of mortification relieved his sufferings. "Remove from the bed," said he, "all that sad apparatus. Instead of these useless precautions, surround me with perfumes and the flowers of spring; dress my hair with care; let me fall asleep amidst the sound of harmonious music." He then spoke for ten minutes with such vivid and touching eloquence, that every one in the room was melted into tears. "When I am no more," said he, "my worth will become known. The misfortunes which I have held back will then pour on all sides upon France; the criminal faction which now trembles before me will be unbridled. I have before my eyes unbounded presentiments of disaster. We now see how much we erred in not preventing the commons from assuming the name of the National Assembly; since they gained that victory, they have never ceased to show themselves unworthy of it. They have chosen to govern the King, instead of governing by him; but soon neither he nor they will rule the country, but a vile faction, which will overspread it with horrors." A spasm, attended with violent convulsions, having returned, he again asked for laudanum. "When nature," said he, "has abandoned an unhappy victim, when a miracle only can save his life, how can you have the barbarity to let him expire on the wheel?" His feet were already cold, but his countenance still retained its animation, his eye its wonted fire, as if death spared to the last the abode of so much genius. Feigning to comply, they gave him a cup, containing what they assured him was laudanum. He calmly drank it off, fell back on his pillow, and expired. _Alison's "History of Europe."_

[33] Jeremy Bentham, when he firmly believed that he was near his last hour, said to one of his disciples, who was watching over him:--"I now feel that I am dying. Our care must be to minimize the pain. Do not let any of the servants come into the room, and keep away the youths. It will be distressing to them, and they can be of no service. Yet I must not be alone, and you will remain with me, and you only, and then we shall have reduced the pain to the least possible amount."

Bentham dreaded the silence and darkness of the grave, and wished to remain even after his death in a world of living men. He left his body to Dr. Southwood Smith who was to perform certain experiments to ascertain that no life remained. After these experiments the following disposition was to be made of his remains: "The skeleton Dr. Smith shall cause to be put together in such manner that the whole figure may be seated in a chair usually occupied by me when living, in the attitude in which I am sitting when engaged in thought in the course of the time employed in writing. I direct that the body, thus prepared, shall be transferred to my executor, and that he shall cause the skeleton to be clothed in one of the suits of black usually worn by me. The body so clothed, together with the chair and the staff in my later years borne by me, he shall take charge of, and for containing the whole apparatus he shall cause to be prepared an appropriate box or case, and shall cause to be engraved in conspicuous characters on a plate to be affixed thereon, and also in the glass case in which the preparations of the soft parts of my body shall be contained, as, for example, in the manner used in the case of wine decanters; my name at length with the letters _ob_: followed by the day of my decease. If it should so happen that my personal friends and other disciples should be disposed to meet together on some day, or days of the year for the purpose of commemorating the founder of the Greatest Happiness System of Morals and Legislation, my executor shall cause to be conveyed into the room in which they meet the case with its contents."

Humphry Repton, author of a delightful book on "Landscape Gardening and Landscape Architecture," requested that his remains might be deposited in a "garden of roses." He selected a small enclosure by the church of Aylsham, in Norfolk, one of the most lovely spots in all England, where were a number of roses and vines, as his last resting place. On the monument over his grave, after his name and age, are these lines written by himself:--

"Not like the Egyptian tyrants--consecrate, Unmixt with others shall my dust remain; But mouldering, blended, melting into earth, Mine shall give form and colour to the rose; And while its vivid blossoms cheer mankind, Its perfum'd odour shall ascend to heaven."

MOHAMMED (The name signified "the praised," and was assumed by the founder of Islam. He was originally called Halabi), about 570-632. "_O Allah, be it so! Henceforth among the glorious host of paradise._" Some give his last words thus, "O Allah, pardon my sins. Yes, I come, among my fellow labourers on high."

In his last wanderings he only spoke of angels and heaven. He died in the lap of Ayeshah, about noon of Monday, the twelfth (eleventh) of the third month, in the year 11 of the Hedyrah (June 8, 632). His death caused an immense excitement and distress among the faithful, and Omar, who himself would not believe in it, tried to persuade the people of his still being alive. But Abu Bekr said to the assembled multitude:--"Whoever among you has served Mohammed, let him know that Mohammed is dead; but he who has served the god of Mohammed, let him continue in his service, for he is still alive and never dies." _Chambers' Encyclopædia._

MONTCALM (Saint-Véran de Marquis), 1712-1759. "_So much the better! I shall not then live to see the surrender of Quebec_," on being told that he was dying.

MONTEFIORE (Sir Moses, wealthy and distinguished Jewish philanthropist), 1785-1885. "_Thank God! Thank Heaven!_"

MONTEZUMA II (Monteçumatin, "the sad or severe man"--the last of the Aztec emperors), about 1470-1520. "_I confide to your care my beloved children, the most precious jewels I can leave you. The great monarch beyond the ocean will interest himself to see that they come into their inheritance, if you present before him their just claims. I know your master will do this, if for no other reason, then for the kindness I have shown the Spaniards, though it has occasioned my ruin. For all my misfortunes, Malinche,[34] I bear you no ill will._" Some give his last words thus: "And do you think I, then, am taking pleasure in my bath?"

[34] _Malinche_, Montezuma's name for Cortes, was borrowed from the original name of the conqueror's mistress and interpreter, known in the Spanish records as Marina. See "_Death of Montezuma_," in Prescott's "_Conquest of Mexico_."

MONTFORT DE (Simon, Earl of Leicester), 1208-1265. "_Commend your souls to God, for our bodies are the foes'!_" To his followers, when he saw the advance of the enemy at the battle of Evesham.

MOODY (Dwight Lyman, distinguished American evangelist), 1837-1899. "_I see earth receding; Heaven is opening; God is calling me._"[35]

As the noonday hour drew near, the watchers at the bedside noticed the approach of death. Several times Mr. Moody's lips moved as if in prayer, but the articulation was so faint that the words could not be heard.

Just as death came Mr. Moody awoke as if from slumber, and said, with much joyousness. "I see earth receding; Heaven is opening; God is calling me," and a moment later he had entered upon what one of his sons described as "a triumphal march into heaven."--_New York Times, Dec. 23, 1899._

[35] The world recedes. It disappears. Heaven opens to my eyes. My ears With sounds seraphic ring. Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! O grave, where is thy victory! O death, where is thy sting! --_Pope: "The Dying Christian to his Soul."_

MOORE (Sir John, British general, whose death is beautifully commemorated in an ode by Rev. Charles Wolfe. Byron pronounced this ode the best in the English language),[36] 1761-1809.