Part 6

[16] The man whose mind, on virtue bent, Pursues some greatly good intent, With undiverted aim, Serene beholds the angry crowd; Nor can their clamors, fierce and loud, His stubborn honor tame.

Not the proud tyrant's fiercest threat, Nor storms, that from their dark retreat The lawless surges wake; Not Jove's dread bolt, that shakes the pole, The firmer purpose of his soul With all its power can shake.

Should nature's frame in ruins fall, And chaos o'er the sinking ball Resume the primeval sway, His courage chance and fate defies, Nor feels the wreck of earth and skies Obstruct its destined way. _Translated by Blacklocke._

DICKENS (Charles), 1812-1870. "_On the ground._" He was losing his balance and feared that he would fall to the floor.

DIDEROT (Denis, French philosopher, atheist and chief among the Encyclopedists), 1712-1784. On the evening of the 30th of July, 1784, he sat down to the table, and at the end of the meal took an apricot. His wife, with kindly solicitude, remonstrated. "_Mais quel diable de mal veux-te que cela me fosse?_" he said, and ate the apricot. Then he rested his elbow on the table, trifling with some sweetmeats. His wife asked him a question; on receiving no answer, she looked up and saw that he was dead. He had died as the Greek poet says that men died in the golden age, "They passed away as if mastered by sleep."--_John Morley._

DILLON (Wentworth, Earl of Roscommon, English poet and translator), about 1633-1684. His last words were from his own translation of the "Dies Irae:"

"_My God, my Father, and my Friend, Do not forsake me in the end._"

DIOGENES (the Cynic, son of Isecius), B. C. 413-323. Just what were his last words is uncertain, but a short time before he died, he was asked where he would be buried when dead. "In an open field," said he. "How!" enquired one, "are you not afraid of becoming food for birds of prey and wild beasts?" "Then I must have my stick with me," said Diogenes. "But," continued the other, "you will be devoid of sensation." "If that is the case," said he, "it is no matter whether they eat me or not, seeing I shall be insensible to it."

His death was occasioned by indigestion from eating a neat's foot raw; but some say he put an end to his life by holding his breath. After his death there was a great dispute among his friends and followers as to who should be accorded the privilege of burying him, and when they were about to come to violence, the magistrates interfered and quieted the disturbance.

DODD (Rev. Dr. William, author of numerous religious and other works. He was the founder of "The Magdalen" for reclaiming young women fallen from virtue, the "Poor Debtors' Society" and the "Humane Society." He was executed for forgery), 1729-1777. Just before his death he said to the executioner, "_Come to me_," and when the executioner obeyed, the doctor whispered to him. What he said is not known, but it was observed that the man had no sooner driven away than he took the place where the cart had been, under the gibbet, and held the doctor's legs, as if to steady the body, and the unhappy man appeared to die without pain.

DOMINIC ("Saint," founder of the order of Dominicans and of the order of Preaching Friars. He was one of the instigators of the cruel and inhuman crusade against the Albigenses about 1212. Many strange stories are told of him, and among these that he offered himself for sale to the highest bidder, in order to raise money for charitable purposes), 1170-1221. "_Under the feet of my friars_," when asked where he would like to be buried.

DONNE (John, D. D., English poet and theologian), 1573-1631. "_I were miserable, if I might not die._" Some say his last words were: "I repent of my life except that part of it which I spent in communion with God, and in doing good." Others say his last words were, "Thy will be done."

Dr. Donne was formerly Dean of St. Paul's. Among other preparations for his death, he ordered an urn to be cut in wood, on which was to be placed a board of the exact height of his body. He then caused himself to be tied up in a winding-sheet. Thus shrouded, and standing with his eyes shut, and with just so much of the sheet put aside as might discover his death-like face, he caused his portrait to be taken, which, when finished, was placed near his bedside, and there remained to the hour of his death. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, where a monument was erected over him, composed of white marble, and carved from the above-mentioned picture, by order of his dearest friend and executor, Dr. King, Bishop of Chichester.[17]

[17] Charles V., of Spain, seems to have entertained the same morbid desire for a personal acquaintance with his own _postmortem_ appearance and condition. In Robertson's History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V. we have this account of the monarch's attendance upon his own funeral: "He resolved to celebrate his own obsequies before his death. He ordered his tomb to be erected in the chapel of the monastery. His domestics marched thither in funeral procession, with black tapers in their hands. He himself followed in his shroud. He was laid in his coffin with much solemnity. The service for the dead was chanted, and Charles joined in the prayers which were offered up for the rest of his soul, mingling his tears with those which his attendants shed, as if they had been celebrating a real funeral. The ceremony closed with sprinkling holy water on the coffin in the usual form, and all the assistants retiring, the doors of the chapel were shut. Then Charles rose out of the coffin, and withdrew to his apartment, full of those awful sentiments which such a singular solemnity was calculated to inspire." This story is somewhat changed in Stirling's "Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles V."

If I must die, I'll snatch at every thing That may but mind me of my latest breath; Death's-heads, Graves, Knells, Blacks, Tombs, all these shall bring Into my soul such useful thoughts of death, That this sable king of fears Shall not catch me unawares.--_Quarles._

DORNEY (Henry, a man of peculiarly beautiful life and religious experience. His "Contemplations and Letters," published after his death, had a large circulation), 1613-1683. "_I am almost dead; lift me up a little higher_," to his wife.

DREW (Samuel, English preacher and author. He commenced life as an infidel shoemaker, but after conversion gave himself to constant study of the Bible and Christian Theology. He wrote the once famous book, "The Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul"), 1765-1833. "_Thank God, to-morrow I shall join the glorious company above._" Last _recorded_ words.

DRUMMOND (Henry, author of "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," "The Ascent of Man" and a large number of published lectures and addresses), 1851-1897. "_There's nothing to beat that, Hugh. It is a paraphrase of the words of Paul: 'I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him, against that day,'_" said of the lines which Dr. Barbour had just joined with him in singing:--

"I'm not ashamed to own my Lord, Or to defend His cause, Maintain the glory of His cross, And honor all His laws."

The last words of Drummond, as given above, are only the last _recorded_. He said much afterward, but most of his words were disconnected. His mind wandered idly from thought to thought without aim or purpose.

DWIGHT (Timothy, American clergyman and author, President of Yale College. He wrote the beautiful hymn, "I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord"), 1752-1817. "_O, what triumphant truth!_"

EDWARD I. (of England, surnamed "Long-shanks"), 1239-1307. "_Carry my bones before you on your march, for the rebels will not be able to endure the sight of me, alive or dead_," to his son Edward.[18] He died while endeavoring to subdue a revolt in Scotland.

[18] These instructions were probably ignored; for, when his tomb was opened by the Society of Antiquaries in 1771, those present gazed for a moment on the features of the great victor before they sank into dust. The gold cloth was still folded round the colossal corpse; and the cast in the eyes was distinctly noticeable. The snow-white hair still remained. The coffin was then filled with pitch.--_Farrar._

John Zisca, general of the insurgents who took up arms in 1419 against the Emperor Sigismund, seems to have had a like spirit with Edward I. He would revenge the deaths of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, who had been cruelly burned at the stake for their religious faith. He defeated the Emperor in several pitched battles, and gave orders that, after his death, they should make a drum out of his skin. The order was most religiously obeyed, and those very remains of the enthusiastic Zisca proved, for many years, fatal to the Emperor, who, with difficulty, in the space of sixteen years, recovered Bohemia, assisted by the forces of Germany. The insurgents were 40,000 in number, and well disciplined.

EDWARD VI. (son of Henry VIII. and Queen Jane Seymour), 1537-1553. "_Lord take my spirit._"

EDWARD (Prince of Wales, surnamed the Black Prince from the color of his armor), 1330-1376. "_I give thee thanks, O God, for all thy benefits, and with all the pains of my soul I humbly beseech thy mercy to give me remission of those sins I have wickedly committed against thee; and of all mortal men whom willingly or ignorantly I have offended, with all my heart I desire forgiveness._"

EDWARDS (Jonathan, President of the College of New Jersey and one of the greatest of metaphysicians), 1703-1757. "_Trust in God and you need not fear_," to one who lamented his approaching death as a frown on the college and a heavy stroke to the church.

The most awfully tremendous of all metaphysical divines is the American ultra-Calvinist, Jonathan Edwards, whose book on "Original Sin" I unhappily read when a very young man. It did me an irreparable mischief.--_An English author._

EGBERT (Col. Henry Clay), 1840-1899. "_Good-bye, General; I'm done. I'm too old_," said to Gen. Wheaton, who bending over the wounded officer, exclaimed. "Nobly done, Egbert!" Col. Egbert was killed near Manila in the war between the United States and the Philippines.

In all his army service he was wounded four times before he received his death wound. He was accounted one of the most competent officers in the army, and in action it was said of him that the army had no officer more dashing, with the possible exception of Gen. Guy V. Henry, now in command of the United States forces in Porto Rico. He was a little man, not above five feet five inches, and weighed only about one hundred and ten pounds. He had reddish hair, streaked with gray, and wore a red mustache and imperial. In plain clothes he was most immaculate, and he was called the best dressed officer in the army. _N. Y. Daily Sun, March 27, 1899._

ELDON (John Scott, Earl, Lord Chancellor of England), 1750-1838. "_It matters not where I am going whether the weather be cold or hot_," to one who spoke to him about the weather.

He was a bigoted admirer of the law, of which he was so consummate a master. Projects of law reform cut him to the soul, and he has been represented as shedding tears on the abolition of the punishment of death for stealing five shillings in a dwelling-house.--_Appleton's Cyclopædia of Biography._

ELIOT (Rev. John, commonly called "The Apostle to the Indians"), 1604-1690. "_O Come in glory! I have long waited for Thy coming. Let no dark cloud rest on the work of the Indians. Let it live when I am dead. Welcome joy!_"

ELIZABETH (Queen of England, and daughter of Henry VIII. by Anne Boleyn), 1533-1603. "_All my possessions for one moment of time._"

Some give her last words thus: "I will have no rogue's son in my seat."

When Sir Robert Cecil declared that she must go to bed and receive medical aid, the word roused her like a trumpet. "Must!" she exclaimed, "is _must_ a word to be addressed to princes? Little man, little man! thy father, were he alive, durst not have used that word." Then, as her anger spent itself, she sank into the old dejection. "Thou art so presumptuous," she said, "because thou knowest that I shall die." She rallied once more when the ministers beside her named Lord Beauchamp, the heir to the Suffolk claim, as a possible successor. "I will have no rogue's son," she cried hoarsely, "in my seat." But she gave no sign save a motion of the head at the mention of the King of Scots. She was, in fact, fast becoming insensible; and early the next morning, on March 24, 1603, the life of Elizabeth, a life so great, so strange and lonely in its greatness, ebbed quietly away.[19]

[19] There is a dim tradition that, much more than a century ago, the tomb under which the two sister-queens--Mary, the Roman Catholic, and Elizabeth, the Protestant, _regno consortes et urna_--lie side by side had fallen into disrepair, and that a bold Westminster boy crept into the hollow vault, and, through an aperture in the coffin, laid his hand on the heart of the mighty Tudor queen.--_Farrar._

ELIZABETH (Philippine Marie Hélène, usually called Madame Elizabeth, sister of Louis XVI), 1764-1794. "_In the name of modesty, cover my bosom!_"

When she ascended the scaffold, the executioner rudely undid the clasp which closed the veil across her breast. "In the name of modesty," she said to one of the bystanders whose arms were not tied, "cover my bosom!"

Alison, in his "History of Europe," calls attention to the fact that "a similar instance of heroic virtue in death occurred in a female martyr in the early Christian church. Perpetua and Felicitas, both Christians, were sentenced in the year 203, to be killed by wild cattle at Carthage. They were both attacked, accordingly, by furious bulls, who tossed them on their horns. So violent was the shock that Perpetua fell on the ground stunned; but partly recovering her senses, she was seen gathering her torn clothes about her, so as to conceal her limbs, and after tying her hair, she helped Felicitas to rise, who had been severely wounded; and, standing together, calmly awaited another attack."

ELLIOTT (Ebenezer, English poet known as the "Corn-Law Rhymer." He was a workman in an iron foundry who won the attention of the cultivated world by his verses, and rose to eminence by his "Corn-Law Rhymes" in which he urged the repeal of duties on corn. He wrote also "The Village Patriarch," "Byron and Napoleon," "Love" and a number of other poems of more or less merit), 1781-1849. "_A strange sight, sir, an old man unwilling to die._"

EMERSON (Ralph Waldo, American essayist, poet, and speculative philosopher), 1803-1882.

For the day or two before his death he was troubled with the thought that he was away from home, detained by illness at some friend's house, and that he ought to make the effort to get away and relieve him of the inconvenience. But to the last there was no delirium; in general he recognized every one and understood what was said to him, though he was sometimes unable to make intelligible reply. He took affectionate leave of his family and the friends who came to see him for the last time, and desired to see all who came. To his wife he spoke tenderly of their life together and her loving care of him; they must now part, to meet again and part no more. Then he smiled and said, "_O, that beautiful boy!_"

I was permitted to see him on the day of his death. He knew me at once, greeted me with the familiar smile, and tried to rise and to say something, but I could not catch the words.

He was buried on Sunday, April 30, in Sleepy Hollow, a beautiful grove on the edge of the village, consecrated as a burial-place in 1855, Emerson delivering the address. Here, at the foot of a tall pine-tree upon the top of the ridge in the highest part of the grounds, his body was laid, not far from the graves of Hawthorne and of Thoreau, and surrounded by those of his kindred.[20] _James Elliot Cabot_

[20] The quiet little town of Concord is greatly stirred up over the discovery of a dastardly attempt on Saturday night to rob the last resting place of its noted dead, the grave of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The fact that the grave had been visited by vandals was discovered early Sunday afternoon by a visitor to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where the remains are interred. At the head of the grave was a large aperture seven feet in depth and twenty inches wide extending to the box containing the casket.

An alarm was at once given, and the town authorities, together with the Sleepy Hollow Commissioners, made an investigation. The perpetrators of the deed have not been discovered, but the theory is that the attempted vandalism was made some time during Saturday night, and the villains were frightened away by some passing team on the Bedford road just adjacent. Whether the motive was to obtain possession of the remains, or to despoil the casket of its valuable trimmings, is, of course, a matter of conjecture; but the general impression is that the skull was what was most wanted. The wooden box inclosing the casket had decayed somewhat, the interment having taken place over seven years ago, and in the earth which the rascals had thrown out were some pieces of the box. One side of the casket had fallen down a little, but this is attributable to natural decay. Otherwise the casket had not been disturbed or opened.

Mr. Edward W. Emerson, son of Ralph Waldo, arrived home this afternoon, and the investigation of the desecration of his father's grave was immediately entered upon by him with the town authorities. Mr. Emerson has been out of town for two weeks or more, and the first information he had of the affair was that given him upon his arrival this noon. The earth has been replaced, and a watch placed over the grave. _N. Y. Times, Oct. 15, 1889._

EMMET (Robert, an eloquent Irish enthusiast and sincere patriot, and one of the chiefs of the "United Irishmen"), 1780-1803. "_Not--_"

He said on the scaffold, at the close of a brief address: "My friends, I die in peace, and with sentiments of universal love and kindness towards all men." He then shook hands with some persons on the platform, presented his watch to the executioner, and removed his stock. The immediate preparations for execution then were carried into effect, he assisted in adjusting the rope round his neck, and was then placed on the plank underneath the beam, and the cap was drawn over his face; but he contrived to raise his hand, partly removed it, and spoke a few words in a low tone to the executioner. The cap was replaced, and he stood with a handkerchief in his hand, the fall of which was to be the signal for the last act of the "finisher of the law." After standing on the plank for a few seconds the executioner said: "Are you ready, sir?" and Emmet said, "Not yet." There was another momentary pause; no signal was given; again the executioner repeated the question. "Are you ready, sir?" And again Emmet said, "Not yet." The question was put a third time, and Emmet pronounced the word "Not;" but before he had time to utter another word the executioner tilted one end of the plank off the ledge. _Madden's Life of Emmet._

Let no man write my epitaph; for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth--then, and not till then--let my epitaph be written I have done.--_From Emmet's Last Speech._

See Moore's beautiful poem on Emmet's fate and on his attachment to Miss Curran in two of the Irish Melodies.

EMMONS (Rev. Dr. Nathaniel, distinguished New England theologian and divine), 1745-1840. "_I am ready._"

ENGHIEN D' (Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon, Duc. French prince who was arrested on neutral territory on suspicion of conspiracy, and, after a military trial which was little better than a farce, shot), 1772-1804. To the soldiers who had pointed their guns he said: "_Grenadiers! lower your arms, otherwise you will miss me or only wound me._" Some say his last words were: "Is there no priest at the château?--is there no priest?"

A lantern glimmering at either end of the file of soldiers shewed d'Enghien his fate. As the sentence of death was read, he wrote in pencil a message to his wife, folded and gave it to the officer in command of the file, and asked for a priest. There was no priest in residence at the château. He prayed a moment, covering his face with his hands. As he raised his head, the officer gave the word to fire. _Hopkins: "The Dungeons of Old Paris."_

This deed excited general and deep indignation against Bonaparte, and is commonly regarded as one of the worst crimes by which his memory is stained. _Lippincott: "Biographical Dictionary."_

EPAMINONDAS (Theban statesman and general. Cicero describes him as "the greatest man that Greece ever produced"), B. C. 412-363. "_All is well!_" These words were spoken immediately after the javelin had been extracted from his breast.

The fatal dart was thrown by Gryllus, son of Xenophon, the historian and leader of the ten thousand Greeks on their retreat from the battle-field of Cunaxa to the Black Sea.

ERASMUS (surnamed Roterdamensis, Dutch scholar. He was an illegitimate son of Gerard Praet, a citizen of Gonda), 1467-1536. "_Domine! Domine! fac finem! fac finem!_"

ETTY (William, English historical painter among whose last pictures are "Pandora Crowned by the Seasons," "Ulysses and the Sirens," "Joan of Arc," and "The Judgment of Paris"), 1787-1849. "_Wonderful, wonderful, this death!_"

EUCLES (The "runner" from the plains of Marathon, who brought the news of the successful issue of that battle to the anxious Senate waiting at Athens). "_Rejoice! we rejoice!_" As Eucles ran he cried these words until he came to the Senate, when he shouted them with all his voice and fell dead.

EUGENIUS IV. (Gabriele Condolmero, Pope), 1383-1447. "_Oh Gabriele, how much better would it have been for thee, and how much more would it have promoted thy soul's welfare, if thou hadst never been raised to the Pontificate, but hadst been content to lead a quiet and religious life in the monastery._"

EVERERUARD (Charles de, Saint-Denis, French courtier, soldier, wit and _littérateur_. He was a brave man, but of flippant disposition), 1613-1703. "_With all my heart I would fain be reconciled to my stomach, which no longer performs its usual functions_," said to an ecclesiastic who asked him if he would be reconciled. During his last days he gave no attention to religious matters, and only regretted that he could not digest partridges and pheasants, and must eat only boiled meats.