him with the evident intention of killing him. He was kicked, cuffed and
beaten with canes. He would not have escaped alive if carbiniers and
members of the fire brigade had not rushed through the crowd and seized
the culprit. They formed a cordon round him and conveyed him to jail
amid the execrations of the crowd.
"Meantime the King was taken with all speed to the royal castle, while
the second carriage was sent to the local hospital for surgeons. Before
these could reach the castle the King had died.
"Upon receiving the terrible news the Archbishop of Milan hastened to
Monza and solemnly blessed the corpse.
"Each of the three bullets had hit the King. One struck him on the left
collarbone, another between the fifth and sixth ribs on the right side,
while the one that inflicted the fatal wound entered the heart.
"As he fell the King said to his aide: 'It is nothing.' These were the
last words he uttered, and he was dead when the carriage arrived at the
palace.
"The body was borne tenderly up a long flight of steps and carried into
a chamber and placed on a bed. The King's eyes were open, but he gave no
sign of life. The Queen threw herself on the body of her husband,
alternately calling to him in tones, filled with anguish, and praying
the doctors to tell her the truth. When they were convinced that the
King was dead the Queen submitted to be led gently away. The surgeons
then removed the King's clothing and examined his wounds. The Queen
afterward returned and kept her vigil beside the body, praying until a
late hour.
"Bystanders say the assassin rushed through the crowd and raised the
revolver. Several attempted to seize the weapon, but Bressi fired before
they could do so. He was captured with the smoking revolver still in
his hand, and exultingly admitted his guilt."
_Carriere Della Sera._
HUMBOLDT (Friedrich Heinrich Alexander, Baron von, author of the
"Cosmos"), 1769-1859. "_How grand the sunlight! It seems to beckon earth
to heaven._"
HUNT (James Henry Leigh, English poet and _litterateur_), 1784-1859.
"_Deep dream of peace._"
HUNTER (William, a young man of nineteen, burned at the stake for his
faith, in the time of Mary I., of England), 1536-1555. "_Lord, Lord,
Lord, receive my spirit!_"
"William said to his mother:--'For my little pain which I shall suffer,
which is but a short braid, Christ hath promised me, mother (said he), a
crown of joy; may you not be glad of that, mother?' With that his mother
kneeled down on her knees, saying, 'I pray God strengthen thee, my son,
to the end; yea, I think thee as well-bestowed as any child that ever I
bare.'
"Then William Hunter plucked up his gown and stepped over the parlor
groundsel and went forward cheerfully; the sheriff's servants taking him
by one arm and his brother by another. And thus going in the way, he met
with his father according to his dream, and he spake to his son saying,
'God be with thee, son William;' and William said, 'God be with you,
good father, and be of good comfort; for I hope we shall meet again when
we shall be merry.' His father said, 'I hope so, William,' and so
departed. So William went to the place where the stake stood, even
according to his dream, where all things were very unready. Then William
took a wet broom faggot, and kneeled down thereon, and read the
fifty-first Psalm till he came to these words, 'The sacrifice of God is
a contrite spirit; a contrite and a broken heart, O God, thou wilt not
despise!'
"Then said the sheriff, 'There is a letter from the Queen. If thou wilt
recant thou shalt live; if not, thou shalt be burned.' 'No,' quoth
William, 'I will not recant, God willing.' Then William rose and went to
the stake, and stood upright to it. Then came one Richard Ponde, a
bailiff, and made fast the chain about William.
"Then said master Brown, 'There is not wood enough to burn a leg of
him.' Then said William, 'Good people! pray for me, and make speed and
despatch quickly; and pray for me while you see me alive, good people!
and I will pray for you likewise.' 'Now?' quoth master Brown, 'pray for
thee! I will pray no more for thee than I will pray for a dog.'
"Then was there a gentleman which said, 'I pray God have mercy upon his
soul!' The people said, 'Amen, amen.'
"Immediately fire was made. Then William cast his psalter right into his
brother's hand, who said, 'William! think of the holy passion of
Christ, and be not afraid of death.' And William answered, 'I am not
afraid.' Then lifted he up his hands to heaven and said, 'Lord, Lord,
Lord, receive my spirit,' and, casting down his head again into the
smothering smoke, he yielded up his life for the truth, sealing it with
his blood to the praise of God."
_Fox's "Book of Martyrs."_
HUNTER (Dr. William, distinguished anatomist and physiologist. He is
chiefly remembered by his "Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus,"
consisting of thirty-four plates engraved by the most eminent artists of
the day, with explanations in English and Latin), 1717-1783. "_If I had
strength to hold a pen I would write down how easy and pleasant a thing
it is to die._"
HUNTINGTON (Selina, Countess of, an English lady, eminent for her piety
and munificence), 1707-1791. "_My work is done; I have nothing to do but
to go to my Father._"
HUSS (John, burnt at the stake July 6, 1415), 1370-1415. When the chain
was placed around the neck of John Huss he exclaimed with a smile,
"Welcome this chain, for Christ's sake!" The faggots having been piled
up to his neck, the Duke of Bavaria, in a brutal manner, called on him
to recant. "_No_," cried the martyr, "_I take God to witness I preached
none but his own pure doctrines, and what I taught I am ready to seal
with my blood._"
IGNATIUS (surnamed Theophorus, early Christian Father, and one of the
immediate successors of the apostles),--107. "_I am the wheat of Christ;
I am going to be ground with the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be
found pure bread._" These words he is said to have uttered when he heard
the roaring of the lions that were to devour him.
He had a burning desire for the martyr's crown, and went to his death
with a shout of triumph. Of the same spirit was Germanicus, who actually
provoked the wild beasts to rush upon him, that he might at once be
delivered from this wretched life and receive a martyr's reward.
ILITCHEWSKI (Alexander Demainowitch, the Russian poet). "_I have found
at last the object of my love_," a line written by the poet just before
his death, and found on a table near his bed. The poet was haunted all
his life by an ideal of womanly beauty which he sought in vain among the
living, and the above line would seem to indicate that he had at last
found the object of his dreams. It is supposed that he died from excess
of joy at the discovery.
ILLEPPY (Solyman, the Turkish peasant who assassinated General
Kleber),--1800. "_Tay hip!_" (That is good).
The assassin suffered death by having the flesh burned off his right
hand, and by being impaled, in which situation he lived one hour and
forty minutes; dying without showing any fear, and declaring to the
last, "that the act which he had done was meritorious, and one for which
he should be made happy in the other world." He continued exclaiming,
from the moment of his hand being burnt, to that of his death, "_Tay
hip!_"--_The Percy Anecdotes._
INGERSOLL (Robert Green, an American lawyer and orator, distinguished as
an opponent of Christianity), 1833-1899. "_O, better_," in response to
his wife's question, "How do you feel now?"
After the war he became an ardent Republican, and gained fame as a
lawyer, serving as attorney-general of Illinois for several years. He
was a delegate to the National Republican convention of 1876, when he
became famous as an orator by proposing the name of James G. Blaine for
President in his celebrated "Plumed Knight" speech. He was offered the
post of minister to Germany, but refused it. About the year 1877 he
removed to New York, and was soon in great demand as a lecturer and
orator. Among his most celebrated cases was his defense of the "Star
route conspirators" in 1883.
Some of the most beautiful of Col. Ingersoll's orations were those that
he delivered over the bodies of his friends. Among his best known books
are "The Gods," 1878, "Ghosts," 1879, "Some Mistakes of Moses," 1879,
and several volumes of lectures.
IRVING (Rev. Edward, an able and eccentric preacher, and the founder of
the "Catholic Apostolic Church"), 1792-1834. "_If I die, I die unto the
Lord. Amen._" Some say his last words were: "In life and in death, I am
the Lord's."
IRVING (Washington, distinguished American author), 1783-1859. "_I must
arrange my pillows for another weary night_," said on retiring. A moment
later he tried to say something more but could pronounce only the word
"end," after which he uttered a slight cry as of pain, and fell to the
floor. When the physician arrived life was extinct.
It was on November 28th, 1859, when Irving was seventy-six years old,
that his death came. He had been in poor health for some months,
suffering much from sleeplessness and a shortness of breath, but at the
last a weakness of the heart brought the sudden end. Lacking to-day a
man of letters who holds such a place in the affections of his
countrymen as Irving held, it is difficult for us to realise the
impression made by his death. It was as if a President or a great
soldier had died in these later years. Flags on shipping and buildings
in New York flew at half-mast, and the Mayor and Council recognised the
event as a public grief. A multitude of people bore witness to their own
sense of loss at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The day of the funeral,
December 1st, had the fullest beauty and suggestion of Indian
summer--"one of his own days," the people said. It is to Longfellow,
"No singer vast of voice; yet one who leaves
His 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 died
In the bright Indian summer of his fame!
A simple stone, with but a date and name,
Marks his secluded resting-place beside
The river that he loved and glorified.
Here in the autumn of his days he came,
But the dry leaves of life were all aflame
With 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 breath
Of 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 with a 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 Fosses 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."_