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' Encyclopaedia._
MONTCALM (Saint-Veran 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 (Montecumatin, "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.
He said to Colonel Anderson, who for one and twenty years had been his
friend and companion in arms: "Anderson, you know that I always wished
to die in this way." He frequently asked, "Are the French beaten?" And
at length, when he was told they were defeated in every point, he said:
"It is a great satisfaction to me to know we have beaten the French. I
hope the people of England will be satisfied. I hope my country will do
me justice." Having mentioned the name of his venerable mother, and the
names of some other friends, for whose welfare he seemed anxious to
offer his last prayers, the power of utterance was lost, and he died in
a few minutes without a struggle.--_The Book of Death._
The last words that passed his dying lips were a message to Lady Hester
Stanhope, the niece of Pitt, afterwards so famous for her eccentricity,
as her father had been before her. To her, to whom he is said to have
been deeply attached, if not engaged, he sent his dying remembrances by
her brother, one of his aides-de-camp, and then passed peacefully into
the presence of his God.--_Cornhill Magazine._
[36] It has been generally supposed that the burial of Sir John
Moore, who fell at the battle of Corunna, in 1809, took place during
the night, an error which doubtless arose from the statement to that
effect in Wolfe's celebrated lines. Rev. Mr. Symons, who was the
clergyman on the occasion, states, however, in "Notes and Queries,"
that the burial took place in the morning, in broad day-light.
MORE (Sir Thomas, author of "Utopia." He succeeded Wolsey as lord
chancellor, a dignity never before filled by a common lawyer. He refused
to take the oath to maintain the lawfulness of the marriage of Henry
VIII. with Anne Boleyn, and was therefore adjudged guilty of high
treason, and condemned to death. He was beheaded July 6, 1535),
1480-1535. "_I pray you see me safe up the scaffold; as for my coming
down, let me shift for myself._" Some say his last words were these,
addressed to the executioner, "Stay friend till I put aside my beard,
for that never committed treason."
MORE (Hannah, poet, essayist and moralist), 1744-1833. "_Joy._"
MORRIS (Gouverneur, American Statesman), 1752-1816.
Courageously he had lived, and courageously he met the great change,
with entire resignation to the Divine will. "Sixty-four years ago," he
said just before his death, "it pleased the Almighty to call me into
existence--here, on this spot, in this very room; and now shall I
complain that he is pleased to call me hence?" On the day of his death
he asked about the weather, and, on being told that it was fair, he
replied: "A beautiful day, yes, but--
"'Who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing, anxious being e'er resign'd;
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing lingering look behind?'"
--_Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris._
MORTON (Oliver Perry, American Statesman), 1823-1877. "_I am dying, I am
worn out_," to Dr. Thompson who was standing by his bed and holding his
hand.
MOTHE LE VAYER DE LA (This learned man's favorite amusement consisted in
the study of distant countries), 1588-1672. "_Well, my friend, what news
from the Great Mogul?_" The question was addressed to Bernier, the
traveller, who had entered his room to bid him an affectionate and last
farewell.
MOTLEY (John Lothrop, distinguished historian), 1814-1877. "_I am
ill--very ill, I shall not recover._"
About two o'clock in the day he complained of a feeling of faintness,
said he felt ill and should not recover; and in a few minutes was
insensible with symptoms of ingravescent apoplexy. There was extensive
hemorrhage into the brain, as shown by postmortem examination, the
cerebral vessels being atheromatous. The fatal hemorrhage had occurred
into the lateral ventricles, from rupture of one of the middle cerebral
arteries.
_Sir William W. Gull's account of Motley's death._
MOZART (Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus, one of the most eminent of
musical composers), 1756-1792. The last words which he addressed to
Sophie Haibl were, "I have the flavour of death on my tongue. I taste
death; and who will support my dearest Constanze if you do not stay
with her?" Later he conversed with Suessmayer over the Requiem and was
heard to say, "_Did I not say that I was writing the Requiem for
myself?_" This he said with tears in his eyes as he looked at the notes.
Just before death he demanded to hear again the Requiem. Dr. Clossel,
his physician, nodded his consent. Suessmayer sat down at the piano,
Schack sang the soprano, Hofer the tenor, Gorl the bass, and the dying
Mozart the alto. Softly swelled forth the ineffable music of the sweet,
sorrowful, sacred death song. After this the chamber was silent as the
grave. Only the clock ticked softly on the shelf, as it marked the weary
hours of the passing night.--_Condensed from Sill's translation of Rau's
Biographical Romance of Mozart._
After all consciousness had gone, still Mozart's fancies were busy with
the Requiem, blowing out his cheeks to imitate the trumpets and drums.
Toward midnight he raised himself, opened his eyes wide, then lay down
with his face to the wall and seemed to fall asleep. At one o'clock he
expired.
The swelling of Mozart's body after death led to the suspicion that he
had been poisoned. But there was no other ground for the suspicion than
Mozart's diseased fancies, which gave rise to the most shameful and
unfortunate distrust of Salieri, who, it was reported, acknowledged upon
his deathbed having administered poison to Mozart. All these suspicions
were fully laid to rest by Carpani in the Biblioteca Italiana, 1824.[37]
[37] A common undistinguished grave received the coffin, which was
then left without memorial--almost forgotten--for nearly twenty
years; and when, in 1808, some inquiries were made as to the precise
spot of the interment, all that the sexton could tell was that, at
the latter end of 1791, the space about the third and fourth row
from the cross was being occupied with graves; but the contents of
these graves being from time to time exhumed, nothing could be
determined concerning that which was once Mozart.--_Home's "Life of
Mozart."_
MUHLENBERG (Rev. William Augustus, founder of St. Luke's Hospital in New
York, and author of the hymn, "I would not live alway"), 1796-1877.
"_Good morning_," spoken to a friend who entered the room.
MURPHY (Arthur, dramatic author, and translator), 1728-1805. He died
repeating the lines of Pope:
"_Taught, half by reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away._"
NADIR SHAH (Kouli Khan, celebrated Persian conqueror), 1688-1747. "_Thou
dog!_" addressed to one of the conspirators who slew him in his tent,
June 19, 1747.
When Nadir invaded India in 1739, he arrived first at Lahore; where the
governor immediately surrendered the city to him, and treated him with
princely honours. At night Nadir, whose only couch, for months past,
had been a horse-blanket, with a saddle for a pillow, was conducted to a
magnificent bed, with piles of cushions; and twelve young damsels were
in attendance to shampoo his limbs and fan him to sleep. Nadir started
from his luxurious couch, roared for his secretary, and gave orders that
the drums should be beat, and a proclamation made that Nadir had
conquered all India. The astonished scribe ventured to hint that this
conquest had not yet been accomplished. "No matter," said Nadir, "where
the chiefs of the people choose to live in this effeminate manner, it
will cost me little trouble to conquer them." And his anticipation was
fully verified. After he had taken the city of Delhi, he visited the
discomfited Emperor, who received him in fear and trembling. Nadir was
seated in the chair of state, and the attar of roses and other perfumes
were brought, according to custom and presented to him. Nadir had not
changed his clothes or taken off his armor for many days, and his person
was by no means free from vermin. He asked contemptuously what was the
use of perfuming a soldier's garments; and, thrusting his hand into his
bosom, drew forth a number of lice, which he told the astonished Emperor
were better companions than all his sweet scents. Nadir had ordered a
splendid mausoleum to be built for himself at Mush'hed, in Khorassan;
and on his return from India he went to see it. The night before he
visited his intended resting-place, some unfriendly wag wrote above the
spot destined for his grave--"Welcome, conqueror of the world! your
place here has long been empty." The wag had in mind Nadir's common
salutation to a friend who had been long absent, "Your place has been
long empty." Nadir offered a reward for the discovery of the writer, but
never succeeded in finding out who he was. The place was not long empty,
for Nadir was assassinated soon after, and here his remains rested till
they were dug up and desecrated by Agha Mohammed.
_Welby: "Predictions Realized in Modern Times."_
NANI (Giambattista Felice Gasparo, author of "Istaria della Republica
Veneta"), 1616-1678. "_How beautiful!_"
NAPOLEON I. (Napoleon Bonaparte), 1769-1821. "_Mon Dieu! La Nation
Francaise! Tete d'armee_," He died on the island of St. Helena, May 5,
1821. In 1840 his remains were removed to France and deposited in the
Hotel des Invalides.[38]
During the last nine days of his life he was constantly delirious. On
the morning of May 5th he uttered some incoherent words, among which
Montholon fancied that he distinguished, "_France ... armee ... tete
d'armee._" As the patient uttered these words he sprang from the bed,
dragging Montholon, who endeavored to restrain him, on the floor. It was
the last effort of that formidable energy. He was with difficulty
replaced in bed by Montholon and Archambault, and then lay quietly till
near six o'clock in the evening, when he yielded his last breath. A
great storm was raging outside, which shook the frail huts of the
soldiers as with an earthquake, tore up the trees that the Emperor had
planted, and uprooted the willow under which he was accustomed to
repose. Within, the faithful Marchand was covering the corpse with the
cloak which the young conqueror had worn at Marengo.
_Lord Rosebery._
[38] The heart of the first Napoleon had a narrow escape from
disappearing forever, elsewhere than in the tomb. It is recorded
that when he died at St. Helena his heart was extracted for
preservation. The English physician who had charge of it placed it
in a silver basin containing water, and leaving tapers burning
beside it retired to rest. Sleep, however, visited him not, and
suddenly, breaking the silence, he heard first a rustling, then a
plunge in the water of the basin, then a fall with a rebound on the
floor, all in quick succession. Springing from his couch, the
physician saw an enormous rat dragging Bonaparte's heart to its
hole: in a few moments more it would have formed a meal for rats.
NAPOLEON III. (Louis Napoleon, "The Little," "Ratipole," "The Man of
Sedan," "The Man of December," "Boustrapa," "Badinguet" and "The Comte
d'Arenenberg"), 1808-1873. "_Were you at Sedan?_" He asked the question
of Dr. Conneau. It was at Sedan that he surrendered his sword to the
King of Prussia.
NARES (Rev. Edward, "Thinks I to myself"), 1762-1841. "_Good-bye._"
NARUSZEWICZ (Adam Stanislas, "The Polish Tacitus"), 1733-1796. "_Must I
leave it unfinished?_" He referred to his "History of Poland."
NEANDER (Johann August, the celebrated church historian. He was of
Jewish descent, but early in life embraced the Christian faith, and at
his baptism assumed the name "Neander," from two Greek words signifying
a new man), 1789-1850. "_I am weary; I will now go to sleep. Good
night!_"
NELSON (Horatio), 1758-1805. "_Thank God, I have done my duty._" He died
in battle. Some say his last words were: "Kiss me, Hardy." Others give
them thus: "Tell Collingwood to bring the fleet to anchor."
His ever-memorable signal to his fleet, immediately before the battle
commenced, had been; "England expects every man to do his duty," and if
ever a man lived and died in earnest, fearless, unselfish discharge of
his duty to his country, it was Admiral Nelson, victor of the Nile,
Copenhagen and Trafalgar.--_Appleton's Cyclopaedia of Biography._
NERO (Lucius Domitius Claudius Caesar, Emperor of Rome), 37-68. "_Qualis
artifex pereo!_"
The poor wretch who, without a pang, had caused so many brave Romans and
so many innocent Christians to be murdered, could not summon up
resolution to die. He devised every operatic incident of which he could
think. When even his most degraded slaves urged him to have sufficient
manliness to save himself from the fearful infamies which otherwise
awaited him, he ordered his grave to be dug, and fragments of marble to
be collected for its adornment, and water and wood for his funeral pyre,
perpetually whining: "What an artist to perish!" Meanwhile a courier
arrived for Phaon. Nero snatched his dispatches out of his hand, and
read that the Senate had decided that he should be punished in the
ancestral fashion as a public enemy. Asking what the ancestral fashion
was, he was informed that he would be stripped naked and scourged to
death with rods, with his head thrust into a fork. Horrified at this, he
seized two daggers, and after theatrically trying their edges, sheathed
them again, with the excuse that the fatal moment had not yet arrived!
Then he bade Sparus begin to sing his funeral song, and begged some one
to show him how to die. Even his own intense shame at his cowardice was
an insufficient stimulus, and he whiled away the time in vapid epigrams
and pompous quotations. The sound of horses' hoofs then broke on his
ears, and venting one more Greek quotation, he held the dagger to his
throat. It was driven home by Epaphroditus, one of his literary slaves.
At this moment the centurion who came to arrest him rushed in. Nero was
not yet dead, and under pretense of helping him, the centurion began to
stanch the wound with his cloak. "Too late," he said; "is this your
fidelity?" So he died; and the bystanders were horrified with the way in
which his eyes seemed to be starting out of his head in a rigid stare.
He had begged that his body might be burned without posthumous insults,
and this was conceded by Icelus, the freedman of Galba.
_Farrar: "Early Days of Christianity."_
It was the remark of Nero's father, Ahenobarbus, that nothing but what
was hateful and pernicious to mankind could ever come from Agrippina and
himself. Yet the story of a strange hand that strewed flowers upon the
tomb of this tyrant is well known.
NEWELL (Harriet, missionary in India), 1793-1812. "_The pains, the
groans, the dying strife. How long, O Lord, how long?_"
NEWPORT (Francis, once famous as an opponent of Christianity). "_Oh, the
insufferable pangs of hell and damnation!_" Died 1692.
NEWTON (John, English divine. His early life was that of a profligate
sailor engaged in the African slave-trade. After his conversion he
became the friend of the poet Cowper, and with him wrote the "Olney
Hymns"). 1725-1807. "_I am satisfied with the Lord's will._" Last
recorded words.
NEWTON (Richard, an English divine, founder of Hertford College,
Oxford), 1676-1753. "_Christ Jesus the Saviour of sinners and life of
the dead. I am going, going to Glory! Farewell sin! Farewell death!
Praise the Lord!_"
NOTT (Eliphalet, American clergyman, President of Union College,
Schenectady, N. Y., for more than sixty years), 1773-1866. "_One word,
one word--Jesus Christ!_"
NOURSE (Rebecca, a good and brave woman who, in the old Puritan-days,
suffered as a witch at Salem, Mass.), 1621-1692. Her last words are not
preserved, but it is recorded that just before her death she declared
her innocence and appealed to the judgment of Almighty God. The story of
her death forms one of the saddest of the many distressing chapters in
the history of early New England.
Mrs. Nourse was a very devout woman, and probably the hardest blow of
all was the action of the First Congregational Church, of which she was
a member. The records still preserved read as follows:
"After Sacrament the elders propounded to the church, and it was by
unanimous vote consented to, that our Sister Nourse, being a convicted
witch, and condemned to die, be excommunicated, which was accordingly
done in the afternoon, she being present."