The Last Words Of Distinguished Men And Women Part 18

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 G.o.d. Longfellow in his little poem "Jugurtha," has subst.i.tuted, 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 Sall.u.s.t.

JULIAN (Julia.n.u.s 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, Ammia.n.u.s 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. Sh.e.l.ley 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 G.o.d, Severn, a man ought to have some superst.i.tion, 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 G.o.d, from whom all blessings flow"--the Protestant "_Te Deum laudamus_"), 1637-1711. "_G.o.d'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 G.o.d most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, Thou most worthy Judge Eternal, suffer us not at our last hour, from any pains of death, to fall from Thee._"--_Episcopal "Burial Service."_

In the night he was heard murmuring, "No more fighting: no more fighting." Then followed intense earnest prayers, which were his habit when alone. His warfare was accomplished; he had fought the good fight; and, on one of his last nights on earth, his daughter heard him exclaim, "How beautiful G.o.d is!" The last morning, at five o'clock, just after his eldest daughter and his physician, who had sat up all night, had left him, and he thought himself alone, he was heard, in a clear voice, repeating the Burial Service. He turned on his side after this, and never spoke again.

_"Letters and Memoirs of Charles Kingsley," by his wife._

KLOPSTOCK (Friedrich Gottlieb), 1724-1803. He died reciting his own beautiful verses, descriptive of the death of Mary, the sister of Lazarus. The Song of Mary was sung at the public funeral of the poet.

KNOX (John, Scotch reformer), 1505-1572. "_Now it is come._" Some give his last words thus: "Live in Christ, live in Christ, and the flesh need not fear death."

LABeDOYeRE (Charles Angelique Huchet de, Count and French general "noted for graceful manners and chivalrous spirit." He was charged with treason, rebellion and military seduction, and was executed as one of the "authors and instigators of the horrible plot which had brought back Buonaparte"), 1786-1815. "_Above all do not miss me!_"

At half past six in the evening Labedoyere was escorted to the plain of Grenelle by a strong detachment of _gen d'armerie_. On arriving at the place of execution, he knelt down and received the benediction of the confessor who accompanied him. He then rose, and, without waiting for his eyes to be bandaged, uncovered his breast to the veterans who were to shoot him, and exclaimed, "Above all do not miss me!" In a moment after he was no more.

_Christopher Kelly: "The Battle of Waterloo."_

LACORDAIRE (Jean Baptiste Henri, French ecclesiastic celebrated for his funeral orations), 1802-1861. "_Open to me, O G.o.d!_"

LA HARPE or LAHARPE DE (Jean Francois, French critic and dramatist), 1739-1803. "_I am grateful to Divine Mercy for having left me sufficient recollection to feel how consoling these prayers are to the dying._"

These are his last recorded words, and refer to the prayers for the sick to which he was attending, but later he conversed with M. Fontanes, and did not die until the next day.

LAMBERT (John, English teacher of languages who suffered as a martyr.

His true name was Nicholson, but he changed it for greater safety in time of persecution),--1538. "_None but Christ! none but Christ!_"

After his legs were consumed to the stumps, two inhuman monsters who stood on each side of him pierced him with their halberds, and lifted him up as far as the chain which fastened him to the stake would reach, while he raised his half consumed hands dripping with blood and fire, and said, "None but Christ! none but Christ!"

LATIMER (Hugh, early English reformer and martyr), about 1472-1555.

"_Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by G.o.d's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out._"

Latimer and Ridley suffered martyrdom at Oxford at the same time, October 16, 1555.

LAUD (William, Archbishop of Canterbury and favorite minister of Charles I.), 1573-1645. "_Lord, receive my soul_," spoken to the headsman as a signal to strike. According to some authorities his last words were: "I am coming, O! Lord, as quickly as I can. I know I must pa.s.s through death before I can come to Thee, but it is only a mere shadow--a little darkness upon nature. Thou hast broken the jaws of death."

Laud was declared guilty of treason, and executed on Tower Hill, January 10, 1645.

LAURENTIUS ("Saint," a deacon of Rome who was roasted alive on a gridiron before a slow fire), about A. D. 258. "_a.s.satus est; jam versa et manduca_" (I am roasted,--now turn me, and eat me.) According to some authorities he said later: "I thank thee, O my G.o.d and Saviour, that I have been found worthy to enter into thy beat.i.tude."

LEE (Robert Edmund, distinguished Confederate general, and President of Washington College, at Lexington, Virginia), 1806-1870. "_Tell Hill he must come up._" During his last hours his mind wandered, and he was living over again in his disordered imagination the military campaign through which he had pa.s.sed.

His body lies in the mausoleum erected at the rear of the College chapel, and beside him are laid his wife and his daughter Agnes. Above the tomb, and visible from the chapel hall, is Valentine's rec.u.mbent marble figure of Lee the soldier taking his rest, with his sword sheathed at his side and his martial cloak around him.--_White._