The Last Words Of Distinguished Men And Women Part 20

Some authorities say his last words were "We will go to Jerusalem."

LOUIS XIII. (son of Henry IV. and Marie de Medicis), 1601-1643. "_Well, my G.o.d, I consent with all my heart_," to his physician who told him he had but two hours to live.

LOUIS XIV. (surnamed LE GRAND, often called LOUIS QUATORZE, the most magnificent of the Bourbon Kings), 1638-1715. "Why weep ye? Did you think I should live forever?" then after a pause, "_I thought dying had been harder._" Some say his last words were: "O G.o.d, come to mine aid! O Lord, make haste to help me!"

On Sunday, August 31, towards eleven o'clock in the evening, the prayers for the dying were said for Louis XIV. He recited them himself in a louder voice than any of the spectators; and seemed still more majestic on his death-bed than on his throne. When the prayers were ended he recognized Cardinal de Rohan and said to him, "These are the graces of the Church." Several times he repeated: "_Nunc et in hora mortis._" Then he said, "O G.o.d, come unto mine aid; O Lord, make haste to help me."

These were his last words. The agony was beginning. It lasted all night, and on Sunday, September 1, 1715, at a quarter past eight in the morning, Louis XIV., aged seventy-seven years lacking three days, during sixty-two of which he had been a king, yielded his great soul to G.o.d.

_Imbert de Saint-Amand._

LOUIS XV. (of France), 1710-1774. "_Repeat those words Monsieur the almoner, repeat them_," to Cardinal de La Roche-Aymon, who read aloud the public apology made by the sovereign to his people.

Some authorities give his last words thus: "I have been a great sinner, doubtless, but I have ever observed Lent with a most scrupulous exactness; I have caused more than a hundred thousand ma.s.ses to be said for the repose of unhappy souls, so that I flatter myself I have not been a very bad Christian."

A candle burning in the King's chamber, which was to be extinguished at the same moment as the life of the King, was the signal agreed on for the measures to be taken and the orders to be given as soon as he should have breathed his last. The candle was put out at two o'clock in the afternoon of May 10, 1774. Instantly a great tumult, comparable to a clap of thunder, shook the arches of Versailles. It was the crowd of courtiers leaving the antechambers of the dead man and noisily hastening to meet the new monarch.

_Imbert de Saint-Amand: "The Last Years of Louis XV."_

LOUIS XVI. (guillotined by a wild and bloodthirsty mob, called the French Republic, the 21st of January, 1793), 1754-1793. "_Frenchmen, I die innocent of all the crimes which have been imputed to me. I forgive my enemies; I implore G.o.d, from the bottom of my heart, to pardon them, and not to take vengeance on the French nation for the blood about to be shed._"

He was proceeding, when Santerre, who was on horseback near the scaffold, made a signal for the drums to beat, when the a.s.sistants seized the victim, and the horrid murder was completed.

When the king's head was severed from the body, one of the executioners held it up by the hair, dancing at the same time around the scaffold, with the most savage exultation.

_Contemporary History of the French Revolution._

LOUIS XVII. (second son of Louis XVI. He became dauphin at the death of an elder brother in 1789, and was recognized as king in January, 1793, by the French royalists and several foreign courts, but he was closely confined by the Jacobins. The cruel treatment which he received in prison hastened his death), 1785-1795. "_I have something to tell you._"

LOUIS XVIII. (Louis Stanislas Xavier), 1755-1824. "_A King should die standing._"

LOUISE (Auguste Wilhelmine Amelie, Queen of Prussia), 1776-1810. "_I am a Queen, but have no power to move my arms._"

LOVAT (Lord Fraser of Lovat, Scottish Jacobite conspirator. In the rebellion of 1745 he was detected in treasonable acts against King George, for which he was executed), about 1666-1747.

He was beheaded on Tower Hill. On reaching the scaffold, he asked for the executioner, and presented him with a purse containing ten guineas.

He then asked to see the axe, felt its edge, and said he thought it would do. Next he looked at his coffin, on which was inscribed:

SIMON, DOMINUS FRASER DE LOVAT.

Decollat April 9, 1747 aetat suae 80.

After repeating some lines from Horace, and next from Ovid, he prayed, then bade adieu to his solicitor and agent in Scotland; finally the executioner completed his work, the head falling from the body. Lord Lovat was the last person beheaded in England.

_Andrews: "Bygone Punishments."_

LUCAN or LUCa.n.u.s (Marcus Annaeus, Roman epic poet, nephew of the philosopher Seneca), 38-65.

Lucan exhibited great apparent serenity at the approach of death. After the veins of his arm had been voluntarily opened, and he had lost a large quant.i.ty of blood, he felt his hands and his legs losing their vitality. As the hour of death approached, he commenced repeating several lines out of his own "Pharsalia," descriptive of a person similarly situated to himself. These lines he repeated until he died:

"_Asunder flies the man-- No single wound the gaping rupture seems, Where trickling crimson flows the tender streams; But from an opening horrible and wide A thousand vessels pour the bursting tide: At once the winding channel's course was broke, Where wandering life her mazy journey took._"

_Winslow: "Anatomy of Suicide."_

LUCAS (Sir Charles. He commanded the right wing of the royal army at Marston Moor, was taken prisoner at Colchester, where he was put to death August 29th, 1648),--1648. "_Soldiers, fire!_" to the soldiers appointed to shoot him.

LULLI or LULLY (Jean Baptiste, Italian composer, called "the Father of French Dramatic Music"), 1633-1687. "_Sinner, thou must die._" In sign of his repentance he died with a halter around his neck, repeating and, sometimes singing, with tears of remorse, "Sinner, thou must die."

LUTHER (Martin, the greatest of the Protestant reformers), 1484-1546.

"_Yes_," in response to the question whether he stood by the doctrines of Scripture as he had taught them.

The same man who could scold like a fishwife could be as gentle as a tender maiden. At times he was as fierce as the storm that uproots oaks; and then again he was as mild as the zephyr caressing the violets....

The refinement of Erasmus, the mildness of Melancthon, could never have brought us so far as the G.o.dlike brutality of brother Martin.--_Heine._

LYTTELTON (George, first Lord, English statesman, author of "Dialogues of the Dead," and "History of Henry II."), 1709-1773. "_Be good, be virtuous, my lord, you must come to this_," to his son-in-law, Lord Valentia.

MACAULAY (Thomas Babington, Lord), 1800-1859. "_I shall retire early; I am very tired_," said to his butler, who asked him if he would not rest on the sofa.

His mother resolved to spend the night at Holly Lodge. She had just left the drawing-room to make her preparations for the visit (it being, I suppose, a little before seven in the evening), when a servant arrived with an urgent summons. As we drove up to the porch of my uncle's house, the maids ran, crying, out into the darkness to meet us, and we knew that all was over. We found him in the library, seated in his easy chair, and dressed as usual; with his book on the table beside him, still open at the same page. He had told his butler that he should go to bed early, as he was very tired. The man proposed his lying on the sofa.

He rose as if to move, sat down again, and ceased to breathe. He died as he had always wished to die--without pain; without any formal farewell; preceding to the grave all whom he loved; and leaving behind him a great and honorable name, and the memory of a life every action of which was clear and transparent as one of his own sentences.--_G. Otto Trevelyan._

MACCAIL (his given name has not been preserved, a Scots Covenanter who expired under torture in the time of Charles II. of England), 1668. He died in an ecstasy of joy, and his last words were: "_Farewell sun, moon and stars; farewell, world and time; farewell, weak and frail body; welcome, eternity; welcome, angels and saints; welcome, Saviour of the world; welcome, G.o.d, the Judge of all._"

MACHIAVELLI, or MACCHIAVELLI, sometimes MACHIAVEL (Nicholas, a celebrated atheist, and the author of "The Prince"), 1469-1530. "_I desire to go to h.e.l.l, and not to heaven. In the former place I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings, and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks, hermits, and apostles._"

MACKINTOSH (Sir James, philosopher and politician), 1765-1832.

"_Happy!_"

MALHERBE (Francois de, the "Father of French lyric poetry"), 1555-1628.

"_Hold your tongue; your wretched style only makes me out of conceit with them_," to his confessor, who was presenting the joys of heaven in vulgar and trite phrases.

His ruling pa.s.sion was purity of diction. He would destroy a quire of paper in composing a single stanza; and it is said that during the twenty-five most prolific years of his life he made only about thirty-three verses a year.

MARAT (Jean Paul, court-physician, author of several scientific works, and later the main promoter of the Reign of Terror in France), 1743-1793. "_Help, my dear--help!_" As Marat uttered these words he fell at the feet of Charlotte Corday, and immediately expired.

Charlotte, motionless, and as if petrified at her crime, was standing behind the window curtain. The transparent material allowed her form to be easily distinguished. Laurent, taking up a chair, struck her a clumsy blow on the head, which knocked her to the floor, where Marat's mistress trampled her under foot in her rage. At the noise that ensued, and the cries of the two women, the occupants of the house hastened thither, neighbors and persons pa.s.sing in the streets ascended the staircase and filled the room, the courtyard, and very speedily the whole quarter, demanding, with fierce exclamations, that they would throw the a.s.sa.s.sin out to them, that they might avenge the dead--yet still warm--body of the people's idol. Soldiers and national guards entered, and order was, in some measure, re-established. Surgeons arrived, and endeavored to stanch the wound. The reddened water gave to the sanguinary democrat the appearance of having died in a bath of blood.--_Larmartine._