The Last Words Of Distinguished Men And Women Part 14

GROTIUS or DE GROOT (Hugo, jurist, divine, historian, and scholar), 1583-1645. "_I heard your voice; but did not understand what you said_,"

to Quistorpius, a clergyman who repeated in German a prayer suitable for a dying person. Some say his last words were, "Be serious."

GUITEAU (Charles Julius, hanged June 30, 1882, in the United States jail, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C, for the a.s.sa.s.sination of President Garfield), 1841-1882. "_Glory hallelujah! I am going to the Lordy! I come! Ready!

Go!_"

Guiteau published, while in jail, his autobiography, through the medium of a metropolitan newspaper. It is full of repet.i.tions and minute details, and its reading is a severe tax upon patience. It establishes the fact that, in spite of his a.s.sertions to the contrary, his motive was not political, but was the gratification of an inordinate vanity. In one place Guiteau says: "During the week preceding the President's removal, I read the papers carefully. I thought it all over in detail. I thought just what people would talk, and thought what a tremendous excitement it would create, and I kept thinking about it all the week. I then prepared myself. I sent to Boston for a copy of my book, 'The Truth,' and I spent a week in preparing that, and I greatly improved it.

I knew that it would probably have a large sale on account of the notoriety that the act of removing the President would give me, and I wished the book to go out to the public in proper shape." It is now generally believed that Guiteau was insane.

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS (Gustavus II., King of Sweden, one of the greatest of soldiers and one of the best of men), 1594-1632. "_I have enough, brother; try to save your own life_," to the Duke of Lauenburg.

Some authorities say that when he was fallen to the ground, he was asked, who he was, and replied: "I am the King of Sweden, and seal with my blood the Protestant religion and the liberties of Germany. Alas! my poor Queen! My G.o.d! My G.o.d!"

A subaltern of the imperial army, observing the respect with which the unknown officer was treated by his few followers, naturally concluded that he was a person of importance, and called out to a musketeer: "Shoot that man, for I am sure he is an officer of high rank." The soldier immediately fired, and the King's left arm fell powerless by his side. At this moment a wild cry was raised, "The King bleeds! the King is wounded!" "It is nothing!" shouted Gustavus; "follow me." But the pain soon brought on faintness, and he desired the Duke of Lauenburg in French to lead him out of the throng. Whilst the duke was endeavoring to withdraw him without being noticed by the troops, a second shot struck Gustavus and deprived him of his little remaining strength. "I have enough, brother," he said in a feeble voice to the duke; "try to save your own life." At the same moment he fell from his horse, and in a short time breathed his last.--_Markham's Germany._

HALE (Nathan, captain in Continental Army, executed by the British as a spy), 1755-1776. "_I only regret that I have but one life to give to my country!_"

He was confined in the green-house of the garden during the night of September 21, and the next morning, without even the form of a regular trial, was delivered to Cunningham, the brutal provost marshal, to be executed as a spy. He was treated with great inhumanity by that monster.

The services of a clergyman and the use of a Bible were denied him, and even the letters which he had been permitted by Howe to write to his mother and sisters during the night were destroyed. He was hanged upon an apple-tree in Rutger's orchard, near the present intersection of East Broadway and Market street. _Lossing's Field-Book of the Revolution._

HALLER (Dr. Albert, eminent Swiss anatomist and physiologist. He is chiefly known by his "Disputationes Anatomicae Selectae." George II.

obtained for him a brevet as a n.o.ble of England, and he is sometimes spoken of as Baron Haller), 1708-1777. Feeling his own pulse, he exclaimed, "_The artery ceases to beat_," and instantly expired.

HALYBURTON (Thomas, professor of divinity in the new college at St.

Andrews), 1674-1712. "_Pray! pray!_"

He cried out several times, "Free grace, free grace; not unto me." He spoke little the last six hours before his death, only some broken sentences, which with difficulty were understood. Now and then he would lift up his hands and clap them as a sign that he was encouraging himself in the Lord. At last he cried, "Pray! pray!" which was done by five or six ministers, and so he fell asleep in our Lord.

HAMLIN (Cyrus, distinguished American missionary and first President of Robert College, Constantinople), 1811-1900. "_Put me there_," pointing to a chair which belonged to his mother and in which he used to sit as a boy, eighty years ago, in his old home at Waterford. He pa.s.sed away peacefully, and his body was buried, a few days later, in the cemetery at Lexington, Ma.s.sachusetts.

HAMMOND (Henry, English divine and author), 1605-1660. "_Lord, make haste!_"

HAMPDEN (John, English patriot and statesman), 1594-1643. "_O Lord, save my country! O Lord, be merciful to----._"

HANWAY (Jonas, English merchant famous for his benevolence, author of "Journal of Travels Through Russia and Persia," and "Historical Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea"), 1712-1786. "_If you think it will be of service in your practice or to any one who may come after me, I beg you will have my body opened: I am willing to do as much good as possible._"

HARRISON (Benjamin, twenty-third President of the United States), 1833-1901. "_Are the doctors here?_" to his wife who had just asked him if he wanted anything.

As Tuesday marked the turning point in his disease, so it was the time from which evidences of consciousness began to disappear. Since that time there were few lucid intervals, and it is doubtful, with the single exception of Tuesday afternoon, when his little girl was taken to his bedside, and he recognized her for a moment, if he had been conscious at all of his surroundings. The last words he spoke were to Mrs. Harrison in answer to a question, but his voice was then almost inaudible and his manner indicated that it required a concentration of effort to grasp the import of the wife's question and frame a reply.

In his delirium, Mr. Harrison's mind wandered frequently to the stirring scenes through which he had pa.s.sed, and he spoke of events connected with the history of his country and in which he played a conspicuous part, as the Chief Magistrate of the nation. But his mind seemed more to be occupied with thoughts of the Boer war than with any other one thing to which he alluded, and it was manifest that the struggle of the South African people for liberty had made a deep impression, and had awakened his strongest sympathies, for he frequently talked, disconnectedly, of course, of the sufferings of the Boer people, and the attempt to crush them out of existence.--_New York Sun, March 14, 1901._

HARRISON (William Henry, ninth President of the United States), 1773-1841. "_I wish you to understand the true principles of government.

I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more._"

HAUSER (Kaspar, the "Nuremberg Foundling"), --1833. "_Tired--very tired--a long journey--to take_," after these words he turned his face to the wall and never spoke again.

He was becoming more feeble every moment, and repeated several times, "Tired--very tired--all my limbs--too heavy--for me."

The good Pastor Fuhrmann comforted and encouraged him with the words of Scripture, ending with, "Father, not my will," and Kaspar responded, "but thine be done." To test his consciousness, the Pastor asked, "Who prayed thus?" and again he was ready with his answer, "Our Saviour."--"And when?"--"Before he died." A few minutes after this followed his last words, "Tired--very tired--a long journey--to take."--_The d.u.c.h.ess of Cleveland: "The True Story of Kaspar Hauser."_

The strange and mysterious history and sad death of Kaspar Hauser called forth the deepest interest and sympathy throughout Europe. He was discovered in the streets of Nuremberg in 1828, a lad about sixteen, knowing almost nothing of the world, and able to speak but two or three words of any language, and of the meaning of these he had but a dim understanding. He had with him a letter purporting to be written by a Bavarian peasant, declaring that Hauser had been left at his door, and had been cared for by him. It was gradually ascertained that the youth had been confined from infancy in a dark vault, so small that one could not stand, and could move only slightly in its enclosure. He had never tasted any food but bread and water, which had been brought to him by an unknown man while he was sleeping. Hauser was cared for by a number of generous and sympathetic patrons, among whom was Lord Stanhope; and his mental and physical condition was studied by the scientific men of the time. In 1833 he was invited to a meeting with a stranger who promised to reveal to him the secret of his strange condition, and to tell him who he was, but when Hauser was reading a doc.u.ment given him, this stranger suddenly wounded him with a dagger, causing his death within three days. See interesting history of the "Nuremberg Foundling" in Merker's "_Kasper Hauser_," and Feuerbach's "_Account of an Individual Kept in a Dungeon_."

HAVERGAL (Frances Ridley), 1836-1879. "_He._" It is thought she wished to say, "He died for me."

HAVELOCK (Sir Henry), 1795-1857. "_Come, my son, and see how a Christian can die._"

HAYDN (Francis Joseph), 1732-1809. "_G.o.d preserve the Emperor._" He referred to the Emperor Francis.

In 1809 Vienna was bombarded by the French. A round-shot fell into his garden. He seemed to be in no alarm, but on May 25 he requested to be led to his piano, and three times over he played the "Hymn to the Emperor," with an emotion that fairly overcame both himself and those who heard him. He was to play no more; and, being helped back to his couch, he lay down in extreme exhaustion to wait for the end. Six days afterward, May 31, 1809, died Francis Joseph Haydn, aged seventy-seven.

_Haweis's "Music and Morals."_

HAYDON (Benjamin Robert, English artist), 1786-1846. His last recorded words were, "_G.o.d forgive me.--Amen!_" Haydon took his own life in a moment of great mental depression.

At dinner he got up from his chair and turned a glazed picture to the wall; his brain could not bear the reflected light. He looked flushed and haggard, and pa.s.sed a silent and abstracted evening. That night he was heard walking about his room nearly the whole night, apparently in great agitation. It was in those wakeful hours he settled his resolve.

He was dressed and out of his room early the next morning (22d June), and walked down, before breakfast, to Riviere, a gunmaker in Oxford Street, near Regent Street. Here he bought one of a pair of pistols. He came home about 9 A. M., breakfasted alone, then went to his painting-room, and probably wrote the letters to his children, his will, and his "last thoughts." As his mother and sister pa.s.sed the painting-room door on their way to their rooms, about 10:30 A. M., they tried the door--it was locked--and he called out very fiercely, "Who's there?" A few minutes after, as if regretting the tone in which he had spoken, he came up to his mother's room, kissed her affectionately, and lingered about the room as if he had something to say. But he said little, except to ask her to call that day on an old friend (one of the executors he had just named in his will) and, returned to his painting-room, deliberately wrote in his journal:--

"G.o.d forgive me.--Amen!"

In a few moments he had destroyed himself.

_Stoddard: "Haydon's Life, Letters and Table Talk."_

HAZLITT (William, essayist and critic), 1778-1830. "_I have led a happy life._"

HEINE (Heinrich, German poet and author), 1800-1856. "_Set your mind at rest, Dieu me pardonnera, c'est son metrer._"

Some hours before he died a friend came into his room to see him once more. Soon after his entry he asked Heine if he was on good terms with G.o.d. "Set your mind at rest," said Heine, "Dieu me pardonnera, c'est son metrer."

_Stigand: "Life, Work and Opinions of Heine."_

Catherine Bourlois, Heine's nurse, says in a letter to Mrs. Charlotte Embden, that Heine's last words often repeated were, "I am done for."

She endeavored to comfort him with such kind and religious words as came to her mind, but all that she said had little effect.