The Last Words Of Distinguished Men And Women Part 17

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 f.a.ggots 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.sa.s.sinated General Kleber),--1800. "_Tay hip!_" (That is good).

The a.s.sa.s.sin 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 G.o.ds," 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 (Was.h.i.+ngton, 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 p.r.o.nounce 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 s.h.i.+pping and buildings in New York flew at half-mast, and the Mayor and Council recognised the event as a public grief. A mult.i.tude 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 suns.h.i.+ne 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 ent.i.tled, "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 Mana.s.seh, 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 refres.h.i.+ng 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 G.o.d 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-b.a.l.l.s 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 la.s.s, and it will go with a la.s.s._" He referred to the Scotch crown.

JEFFERSON (Thomas, third President of the United States), 1743-1826. "_I resign my spirit to G.o.d, 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. "_G.o.d 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 Ha.s.seltine, wife of Adoniram Judson, and with him a missionary in Burmah), 1789-1826. "_I feel quite well, only very weak._"