"You can never exchange the present government, but for a monarchy. If the administration have done wrong, let us all go wrong together, rather than split into factions, which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs. Let us preserve our strength for the French, the English, the German, or whoever else shall dare to invade our territory, and not exhaust it in civil commotion and intestine wars." After the conclusion of the oration, Henry went back to Red Hill, and never left it again. In April he was triumphantly elected, but he was unable to take his seat. On June 6, 1799, he was near death. When the physician offered him a vial of mercury, at the same time telling him that the remedy might prolong his life a little while, or it might be fatal, he drew over his eyes a silken cap which he usually wore, and, holding the vial in his hands, made "a simple childlike prayer for his family, for his country, and for his own soul. Afterwards in perfect calm he swallowed the medicine." His last word was to his physician, commending the Christian religion, which was so real a benefit to a man about to die. Patrick Henry and his wife lie side by side in the rear garden of Red Hill. "His fame his best epitaph" is the simple inscription on the stone above the patriot. [Illustration: POHICK CHURCH, VIRGINIA _Photo furnished by Aymar Embury, II_ See page 311] LXX POHICK CHURCH, TRURO PARISH, VIRGINIA THE HOME CHURCH OF GEORGE WASHINGTON Both Truro parish and George Washington were born in 1732, and Washington's connection with Truro Church began in 1735, when his father, Augustine Washington, became a vestryman, and it continued throughout his life, though during his later years, when services were seldom held there, he went to Christ Church at Alexandria. When Washington was a boy he had to make a round trip of eighteen miles, frequently over extremely rough roads, when he wished to attend services. Yet he was a faithful attendant, at all seasons. A number of the early rectors of Truro were welcome guests at Mt. Vernon. One of these, Charles Green, was a physician as well as a minister, as appears from the record that he was called to prescribe for Washington in 1757, when the young campaigner was so seriously ill, in consequence of hardships suffered on his western trip, that he said he had "too much reason to apprehend an approaching decay."