It was alleged that Peters was one of those that stood masked on the scaffold when the king was beheaded, and to render him more odious, it was reported that he was the executioner. During his imprisonment he wrote several letters of advice to his daughter, which were published under the title of "A Dying Father's Legacy to an Only Child," of which his great-nephew, Samuel, said: "It was printed and published in Old and New England, and myriads of experienced Christians have read his legacy with ecstasy and health to their souls." After execution his head was stuck on a pole and placed on London bridge.... His private character has been the subject of much discussion. He was charged by his enemies with gross immorality, and the most bitter epithets have been applied to him. Of late years he has been estimated more favorably. _Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography._ PHILIP II. (of Spain), 1527-1598. "_I die like a good Catholic, in faith and obedience to the Holy Roman church._" Soon after these last words had been spoken, a paroxysm, followed by faintness, came over him, and he lay entirely still. They had covered his face with a cloth, thinking that he had already expired, when he suddenly started with great energy, opened his eyes, seized the crucifix again from the hand of Don Fernando de Toledo, kissed it, and fell back again in agony.... He did not speak again, but lay unconsciously dying for some hours, and breathed his last at five in the morning of Sunday, the 13th of September. _Motley: "History of the United Netherlands."_ PHILIP III. (of Spain), 1578-1621: "_Oh would to God I had never reigned! Oh, that those years I have spent in my kingdom I had lived a solitary life in the wilderness! Oh, that I had lived alone with God! How much more secure should I now have died! With how much more confidence should I have gone to the throne of God! What doth all my glory profit, but that I have so much the more torment in my death?_" PIUS IX. (Cardinal Giovanni Maria Mastai-Farretti, elected Pope June 17th, 1846), 1792-1878. "_Guard the church I loved so well and sacredly._" Some say his last words were, "Death wins this time." PHOCION (Athenian statesman and general, unjustly condemned on a charge of treason, and put to death), B. C. 402-317. "_No resentment._" PITT (William), 1759-1806. "_O my country, how I leave thee!_" PIZARRO (Francisco, the conqueror of Peru), about 1475-1541. "_Jesu!_" He was assassinated in his palace, June 26, 1541, and was killed only after desperate resistance. PLOTINUS (Greek philosopher of the Neo-Platonic school), 204-270. "_I am laboring to return that which is divine in us, unto that Divinity which informs and enlivens the whole universe._" He was intensely religious, and if he had come a century later would, instead of a heathen philosopher, have been one of the first names among the saints of the church.--_Hallam._