Upon a visit to Megara, a town in the neighborhood of Athens, he was seized with a languor, which increased during the ensuing voyage; and he expired a few days after landing at Brundisium, on the 22d of September in the fifty-second year of his age. He desired that his body might be carried to Naples, where he had passed many happy years; and that the following distich, written in his last sickness, should be inscribed upon his tomb: Mantua me genuit: Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope, Cecerie pascua, rura, duces. VITELLIUS (Aulus, Emperor of Rome), 15-69. "_Yet I was once your emperor_," to the soldiers of Vespasian who were putting him to death by a lingering torture whilst they were dragging him by a horse into the Tiber. VOLTAIRE (a name capriciously assumed by Francois Marie Arouet, and made by him more celebrated than any other of which we read in the literary history of the eighteenth century), 1694-1778. "_Adieu my dear Marand; I am dying_," said to his valet. According to a document discovered by Mr. Schuyler, American Consul at Moscow, bearing on the death of Voltaire, and which was forwarded to M. Taine, and published in the _Journal des Debats_, the last words of Voltaire were, "Take care of Maria," meaning his niece, Madame Denys. These words were addressed to one of his servants. It has also been said that his last words were: "For the love of God, don't mention that Man--allow me to die in peace!" to one who called his attention to our Saviour. There are several widely divergent accounts of the last hours of Voltaire, and perhaps it is not possible to know just what measure of truth is to be found in any one of them. It is said that on his death-bed he cursed D'Alembert and denounced his infidel associates; that he made in the presence of Abbe Gaultier, the Abbe Mignot, and the Marquis de Villeveille a declaration of his wish to be reconciled to "the church;" that he spent much time in alternately praying and blaspheming. These facts, if facts they really are, rest upon the statements of Mons. Tronchin, the Protestant physician from Geneva, who attended him almost to the last, and who was so horrified at what he witnessed that he said, "_Pour voir toutes les furies d'Oreste, il n'y avait qu'a se trouver a la mort de Voltaire._" The Marechal de Richelieu, also, was terrified at what he saw and heard, and left the bed-side of Voltaire declaring that his nerves were not strong enough to endure the strain. Tronchin's statements are denied by Vilette and Monke, who represent the last hours of the great Frenchman as calm and peaceful. The exact truth will, it is most likely, never be known beyond all question, and yet, to the compiler of this book, the weight of evidence seems to be with Tronchin rather than with those who have impeached his testimony.