Early one morning, it is said, he rose, and with his hands behind his back dragging his staff, moved about by his door, crooning, "The great mountain must crumble, the strong heart must break, and the wise man wither away like a plant. In all the provinces of the empire there arises not one intelligent monarch who will make me his master. My time has come to die." He went to his couch and never left it again.... His mind was magnanimous and his heart was serene. He was a lonely old man--parents, wife, child, friends, all gone--but this made the fatal message so much the more welcome. Without any expectation of a future life, uttering no prayer, betraying no fear, he approached the dark valley with the strength and peace of a well-ordered will resigned to Heaven, beyond a doubt treasuring in his heart the assurance of having served his fellow-men in the highest spirit he knew, and with the purest light he had. For twenty-five centuries he has been as unreasonably venerated as he was unjustly neglected in his life. His name is on every lip throughout China, his person in every imagination. The thousands of his descendants are a titled and privileged class by themselves. The diffusion and intensity of the popular admiration and honor for him are wonderful. Countless temples are reared to him, millions of tablets inscribed to him. His authority is supreme. He is worshiped by the pupils of the schools, the magistrates, the emperor himself in full pomp. Would that a small share of this superfluity had solaced some of the lonesome hours he knew while yet alive!--_Alger's "Genius of Solitude."_ CONRADIN (Konradin of Swabia, the last descendant of the imperial House of Hohenstaufen, son of Konrad IV.), 1252-1268. "_O my mother! how deep will be thy sorrow at the news of this day!_" A few minutes before his execution, Conradin, on the scaffold, took off his glove and threw it into the midst of the crowd as a gage of vengeance, requesting that it might be carried to his heir, Peter of Arragon. This duty was undertaken by the Chevalier de Walburg, who, after many hairbreadth escapes, succeeded in fulfilling his prince's last command. _Chambers' Encyclopaedia._ COOKMAN (Alfred, American clergyman connected with the Presbyterian church), 1828-1871. "_I am sweeping through the gates, washed in the blood of the Lamb._" CORDAY D'ARMANS, DE (Marie Anne Charlotte, usually called Charlotte Corday, a young woman of noble family and of a courageous and lofty spirit. She stabbed Marat, one of the most bloodthirsty of all the vile monsters of the French Revolution), 1768-1793. "_This is the toilette of death, arranged by somewhat rude hands, but it leads to immortality._" She must have spoken later, perhaps many times, but the words recorded are the last of which we can be certain.