The Last Words (Real and Traditional) of Distinguished Men and WomenMarvin, Frederic Rowland
History
The Last Words (Real and Traditional) of Distinguished Men and Women
Marvin, Frederic Rowland
Last words
Heloise, when she felt the approach of death, directed the sisterhood to
place her body by the side of that of Abelard, in the same coffin. It
was commonly reported and believed, such was the credulity of the age,
that at the moment when the coffin of Abelard was opened to lay her
within it, the arm of the skeleton stretched itself out, opened, and
appeared to be reanimated to receive the beloved one. They reposed for
five hundred years in one of the aisles of the Paraclete, and after
various changes, came to rest at last in the beautiful cemetery of
Pere-la-Chaise at Paris.
HEMANS (Felicia Dorothea), 1794-1835. "_I feel as if I were sitting with
Mary at the feet of my Redeemer, hearing the music of his voice, and
learning of Him to be meek and lovely._"
HENDRICKS (Thomas A., Vice-President of the United States), 1819-1885.
"_At rest at last. Now I am free from pain._"
HENRY IV. (of France), 1553-1610. "_I am wounded_," said when struck by
the assassin Ravaillac.
While the coach stopped, the attendants with the exception of two, went
on before; one of these two advanced to clear the way, the other stopped
to fasten his garter. At that instant a wild-faced, red-haired man in a
cloak, who had followed the coach from the Louvre, approached the side
where the king sat, as if endeavoring to push his way, like other
passengers, between the coach and the shops. Suddenly putting one foot
on a spoke of the wheel, he drew a knife, and struck the king, who was
reading a letter, between the second and third rib, a little above the
heart. "I am wounded," cried the king, as the assassin, perceiving that
the stroke had not been effectual, repeated it. The second blow went
directly to the heart; the blood gushed from the wound and from his
mouth, and death was almost instantaneous. A third blow which the
assassin aimed at his victim was received by the Duke of Eperon in the
sleeve.
The assassin's name was Francis Ravaillac, a native of Angoumois, who
had been a solicitor in the courts of law. Whether the crime was
prompted solely by his own imagination, or whether he was the instrument
of any deep-laid conspiracy, was never clearly ascertained, though the
latter was the general supposition.--_Chambers' Miscellany._
HENRY VIII. (second son of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York. The death
of his elder brother Arthur, in 1502, made him heir apparent to the
throne. He married his brother's widow, Catharine of Aragon, and, upon
his father's death in 1509, was crowned king of England. The great event
in his reign was his divorcement of Catharine and his marriage with Anne
Boleyn, which led to the repudiation of Romanism in England, and the
organization of the English or Episcopal Church), 1491-1547. "_Monks!
Monks! Monks!_" He was in all probability thinking of the time when he
abolished the monasteries and turned the monks out of doors.
HENRY (Patrick, American statesman and orator), 1736-1799. "_I trust in
the mercy of God, it is not now too late._"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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