BLOOD (Thomas, an Irish adventurer who served in Cromwell's army. He seized the Duke of Ormond in his coach in London, and would have hanged him but for the tempted to sing upon his death-bed. He bade his son go to the piano and accompany him. The young man, struggling with emotion, obeyed. Lablache sang in English the first stanza of Home, Sweet Home. At the second stanza the muscles of the throat refused to move; not a note could he sound. In distress and great amazement he gazed around him for a moment, and then, closing his eyes, fell asleep in death. It is recorded of Captain Hamilton, whose portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he came to his death in this wise: "He imprudently ventured in a boat from his ship to land at Plymouth, on a tempestuous day, all in his impatience to rejoin his wife ashore. The boat turned keel upwards, and the captain, being a good swimmer, trusted to his skill, and would not accept of a place on the keel, but, that he might leave room there for others, clung merely to the edge of the boat. His great coat was a hindrance to him, and this he attempted to throw off; but, in the words of Lord Eliot, whose too are the italics, "finding his strength fail, he told the men he must yield to his fate, and soon afterwards sank while singing a psalm."-Francis Jacox. When Latour was guillotined at Foix, in 1864, for the murder of a family of four persons, great was the throng in the streets, despite the heavy rain that fell; for, to ensure a good attendance, the condemned man had announced his intention to compose for the occasion a series of verses, which he would sing on his way (in the cart, vis-à-vis with messieurs the headsmen) from prison to scaffold. And sing them he did, all the way -a matter of some three hundred and fifty yards. Lightly he tripped up the steps of the scaffold, and then, after a deliberate survey of the crowd below and all around, he thundered forth, tonna, the following lines-a parody, or rather a personal appropriation, of the Marseillaise. "Allons, pauvre victime, Ton jour de mort est arrivé: Le couteau sanglant est levé!" Being then tied to the plank and flung into the usual horizontal position in order to be brought under the blade, he still went on-Allons, pauvre victime, Ton jour de mort . . . —until a heavy sound was heard, the blade fell, something else fell with it, and all was over.—Jacox. When feeling the approaches of death, he sent for all his servants, and distributed his money and property among them, on condition that they immediately left the house, which was so punctually complied with, that when the physicians came on their next visit, they found the doors open, and their patient by himself, with no property left but the bed he lay upon. When the physicians remarked this circumstance to him, he answered that he must now go likewise, "since his baggage was sent off before him," and immediately expired.-The Book of Death. BAILLY (Jean Sylvain, French astronomer and philosopher, first president of the States-General, and later a victim of the Revolution), 1736-1793. "My friend, it is only from cold," to one of the bystanders who, witnessing the refinement of cruelty attending his execution, said, "Bailly, you tremble." He was led on foot, amidst a drenching fall of snow and sleet, to the banks of the river, where, to parody the scene on Calvary, the heavy beams which support the guillotine were placed on his shoulders. He sank under the weight, but barbarous blows obliged him again to lift it. He fell a second time, and swooned away; yells of laughter arose in the crowd, and the execution was postponed till he revived, and could feel its bitterness. But nothing could subdue his courage. "You tremble, Bailly," said one of the spectators. "My friend," said the old man, "it is only from cold." BARRE, DE LA (Jean François le Fèvre, Chevalier. He was condemned to death for having mutilated a cru cifix, and was executed in 1766, at the age of nineteen), 1747-1766. "I did not think that they would put a young gentleman to death for such a trifle." 1 Poor young La Barre was tortured, strangled and burned for not taking off his hat to a file of greasy monks. He remained covered while the Capuchins carried some mediæval trumpery in procession. 66 Walter Besant's "French Humorists." BATTIE (William, English physician), 1704–1776. Young man, you have heard, no doubt, how great are the terrors of death: this night will probably afford you some experience; but you may learn, and may you profit by the example, that a conscientious endeavor to perform his duties through life, will ever close a Christian's eyes with comfort and tranquillity," said to his servant. BAXTER (Richard, a noted English nonconformist, author of "The Saints' Everlasting Rest," and "The Call to the Unconverted "), 1615-1691. I have painthere is no arguing against sense — but I have peace, I have peace!" A little later he said, "I am almost well." BEARD (Dr. George Miller, an American physician and scientist of unusual promise, who died upon the threshold of a great career), 1839-1883. He said to the doctors who endeavored to save his life, "You are good fellows, but you can do nothing for me. come." His last words were, "I should like to record the thoughts of a dying man for the benefit of science, but it is impossible." My time has 1 See Voltaire's "Account of the Death of the Chevalier de la Barre." Dr. Beard had wonderful insight. He exposed and ruined the notorious Eddy Brothers, and comprehended, explained, and paralleled the exploits of Brown, the Mind Reader, showing the simple principle on which they were produced. His defects were too rapid generalization, and too positive and comprehensive assertion of results. Knowing well the uncertainty of average human testimony where the supernatural, or even the mysterious, is involved, he held that experts in the supposed supernatural alone were competent witOf these he thought that there were but three or four living, nor did he shrink from claiming that he was easily princeps among them. Of course, as there were no experts on earth when the miracles were wrought, he had no evidence of them. He was prone to comprehend as much as possible under one generic His work on Neurasthenia did not command general approbation, because it made almost everything a sign of nervous exhaustion. As a writer, he was brilliant and prolific. His fame would be more enduring if he had written five books, instead of fifty.-Obituary. nesses. term. BEAUFORT (Henry, half-brother of Henry IV. He was made cardinal in 1426, and in 1430 he crowned Henry IV. at Notre Dame. He presided over the tribunal that sent the Maid of Orleans to the stake, and is supposed to have participated in the murder of the Duke of Gloucester), 1370-1447. "I pray you all pray for me." Some authorities give his last words thus: "And must I then die? Will not all my riches save me? I could purchase a kingdom, if that would save my life! What! is there no bribing death? When my nephew, the Duke of Bedford, died, I thought my happiness and my authority greatly increased; but the Duke of Gloucester's death raised me in fancy to a level with kings, and I thought of nothing but accumulating still greater wealth, to purchase at last the triple crown. Alas! how are my hopes disappointed! Wherefore, O my friends, let me earnestly beseech you to pray for me, and recommend my departing soul to God!" Harpsfield: Hist. Eccles. edit. Duaci, 1622, p. 643. A few minutes before his death, his mind appeared to be undergoing the tortures of the damned. He held up his two hands, and cried - "Away! away!-why thus do ye look at me?" He seemed to behold some horrible spectre by his bedside.1 BECKET (Thomas à, first Saxon archbishop of Canterbury after the Norman conquest), 1117-1170. "For the 1 Enter the KING, Salisbury, WARWICK, to the CARDINAL in bed. So thou wilt let me live and feel no pain. Where death's approach is seen so terrible! War. Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee. |