is "Rock of Ages"), 1740-1778. "No mortal man can live after the glories which God has manifested to my soul."

TYNDALE, or TINDALE (William, the venerable martyr and translator of the Bible), 1484-1536. "Lord, open

the eyes of the King of England." He was first strangled and afterward burnt.

The merits of Tyndale must ever be recognized and honored by all who enjoy the English Bible, for their authorized version of the New Testament has his for its basis. He made good his early boast, that ploughboys should have the Word of God. His friends speak of his great simplicity of heart, and commend his abstemious habits, his zeal and his industry; while even the imperial procurator who prosecuted him styles him "homo, doctus, pius et bonus."

USHER (James, Archbishop), 1580-1656. "Lord, forgive my sins; especially my sins of omission." His last words are sometimes given thus, "God be merciful to me, a sinner."

VALDES (Gabriel de la Concepcion, commonly known as Placido), -1844. "Here! fire here!" Valdes was a full-blooded negro. He was executed with twenty other persons, for conspiracy to liberate the black population, the slaves of the Spanish inhabitants of Cuba. The execution took place at Havana, July, 1844. Standing before the soldiers appointed to shoot him, he said: "Adios, mundo; no hay piedad

66

para mi. Soldados, fuego." Adieu, O world; here is no pity for me. Soldiers, fire." Soldiers, fire." Five balls entered his body. He arose, turned to the soldiers, and said, his face wearing an expression of superhuman courage: "Will no one have pity on me? Here," pointing to his heart, "fire here!" At that instant two balls pierced his heart and he fell dead. Little is known of him but his death, which was described in the Heraldo, of Madrid. "The Poems of a Cuban Slave," edited by Dr. Madden, are believed to have been the composition of the gifted Valdes.

VANE (Sir Henry), 1612–1662. "Blessed be God, I have kept a conscience void of offence to this day, and have not deserted the righteous cause for which I suffer." Vane was condemned for treason, and beheaded June 14, 1662.

Vane, young in years, but in sage counsels old,
Than whom a better senator ne'er held

The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repelled

The fierce Epirat and the African bold,

Both spiritual power and civil thou hast learned:
Therefore on thy firm hand religion leans

In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son.-Milton.

VANINI (Lucilio), 1585-1619. "Illi in extremis prae timore imbellis sudor; ego imperturbatus morior." Grammond, Hist. Gal. iii. 211.

See

After travelling through Germany, Holland and England, he went to Toulouse, where he was arrested and condemned by the parliament to be burned alive. He

wrote 'Amphitheatrum Æternæ Providentiæ," and "De Admirandis Naturæ Arcanis," for which latter work he suffered in 1619.

VESPACIAN (Titus Flavius, Roman Emperor), 9–79. "An Emperor ought to die standing." A short time before this he said in attending to the apotheosis of the emperors, "I suppose I shall soon be a god."

VEUSTER DÉ (Joseph, the "Leper-Priest of Molokai." When he became "religious" he took the name of Damien, after the second of two brothers, Cosmos and Damien, both physicians, martyrs and saints in the Roman Catholic Church. He is commonly known as "Father Damien "), -1889. "Well! God's will be

done. He knows best. My work, with all its faults and failures, is in His hands, and before Easter I shall see my Saviour."

There has been much discussion with regard to the character and work of Damien. The Rev. C. M. Hyde, D. D., of Honolulu, a missionary of high repute, and who had personal knowledge of the leper-priest, wrote a letter to the Rev. H. B. Gage, which was published in "The Sydney Presbyterian" of October 26, 1889. In that letter he said:

"The simple truth is, he (Father Damien) was a coarse, dirty man, headstrong and bigoted. He was not sent to Molokai, but went there without orders; did not stay at the leper settlement (before he became himself a leper), but circulated freely over the whole island (less than half the island is devoted to the lepers), and he came often to

Honolulu. He had no hand in the reforms and improvements inaugurated, which were the work of our Board of Health, as occasion required and means were provided. He was not a pure man in his relations with women, and the leprosy of which he died should be attributed to his vices and carelessness. Others have done much for the lepers, our own ministers, the government physicians, and so forth, but never with the Catholic idea of meriting eternal life."

To the statements of Dr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson replied in most violent language, of which the following is a sample:

"You remember that you have done me several courtesies for which I was prepared to be grateful. But there are duties which come before gratitude, and offences which justly divide friends, far more acquaintances. Your letter to the Rev. H. B. Gage is a document which, in my sight, if you had filled me with bread when I was starving, if you had sat up to nurse my father when he lay a-dying, would yet absolve me from the bonds of gratitude."

After this and more vituperation follows an analysis of Dr. Hyde's letter, and an elaborate defense of Father Damien. Men will differ in their opinions of the leperpriest, and, no doubt, much may be said upon both sides of the case; but to the compiler of this work, who, in his own home, heard the story in all its details from the lips of Dr. Hyde, the beatification of Damien is, to say the least, a grotesque absurdity.

VIDOCQ (Eugène François, famous French detective), 1775-1857. "How great is the forgiveness for such a life!"

He was successively a thief, soldier, deserter, and gambler before he entered the public service, and was often imprisoned for his offences. About 1810 he enlisted in the police at Paris. His success as a detective has scarcely been paralleled in history.

Lippincott: Biographical History. He retired to Paris and there lived quietly in lodgings until 1857, when, at the great age of eighty-two, he was struck down with paralysis. On finding his end near, he sent for a confessor, and so whimsical a thing is human nature he greatly edified the holy man by dying like a saint. One trifling peccadillo he perhaps forgot to mention. The breath had scarcely left his body, when ten lovely damsels, each provided with a copy of his will, which left her all his property, arrived. Alas for all the ten! Vidocq had always loved the smiles of beauty, and had obtained them by a gift which cost him nothing. He had left his whole possessions to his landlady.

Smith: "Romance of History."

He

VILLIERS (George, First Duke of Buckingham. was assassinated by John Felton in 1628), 1592-1628. "God's wounds! the villain hath killed me."

John Felton, gentleman, having watched his opportunity, thrust a long knife, with a white heft, he had secretly about him, with great strength and violence, into his breast, under his left pap, cutting the diaphragma and lungs, and piercing the very heart itself. The Duke hav