Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-04-26
LAST DYING WORDS.
How Some Famous People Have
Met Their Fate.

"
Met Their Fate.
London Globe.
Help mel" are melancholy words.
uttered by the man whose will mo-
ment before was paramount in the larg.
est Empire on earth, and TO whom S.
OOO,OOO oil iellow-creatures were in SUBJ
lection. Yet these were, We are told,
the last words OF the late Emperor, after
the fatal bomb had done the work de-
signed for il, on the banks OF the Cath
crime canal. What words were last
spoken by men who have died i'm the
field, or on the scaffold, or in bed, have
been sufficiently noted by history.
Many such we doubtless owe to the
zeal OF friends anxious for the final ut
terance to be in accord with the charac-
ter Of the deceased. Even when, how
ever, the last words are beyond ques-
ton authentic, they must rot lie esti-
mated at too high a rate. The Sir Thorn
as More or the Madame Roland who
perishes on the scatfold; the Mirabeau
or the Goethe who dies in his bed; even
the Sir Philip Sydney or the Sir Thomas
Picton who is killed in battle, meets fate
with some degree of preparedness. Al
though nobody has served apprentice
ship TO dying, those named cannot be
said TO have reached their end unex-
pectedly. In the case Of those to whom
death Genes in the shape of an assassin
there IS, on the contrary, an element OF
surprise which gives TO the last words,
often uttered in stupetied and uncon.
seious state, peculiar interest.
The cry for help OF the dead Emperor
was cry natural and not surprising
1t proved kindred between an autocrat
aud the humblest peasant in Russia.
There have, however, been men in an
cient and in modern times whose last
words in similar circumstances have
shown the character OF the speaker with
as much distinctness as any of the acts
OF their lives. That Brutus was among
the conspirators against his life, was the
cardinal consideration with Cesar when
a Senate drew their daggers against him.
Ii is said that after Casca had stabbed
him in the neck, this greatest OF the an
clients molly resisted. When Cassius,
with furious rage, wounded him in the
head, he still continued to struggle.
But when he saw Brutus aim dagger
at his heart, the hero ceased to contend
with his assassins. "And thou. Bru-
tus!' he muttered. as he covered his
face, and fell. Have not these last
words indescribable pathos for all time?
The concern OF the man who through
life had been true TO friends was not
that he was to die, but that one OF his
friends should participate in his murder.
Cicero, when, after the formation OF the
Second Triumvirate, and the triumph
OF their party. he found his name on
the bloody list OF prescription, did not
show, nor could he be expected to show,
that firmness in face OF death which
man of war from youth, such as Caesar,
is expected to possess. AT hrst he
meant to kill himself in the house OF
Octavianus; but his courage failed him.
He was not made Of such stuff as his
contemporary Cato, who fell on his own
sword; and who, when his friends, TAX
ing advantage of his fainting, replaced
the intestines that had fallen out, and
sewed up the wound, tore them open on
coming to himself. He fled. Still in
the final crisis, he comported himself
with dignity. When the assassins rush.
ed at the litter in which he was being
carried he stretched out his neck and
exclaimed, "Strike," with more elo-
uuence than he had ever before exhlb-
tied, and received the fatal stroke with
out shrinking.
In all history, modern as well as an
cient, proiane as well as sacred, innum-
cradle instances are found of men who
have exhibited what the First Napoleon
called "two o'clock in the morning cour-
age" in the presence OF the assassin.
ON the evening OF that December day,
in ITO. when the courtiers OF Henry III.
arrived at Canterbury, and found Thorn
"a a Beckett at vespers in the cathedral,
the prelate's last words were IN keep
ING with his life. As the assasslns adj
yanced towards him with their drawn
swords, he exclaimed that he died Tor
the cause of God, and in defense OF the
rights of the church; and, he added, i
charge you in the name OF the Almighty,
TO DO no hurt TO any other mere, Tor
none have any concern in the late trans
actions" Perhaps the most noble last
words ever spoken were those uttered
nv William the silent, the founder oil
Dutch liberty. Unlike Counts Hoorn
and EDMOND, he escaped the scatold
and persisted by the hand OF a mean as
sassin. When Balthazar Gerard, alter
having obtained an introduction, on the
plea OF beinga messenger OF mercy, sud
denly turned and shot the Prince with
a pistol loaded with three bullets, Will
liam fell, calculating, "My God! have
mercy upon ME and Thy poor people
Taken by surprise and sent to his reck-
onjpr without warning, his concern
was vet with the country to which his
life hal been devoted aud whose h6er-
ties he had secured, aud when 1t had 10
be lett to the rare of others, his thought
was Of his country, and My Cod! have
mercy upon me AMI Thy poor people
were expected from the grest beneiacsor
who. when the Prince made a progress
through Holland AMI Friesland, was re-
crived by the peasants as Father VIII
liam"