known. One of these consultations was with M. Fagon, first physician to Louis XIV., under the title of a village Curé. That eminent physician gave his humble patient his honest opinion, and sent him away without any directions, and with no other advice than to prepare for a speedy death. The complaint increased, and the King consulted Fagon again, but without disguise. The physician recognised the malady of his former clerical patient, gave the same opinion, but with more consideration, and prescribed gentle remedies, which though they did not cure, alleviated the sufferings, and somewhat lengthened the life of the royal patient. Equally sincere, but less courteous, was the opinion of our eminent English physician Dr. Ratcliffe, who, on seeing the King's wasting body and swelling legs, said in his rugged manner, "I would not have Your Majesty's two legs for your three kingdoms."

M. FAGON's prescriptions were followed and produced the promised effect of soothing the irritation of the disorder. The suffering chieftain, however, knew that the greatest as well as the meanest of mankind must obey the inevitable call of the angel of death, and duly estimating the emptiness of what the world calls grand destinies, prepared himself to finish the arrangements of the great work he had undertaken to conduct.

Ar intervals between his labours with his ministers, foreign ambassadors, and occasionally distinguished

* Mémoires de M. de St. Simon. Tom. III. p. 177.

A.D. 1702]

DEATH OF KING WILLIAM III.

361

principals on the all-absorbing topic of the Spanish succession and the Grand alliance, the King took a little exercise on horseback, which was not only a favourite amusement, for he was passionately fond of riding, especially hunting, was an accomplished and elegant horseman, in days when skill in horsemanship, or the science of equitation, as the French named it, was a necessary part of a gentleman's education, and as many persons said, never looked really well, or so much of the hero as when in the saddle. In one of these little excursions or airings his weakness was such, that, in spite of all his endeavours to conceal it, he fell, and was so severely shaken that he did not recover from its effects.

*

Ir is complained of this Prince by the same journalist who elsewhere complains of the ascetic habits and pharisaical observances of Louis XIV., that in his last illness he occupied himself too little with religion, which neglect had been his habit through life. King William was certainly no Pharisee, nor pretender to sanctity, nor was he a puritan; neither did he preside over such an adulterous and profligate Court as did his great enemy, nor did he persecute millions for professing a different creed from himself. His Christianity was more practical than professional. He did not discuss texts like Cromwell, nor dragoon unbelievers in his creed like the most Christian King; but if his practice and Tillotson's testimony be of any avail, he served his God and the country which called him to

* Mémoires de M. De St. Simon, Tom. III. p. 178.

the throne as the Israelites did David, like a patriot King. Not but he would have ruled with a higher hand had he been permitted, as his unconstitutional attempts upon the liberties of his Dutch subjects and his endeavours to establish a standing army in England, which ended in his discomforture and the mortifying necessity of dismissing his Walloon Guards, abundantly show.

In his last hours he preserved his characteristic decision and firmness, his enlarged and comprehensive mind and business-like habits. He ordered all things, conversed with his ministers and familiar friends, gave instructions for future proceedings with a coolness, deliberation, foresight and presence of mind that surprised all about him, and died heroically, like Nelson, doing his duty as a wise statesman, a brave soldier and a politic King. All these counsels were attended to, in spite of dreadful sufferings, interrupted by violent retching, solely occupied with the immediate object of his wishes, the accomplishment of the Grand alliance, a prevention of disunion among its members, and the hope of humbling the arrogance of France, the great enemy of the civil and religious liberties of Europe.

HIS waning life was sustained the last two days by cordials and restoratives, and how much of that time was occupied in spiritual communion with the King of kings, the only Ruler of princes, who heareth in secret, is more than his detractors can say. nourishment was a cup of chocolate, after resigned his spirit to HIM who

His last earthly when he shortly gave it, on the

A. D. 1702]

CLOSING SCENES OF LIFE.

363

19th of March, 1702, at the hour of ten in the forenoon, in the fifty-second year of his age, and the fourteenth of his reign.

THE closing scenes of life among men who have been deemed great, fortunate and happy by the world, afford excellent materials for thinking, and it was not without reason that a distinguished * French general said of his commander when he saw him fall at the head of his troops in the moment of victory-" that man was always lucky."

THE death of Marshal de Montmorenci, Duke of Luxembourg, one of the bravest and most successful opponents of William III. of England, whom the Prince de Conti named " le tapissiere de Notre Dame," because the walls of that church were completely covered with the flags he took from the enemy, is a case in point. This hero acknowledged on his death bed that the brilliancy of his career and the vast renown he had acquired afforded him less consolation at that moment than the remembrance of a single good act. His biographert, quoted in M. de St. Simon's Memoirs, assures us that his regrets at having served his King better than his GOD, were so great that he cried out" qu'il auroit préferé à l'éclat de tant des victoires qui devenoient inutiles au tribunal de Juge des Rois et des héros, le mérite d'un verre d'eau donné aux pauvres pour l'amour de l'Etre Supreme."

NOR is the last act of the life of the celebrated

* Mémoires de M. de St. Simon.

+ Supplément, Tom. II. p. 203.

Duke de Vendome, whose services to Louis XIV. in the affair of the Spanish succession, and many heroic deeds less instructive.

THIS distinguished French general was the grandson of one of the illegitimate sons of Henry IV., and married one of the Mancinis, a niece of Cardinal Mazarin. This illustrious birth and happy marriage procured for him the rank of a prince of the blood from Louis XIV., who* took every and any measure to raise

* Among other plans in furtherance of this object, was that of patronising a new history of France, in opposition to that of M. de Mezerai, by father Daniel, a Jesuit of Normandy, who was removed to the Jesuit's College, wherein he held the office of librarian, and was appointed Historiographer Royal of France, with a pension of two thousand francs. The work was published in three thick folio volumes, on excellent paper and beautiful typography. The style has been much commended, and the work was preceded by an admirable preface, magnificent promises and learned dissertation, with an air of authority becoming a veracious historian. He introduces many romantic episodes in the first race of the French Kings, more in the second, and an increase in the third. It is written with great art, and with all the appearance of liberality and candour, which while it discards prejudice, looks at facts with impartial discernments, and seeks for nothing so much as truth. The result is that according to Father Daniel, the greater part of the boldest and bravest of the Kings of the first race, many of the second, and some of the third, were mostly of adulterous and double adulterous birth, and that this trifling defect in blood, did not exclude them from the throne. The effect of this very new history of France, says M. de St. Simon (Tom. III, p. 143), was prodigious, like a fascination, and became the supreme ton; every one ran for it, even the women, and the same interest which caused its composition, promoted its circulation. Praises of the work transpired at the parties of Mad. de Maintenon; the King, asked everybody, had they read Pere Daniel's history. The wide awake soon caught up who were its patrons, and that it must be an admirable history to be admired by the King and Mad. de Maintenon, and read at Versailles! It was to be found on the