According to Roman custom, the death was announced to acquaintances by a deep mourning paper inscribed:—
"Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you, my
friends."—JOB xix. 21.
Of your charity pray for the soul of
MRS. ANN FRANCES HARE,
(Widow of Francis George Hare, Esq., brother of the late
Archdeacon Hare of Lewes, Sussex), who departed this life,
after a short illness, on the 25th of April 1864, aged sixty-three
years, fortified with all the rites of Holy Church. On
whose soul sweet Jesus have mercy.
———
Requiescat in pace. Amen.
———
"Afflicted in few things, in many shall they be well rewarded,
because God has tried them."—Wisdom, iii. 5.[238]
It was Mr. Trafford who responded to the announcement of the death which had been sent to Madame de Trafford:—
"Château le Beaujour, par Onzain, Cher et Loire, ce 1 Mai 1864.—Croyez, ma chère Demoiselle, que nous partageons bien votre douleur, mais femme propose, et Dieu dispose. Vous savez que Madame de Trafford avait prévu ce qui est arrivé.... Madame de Trafford vous dira encore 'Espérance et Confiance.'
"E. W. Trafford." To My Sister.
"Florence, May 22, 1864.—This morning we have received your most touching account of the last hours, of which we had so longed to know something. You may imagine with what breathless interest we have followed every detail.
" ... I have seen poor Mr. Landor several times. He has a small lodging in the Via della Chiesa, where he 'sits out the grey remainder of his evening,' as Coleridge would describe it. He is terribly altered, has lost the use of his hearing and almost of his speech, and cannot move from his chair to his bed. I think he had a very indistinct recollection who I was, but he remembered the family, and liked to say over the old names—'Francis, Augustus, Julius, I miei tre imperatori. I have never known any family I loved so much as yours. I loved Francis most, then Julius, then Augustus, but I loved them all. Francis was the dearest friend I ever had.' He also spoke of the Buller catastrophe. 'It was a great, great grief to me.' I did not tell him what has happened lately; it was no use, he can live so short a time.[239]
"When he last left the Villa Landore, it was because Mrs. Landor turned him out by main force. It was a burning day, a torrid summer sun. He walked on dazed down the dusty road, the sun beating on his head. His life probably was saved by his meeting Mr. Browning, who took him home. After some time, Browning asked to take him to the Storys' villa at Siena, and he stayed with them a long time. Mrs. Story says that nothing ever more completely realised King Lear than his appearance when he arrived, with his long flowing white locks and his wild far-away expression. But after a day of rest he seemed to revive. He would get up very early and sit for hours at a little table in the great hall of the villa writing verses—often Latin verses.
"One day he wrote, and thundered out, an epigram on his wife:—
'From the first Paradise an angel once drove Adam;
From mine a fiend expelled me: Thank you, madam.'