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.[4]
Becket (Thomas à, first Saxon archbishop of Canterbury after the Norman conquest), 1117-1170. "For the name of Jesus and the defense of the church I am willing to die."
He was assassinated by four barons, servants of Henry II. The Roman Catholic Church regarded him as a martyr; and in 1172 he was canonized.
Bede (surnamed "The Venerable;" an English monk, and the author of "Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum"), 673-735. "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost."
It is related that on the night of his death he continued dictating to his amanuensis a translation of some work, probably of the gospel of St. John, into Anglo-Saxon. He asked the scribe how many chapters remained. "Only one," he replied; "but you are too weak to dictate." "No," said Bede, "take your pen and write quickly." After some time the scribe said, "Master, it is finished;" to which Bede replied, "Thou hast said truly, consummatum est," and shortly after expired.
Lippincott.
Beecher (Henry Ward, distinguished American clergyman, for many years pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church, Brooklyn, N. Y.), 1813-1887. "Now comes the mystery."
Beethoven (Ludwig van), 1770-1827. "I shall hear in heaven."
When about thirty-five years old, while at work upon his opera of "Leonora," known in English as "Fidelio," he was attacked with deafness. The malady began gradually, but after a year made more rapid progress, and soon his hearing was entirely destroyed.
Some authorities give his last words thus: "Is it not true, dear Hammel, that I have some talent after all?" Hammel was an old friend with whom he had once quarrelled, and who, after being separated from him for a long time, came to him when he was upon his death bed.