Colonel Gardner is represented, in a dramatic production called "The Battle of Bunker Hill" which was printed at Philadelphia in 1776, as saying immediately after receiving the wound of which he died:
"A musket ball, death-winged, hath pierced my groin,
And widely oped the swift current of my veins.
Bear me then, soldiers, to that hollow space
A little hence, just on the hill's decline.
A surgeon there may stop the gushing wound,
And gain a short respite to life, that yet
I may return and fight one half hour more.
Then shall I die in peace, and to my God
Surrender up the spirit which he gave."
Garfield (James A., twentieth President of the United States: assassinated by Charles Julius Guiteau), 1831-1881. "The people my trust."
Garibaldi (Giuseppe, Italian patriot and general, author of "Cantoni the Volunteer" and "The Rule of the Monk"), 1807-1882. As he lay dying two small birds alighted on the window-sill and looked into his room. He noticed them, and said, "Those are the spirits of my little girls, Rosa and Annita, who have come to see their father die. Be kind to them, and feed them when I am dead." It is thought that his mind was wandering.
He gave minute and positive orders to be cremated immediately after death. The urn containing his ashes was to be placed under the orange tree that shaded the tombs of his two little girls. But this wish, cherished for years, was disregarded. He was embalmed and exposed to the gaze of the crowds who hastened to Caprera on hearing of his death. The excuse was, that it would have been impossible to have burned his body in the way he indicated, with the aromatic woods that grow near the spot he had chosen, as the ashes would have been mixed with the burned wood. But this was only an excuse and nothing more, for Dr. Praudina, to whom Garibaldi wrote on this subject five years before his death, had prepared the sheet of asbestos that would have kept together the precious ashes. The true reason for this violation of the great man's order was the desire of the Republican party to have the remains brought to Rome and buried on the Janiculum, where from time to time political demonstrations might be made. When once a man is dead it is very uncertain what degree of respect will be paid to his expressed wishes by those who survive.
Garth (Sir Samuel, English physician and poet), —1718. "Dear gentlemen, let me die a natural death," to his physicians whom he saw consulting together just before his death. After receiving extreme unction he said, "I am going on my journey: they have greased my boots already."
Gassendi or Gassend (Pierre, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and metaphysician), 1592-1655. "You see what is man's life."
Gautama ("The Buddha," Siddhartha or Sakya Muni, founder of Buddhism), b. c. 624-543. "Beloved Bickus, the principle of existence, and mutability carries with it the principle of destruction. Never forget this; let your minds be filled with this truth; to make it known to you I have assembled you."
Bigandt's Life of Gautama, Vol. ii., p. 68.
Sometimes his last words are given thus: "Behold, brethren, I exhort you, saying, Decay is inherent in all component things, but truth will remain forever."