He had a burning desire for the martyr's crown, and went to his death with a shout of triumph. Of the same spirit was Germanicus, who actually provoked the wild beasts to rush upon him, that he might at once be delivered from this wretched life and receive a martyr's reward.
Ilitchewski (Alexander Demainowitch, the Russian poet). "I have found at last the object of my love," a line written by the poet just before his death, and found on a table near his bed. The poet was haunted all his life by an ideal of womanly beauty which he sought in vain among the living, and the above line would seem to indicate that he had at last found the object of his dreams. It is supposed that he died from excess of joy at the discovery.
Illeppy (Solyman, the Turkish peasant who assassinated General Kleber),—1800. "Tay hip!" (That is good).
The assassin suffered death by having the flesh burned off his right hand, and by being impaled, in which situation he lived one hour and forty minutes; dying without showing any fear, and declaring to the last, "that the act which he had done was meritorious, and one for which he should be made happy in the other world." He continued exclaiming, from the moment of his hand being burnt, to that of his death, "Tay hip!"—The Percy Anecdotes.
Ingersoll (Robert Green, an American lawyer and orator, distinguished as an opponent of Christianity), 1833-1899. "O, better," in response to his wife's question, "How do you feel now?"
After the war he became an ardent Republican, and gained fame as a lawyer, serving as attorney-general of Illinois for several years. He was a delegate to the National Republican convention of 1876, when he became famous as an orator by proposing the name of James G. Blaine for President in his celebrated "Plumed Knight" speech. He was offered the post of minister to Germany, but refused it. About the year 1877 he removed to New York, and was soon in great demand as a lecturer and orator. Among his most celebrated cases was his defense of the "Star route conspirators" in 1883.
Some of the most beautiful of Col. Ingersoll's orations were those that he delivered over the bodies of his friends. Among his best known books are "The Gods," 1878, "Ghosts," 1879, "Some Mistakes of Moses," 1879, and several volumes of lectures.
Irving (Rev. Edward, an able and eccentric preacher, and the founder of the "Catholic Apostolic Church"), 1792-1834. "If I die, I die unto the Lord. Amen." Some say his last words were: "In life and in death, I am the Lord's."
Irving (Washington, distinguished American author), 1783-1859. "I must arrange my pillows for another weary night," said on retiring. A moment later he tried to say something more but could pronounce only the word "end," after which he uttered a slight cry as of pain, and fell to the floor. When the physician arrived life was extinct.
It was on November 28th, 1859, when Irving was seventy-six years old, that his death came. He had been in poor health for some months, suffering much from sleeplessness and a shortness of breath, but at the last a weakness of the heart brought the sudden end. Lacking to-day a man of letters who holds such a place in the affections of his countrymen as Irving held, it is difficult for us to realise the impression made by his death. It was as if a President or a great soldier had died in these later years. Flags on shipping and buildings in New York flew at half-mast, and the Mayor and Council recognised the event as a public grief. A multitude of people bore witness to their own sense of loss at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The day of the funeral, December 1st, had the fullest beauty and suggestion of Indian summer—"one of his own days," the people said. It is to Longfellow,