Divers incidens en avaient retardé l'expédition, d'autant plus regrettables au Roi, que sa Majesté avait appris l'intérêt que vous aviez attaché à ce souvenir de sa part. L'occasion opportune qui se présente maintenant de pouvoir embarquer ce portrait à bord du bâtiment à vapeur, le Lightning, de la Marine Britannique, qui transporte ici Monsieur de Disbrowe, a été saisie par le Roi, et j'ai l'honneur de vous annoncer en son nom que cette expédition vient d'être effectuée.
En faisant placer sur ce portrait cette inscription, "Charles XIV. Jean, à James Lord Saumarez, au nom du Peuple Suédois," sa Majesté s'est plue à transmettre à la posterité une preuve éclatante des souvenirs qui restent chez elle, et chez la Nation qu'elle gouverne, des vues éclairées du Gouvernement Britannique à une époque à jamais mémorable, et de la noble loyauté que vous mites, Milord, dans leur accomplissement.
Il m'est d'autant plus agréable, Milord, d'être auprès de vous l'organe de ces sentimens de mon Souverain, que je trouve une occasion d'y ajouter ceux de la haute considération avec laquelle j'ai l'honneur d'être,
Milord,
Votre très humble et très obéissant Serviteur,
Le Cte. de Wetterstedt.
This portrait, which is the natural size of the illustrious donor, arrived safely at Guernsey, where the Author saw it, and can affirm that it is an excellent likeness of his Majesty, who was always grateful for the services which Lord de Saumarez had rendered to his adopted country. Not less so were the merchants in London, who were preparing a splendid piece of plate, which the noble admiral did not live to receive, but which was presented to his son, the present lord.
We now approach the last days of this great and good man. He had yet another contest to encounter, and he entered upon it with that same moral courage, which, being founded on his trust in the Almighty, had hitherto enabled him to overcome every difficulty, and to face every danger; he had yet another victory to achieve, in which he came off more than conqueror. We are now to behold him as no longer holding intercourse with earth, but rather standing on the confines of either world; not indeed as preparing to meet his God, for that had been the business of his whole life, but as ready to obey whenever his summons came.
With the exceptions of occasional attacks of gout, which in general were more tedious than severe, he may be considered to have enjoyed a good state of health; but for the last three years his friends perceived that advanced age was gradually bringing on its debilitating effects. He was no longer able to walk with that firm commanding step, and that erect posture of body for which he had always been noted; but his mind retained its usual energy, and when he fell in with any of his old companions he would converse on the deeds of his more active life with all the vigour and animation of youth. Notwithstanding he had nearly attained the latest of those periods assigned by the Psalmist as the general boundary of human life, his children had still fondly hoped that he might yet have been spared a few years; neither had she, who for forty-eight years had been the joy and solace of his existence, and who had watched over him with the most sincere and devoted affection, any particular reason to think that they were so soon to be severed. A few weeks before his death, his increasing debility; attended with loss of appetite and inability of retaining food, excited some slight apprehensions, which, though not sufficient to cause alarm on the first appearance of those symptoms, led, as they increased, to the conviction that the system was decaying.
On the 30th of September Lord de Saumarez seemed to have recovered his usual good looks, and appeared with the cheerfulness which, when in health, he always assumed. That day he received several friends, who congratulated him on his convalescence; but the members of his family who watched him most attentively, observed that he received their congratulations with distrust, as if conscious of his declining state; and, on their departure, calling one of them aside, he emphatically told him, that his looks were not to be depended on, for that he really felt ill. It is even said that he had already given directions to his confidential servants respecting some of the last duties. On the morrow his increased debility showed that his opinion of his own state was but too correct, and on the next day, which was Sunday, he awoke, after an uneasy night, under the pressure of distressing symptoms. Finding it was too late for his family to go to church, he requested they would read the service to him, and was afterwards much employed in meditation. It was now apparent that he was impressed with the belief, that the time of his departure was at hand, for he seemed as if taking a farewell of terrestrial objects and resigning his soul to his Maker and Redeemer.
More than once he exclaimed, "I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." "What comfort, shall never die," he repeated, in a manner which showed the hope he himself entertained of a blessed immortality. He was well acquainted with every page of the sacred writings, the perusal of a portion of which, including the psalms of the day, had for many years formed part of his regular employment, and it was now he felt the comfort which they inspired and the support which they afforded under the near prospect of death and the grave.