Lucan exhibited great apparent serenity at the approach of death. After the veins of his arm had been voluntarily opened, and he had lost a large quantity of blood, he felt his hands and his legs losing their vitality. As the hour of death approached, he commenced repeating several lines out of his own "Pharsalia," descriptive of a person similarly situated to himself. These lines he repeated until he died:
"_Asunder flies the man-- No single wound the gaping rupture seems, Where trickling crimson flows the tender streams; But from an opening horrible and wide A thousand vessels pour the bursting tide: At once the winding channel's course was broke, Where wandering life her mazy journey took._" _Winslow: "Anatomy of Suicide."_
LUCAS (Sir Charles. He commanded the right wing of the royal army at Marston Moor, was taken prisoner at Colchester, where he was put to death August 29th, 1648),--1648. "_Soldiers, fire!_" to the soldiers appointed to shoot him.
LULLI or LULLY (Jean Baptiste, Italian composer, called "the Father of French Dramatic Music"), 1633-1687. "_Sinner, thou must die._" In sign of his repentance he died with a halter around his neck, repeating and, sometimes singing, with tears of remorse, "Sinner, thou must die."
LUTHER (Martin, the greatest of the Protestant reformers), 1484-1546. "_Yes_," in response to the question whether he stood by the doctrines of Scripture as he had taught them.
The same man who could scold like a fishwife could be as gentle as a tender maiden. At times he was as fierce as the storm that uproots oaks; and then again he was as mild as the zephyr caressing the violets.... The refinement of Erasmus, the mildness of Melancthon, could never have brought us so far as the godlike brutality of brother Martin.--_Heine._
LYTTELTON (George, first Lord, English statesman, author of "Dialogues of the Dead," and "History of Henry II."), 1709-1773. "_Be good, be virtuous, my lord, you must come to this_," to his son-in-law, Lord Valentia.
MACAULAY (Thomas Babington, Lord), 1800-1859. "_I shall retire early; I am very tired_," said to his butler, who asked him if he would not rest on the sofa.
His mother resolved to spend the night at Holly Lodge. She had just left the drawing-room to make her preparations for the visit (it being, I suppose, a little before seven in the evening), when a servant arrived with an urgent summons. As we drove up to the porch of my uncle's house, the maids ran, crying, out into the darkness to meet us, and we knew that all was over. We found him in the library, seated in his easy chair, and dressed as usual; with his book on the table beside him, still open at the same page. He had told his butler that he should go to bed early, as he was very tired. The man proposed his lying on the sofa. He rose as if to move, sat down again, and ceased to breathe. He died as he had always wished to die--without pain; without any formal farewell; preceding to the grave all whom he loved; and leaving behind him a great and honorable name, and the memory of a life every action of which was clear and transparent as one of his own sentences.--_G. Otto Trevelyan._