inued, however, to preside at his oratorios, being led by a lad
to the organ, which, as leader, he played. One day, while conducting
his oratorio of "Samson," the old man turned pale and trembled with
emotion, as the bass sung the blind giant's lament: "Total eclipse!
no sun, no moon!" As the audience saw the sightless eyes turned
towards them, they were affected to tears.

Seized by a mortal illness, Handel expressed a wish that he might
die on Good Friday, "in hope of meeting his good God, his sweet Lord
and Saviour, on the day of his resurrection." This consolation, it
seems, was not denied him. For on his monument, standing in the
Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey, is inscribed: "Died on Good
Friday, April 14, 1759."

Another story, which is associated with the woods of Hanover, near
Hamburg, was entitled

PETER THE WILD BOY.

In the year 1725, a few years after the capture of Marie le Blanc, a
celebrated wild girl in France, there was seen in the woods, some
twenty-five miles from Hanover, an object in form like a boy, yet
running on his hands and feet, and eating grass and moss, like a
beast.

The remarkable creature was captured, and was taken to Hanover by
the superintendent of the House of Correction at Zell. It proved to
be a boy evidently about thirteen years of age, yet possessing the
habits and appetites of a mere animal. He was presented to King
George I., at a state dinner at Hanover, and, the curiosity of the
king being greatly excited, he became his patron.

In about a year after his capture he was taken to England, and
exhibited to the court. While in that country he received the name
of Peter the Wild Boy, by which ever after he was known.

Marie le Blanc, after proper training, became a lively, brilliant
girl, and related to her friends and patrons the history of her
early life; but Peter the Wild Boy seems to have been mentally
deficient.

[Illustration: PETER THE WILD BOY.]

Dr. Arbuthnot, at whose house he resided for a time in his youth,
spared no pains to teach him to talk; but his efforts met with but
little success.

Peter seemed to comprehend the language and signs of beasts and
birds far better than those of human beings, and to have more
sympathy with the brute creation than with mankind. He, however, at
last was taught to articulate the name of his royal patron, his own
name, and some other wor