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