CAVENDISH. 25 



the door. Not the most acute hearing could discover the 

 slightest sound: all within was silent. They entered, the 

 man keeping well in the back-ground, not caring to encounter 

 his master's gaze, after breaking the promise so solemnly given. 

 Sir Everard approached the bed. The curtains were not 

 drawn ; Cavendish was not dead, neither was he asleep. His 

 eyes were still open ; but they appeared not like the eyes of 

 a living man. They gazed abstractedly into space, as if the 

 world had no longer any object upon which their glances 

 might fall. His lips were quivering, but voiceless. Cavendish 

 was seemingly in communion with some invisible being. 



Sir Everard, approaching still nearer, gently removed the 

 coverlet, and took Cavendish by the hand. The philosopher, 

 thus disturbed in his last reveries, remembered that the sanc- 

 tity of his retirement had been infringed. He started, but 

 made no remark. Looking round the chamber, he presently 

 recognised the servant : frowning sternly, he beckoned him 

 away. 



'Do you feel ill?' inquired Sir Everard. 



c I am not ill,' replied Cavendish ; * but I am about to die. 

 Don't you think a man of more than seventy-nine has lived 

 long enough? Why am I disturbed? I had matters to 

 arrange. Give me a glass of water.' 



The glass of water was handed to him ; he drank it, turned 

 on his back, closed his eyes, and died ! 



Such was the end of the Honourable Henry Cavendish. 

 Imagination has not been drawn upon for a death-bed 

 scene ; the most daring writer of fiction would scarcely have 

 been guilty of such temerity, so improbable are the inci- 

 dents. But the mental constitution of this great philosopher 

 was a puzzle to those who knew him best. It defied all 

 their acumen to fathom it, and remove its shroud of mys- 

 tery. Even had he not been one of England's greatest philo- 

 sophers, his biography would have been interesting ; but when 

 his numerous discoveries in the walks of science are con- 



