226 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
there was at first rather a stern than a calm confiding 
resignation to his fate ; but this subsided after a while, 
and was succeeded by a patient submission to the 
determination of Providence. The last day of his 
life he gave me his keys, desired I would take charge 
of his papers, and having dictated a will, which I 
wrote and attested, resigned himself meekly and 
calmly to death. He spoke with confidence of the 
Divine mercy : it was true, he said, that he had been 
sadly remiss in his religious duties, but this had hap- 
pened more from thoughtlessness than irreverence. I 
was surprised to see this perfectly quiet acquiescence 
in the decision of an immutable will, with which he 
looked forward to the moment that comes to all, 
but comes to few without exciting emotions of doubt, 
if not of alarming apprehension. The tone of his 
conversation was solemn, but firm. He occasionally 
shed tears ; but through those tears the clear light of 
hope beamed, which imparted to them a brightness 
and a glory not to be described. They dried upon his 
cheek, yet left not there the hue of sorrow nor the 
stain of remorse : he had made his peace with Heaven, 
and spoke with a holy confidence of a welcome into 
God’s joy. 
He remained calm until evening, when his senses 
began to wander. This wandering increased rapidly 
and to a painful excess, until, about midnight, it had 
attained to a perfect paroxysm of madness. Such was 
his strength, that, although the whole of his body 
from the fifth rib downward was paralysed, it required 
the efforts of three persons to keep him down. His 
exertions were prodigious, and his outcries appal- 
