He blessed his friends, and when, after an apparently last
crisis, he saw himself surrounded by the crowd that day and
night filled his chamber, he asked me, "Why do they not pray?"
At these words all fell on their knees, and even the
Protestants joined in the litanies and prayers for the dying.
Day and night he held my hand, and would not let me leave him.
"No, you will not leave me at the last moment," he said, and
leaned on my breast as a little child in a moment of danger
hides itself in its mother's breast.
Soon he called upon Jesus and Mary, with a fervor that reached
to heaven; soon he kissed the crucifix in an excess of faith,
hope and love. He made the most touching utterances. "I love
God and man," he said. "I am happy so to die; do not weep, my
sister. My friends, do not weep. I am happy. I feel that I am
dying. Farewell, pray for me!"
Exhausted by deathly convulsions he said to the physicians,
"Let me die. Do not keep me longer in this world of exile. Let
me die; why do you prolong my life when I have renounced all
things and God has enlightened my soul? God calls me; why do
you keep me back?"
Another time he said, "O lovely science, that only lets one
suffer longer! Could it give me back my strength, qualify me
to do any good, to make any sacrifice--but a life of fainting,
of grief, of pain to all who love me, to prolong such a life--
O lovely science!"
Then he said again: "You let me suffer cruelly.
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