n! However," added he, after, a
short pause, "twelve are pretty well!" He requested that Captain Hardy
would bear his kindest remembrances to Lady Hamilton, and to Horatia;
and inform them that he had left them as a legacy to his king and
country, in whose service he willingly yielded up his life. "Will you,
my dear Hardy?" anxiously demanded his lordship. "Kiss me, then!"
Captain Hardy immediately kneeling, respectfully kissed the wan cheek of
his adored commander. The dying hero now desired that his affectionate
regards might be presented to his brave officers and men: and said, that
he could have wished once more to have beheld his beloved relatives and
friends, or even to have survived till he had seen the fleet in safety;
but, as neither was possible, he felt resigned, and thanked God for
having enabled him to do his duty to his king and country. His lordship
had, latterly, most vehemently directed Dr. Scott to rub his breast and
pit of the stomach; where, it seems probable, he now felt the blood
beginning more painfully to flow, in a state of commencing
congelation--"Rub me, rub me, doctor!" he often and loudly repeated.
This melancholy office was continued to be almost incessantly performed
by Dr. Scott, till his lordship expired; and, indeed, for some time,
afterward. The last words the immortal hero uttered, were--

"Thank God, I have done my duty!"

He had, before, pronounced them in a lower tone of voice:
saying--"Doctor, I have not been a great sinner; and, thank God, I have
done my duty!" Then, as if asking the question, he repeated--"Doctor, I
have not been a great sinner?" Doctor Scott was too much affected
immediately to answer. "Have I?" he again eagerly interrogated. A
paroxysm of pain now suddenly seizing him, he exclaimed, in a loud and
most solemnly impressive tone--"_Thank God, I have done my duty! Thank
God,_ _I have done my duty!_" After pronouncing these words, he had,
apparently, suffered no pain; but gradually went off, as if asleep.
Indeed, every person who surrounded him, except Dr. Scott, who had long
felt the current of life sensibly chilling beneath his hand, actually
thought, for some time, that he was only in a state of somnolency. It
was, however, the sleep of death, the blood having entirely choaked up
his incomparable heart.

Thus died the greatest naval hero, "take him for all in all," that ever
lived. This will probably be said, as long as the world endures. It is
not likely