truggles, to bright and peaceful scenes in the spirit
land. He could no longer tarry. Death found the faithful veteran at his
post, with his harness on. How applicable the words of Scott, on the
departure of Pitt:--

"Hadst thou but lived, though stripp'd of power,
A watchman on the lonely tower,
Thy thrilling trump had roused the land,
When fraud or danger were at hand;
By thee, as by the beacon-light,
Our pilots had kept course aright;
As some proud column, though alone,
Thy strength had propp'd the tottering throne.
Now is the stately column broke,
The beacon-light is quenched in smoke,
The trumpet's silver sound is still,
The warder silent on the hill!
O think how, to his latest day,
When death, just hovering, claimed his prey,
With Palinure's unaltered mood,
Firm at his dangerous post he stood;
Each call for needful rest repell'd,
With dying hand the rudder held,
Till, in his fall, with fateful sway,
The steerage of the realm gave way."

It has been supposed by some that the remote cause of Mr. Adams's death
was a severe injury he received by a fall in the House of Representatives,
in June, 1840. The accident is thus described by an eye witness:--

"It had been a very warm day, and the debates had partaken of
extraordinary excitement, when, a few moments before sunset, the House
adjourned, and most of the members had sought relief from an oppressive
atmosphere, in the arbors and recesses of the adjoining Congressional
gardens.

"At that time I held a subordinate clerkship in the House, which usually
confined me, the larger portion of the day not devoted to debate, to one
of the committee rooms; whilst the balance of the day I occupied as a
reporter.

"Mr. Adams was always the first man in the House, and the last man out of
it; and, as I usually detained myself an hour or more after adjournment,
in writing up my notes, I often came in contact with him. He was pleased
to call at my desk very often, before he went home, and indulge in some
incidental, unimportant conversation. On the day referred to, just as the
sun was setting, and was throwing his last rays through the murky hall, I
looked up, and saw Mr. Adams approaching. He had almost reached my desk,
and had uplifted his hand in friendly salutation, when he pitched
headlong, some six or eight feet, and struck his head against the sharp
corner of an iron rail that defended one of the entrance