great adventure--there is no other word for it--about that, as of a man
going on a fateful voyage; a courage so great that he did not even lose
his interest in the last experiences of life. His demeanour was not
subdued or submissive; he did not seem to be asking for strength to bear
or courage to face the last change. He was more like the happy warrior

"Attired
With sudden brightness, as a man inspired."

[Illustration: ROBERT HUGH BENSON

IN 1912. AGED 41]

He did not lose control of himself, nor was he carried helplessly down
the stream. He was rather engaged in a conflict which was not a losing
one. He had often thought of death, and even thought that he feared it;
but now that it was upon him he would taste it fully, he would see what
it was like. The day before, when he thought that he might live, there
was a pre-occupation over him, as though he were revolving the things he
desired to do; but when death came upon him unmistakably there was no
touch of self-pity or impressiveness. He had just to die, and he devoted
his swift energies to it, as he had done to living. I never saw him so
splendid and noble as he was at that last awful moment. Life did not ebb
away, but he seemed to fling it from him, so that it was not as the
death of a weary man sinking to rest, but like the eager transit of a
soldier to another part of the field.

"Could it have been avoided?" I said to the kind and gentle doctor who
saw Hugh through the last days of his life, and loved him very tenderly
and faithfully. "Well, in one sense, 'yes,'" he replied. "If he had
worked less, rested more, taken things more easily, he might have lived
longer. He had a great vitality; but most people die of being
themselves; and we must all live as we are made to live. It was
Monsignor's way to put the work of a month into a week; he could not do
otherwise--I cannot think of Monsignor as sitting with folded hands."

INDEX

Barnes, Monsignor, 154

Bashkirtseff, Marie, quoted, 249

Bec, Bishop Anthony, 18

Belloc, Mr., 183

Benson, Archbishop (father), 15-17, 20, 46-47, 56, 63, 82, 86, 91, 116;
characteristics, 34-39;
letters quoted, 53-55, 71-74;
ordains his son, 87;
death, 97

---- Mrs. (mother), 19, 28, 74-80, 108, 120, 128, 146, 149-150, 182, 209;
quoted, 31-32, 118-119, 227;
visit to Egypt, 98

---- Fred (brother), 16, 26-27, 34, 68, 80, 184, 209

---- Maggie (sister), 16, 28