THE GOLDEN BOOK OF
He died, as has been said by a medical journal, a martyr to his sense of duty: almost literally on his feet; refusing regard himself as an invalid. "I was much touched," said the last man received by him in audience, "much touched by the devotion to public duty which the King showed in seeing me at all under the circumstances, and at the kindly interest he took in our affairs."
Yes. "as long as there was breath in his body"—the promise was kept to the uttermost—King Edward works for the good and amelioration of his people. That which England expected from him, he had of a truth accomplished in him was fulfilled an example of devotion to duty paralleled only by our very greatest. And the last words of Sir Richard Grenvile, the fighting sea-captain, might have been those on Edward. King and Peacemaker:—
Here die I, . . . . with a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a true soldier ought, . . . . my soul willingly departing from this body, leaving behind the lasting fame of having behaved as every valiant soldier is in his duty bound to do.
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