Page:Sir Walter Raleigh by Thoreau, Henry David,.djvu/72

. He took a pipe of tobacco before he went to the scaffold, and appeared there with a serene countenance, so that a stranger could not have told which was the condemned person. After exculpating himself in a speech to the people, and without ostentation having felt the edge of the axe, and disposed himself once as he wished to lie, he made a solemn prayer, and being directed to place himself so that his face should look to the east, his characteristic answer was, "It mattered little how the head lay, provided the heart was right." The executioner being overawed was unable at first to perform his office, when Raleigh, slowly raising his head, exclaimed, "Strike away, man, don't be afraid." "He was the most fearless of death," says the bishop who attended him, "that ever was known, and the most resolute and confident, yet with reverence and conscience." But we would not exaggerate the importance of these things. The death scenes of great men are agreeable to consider only when they make another and harmonious chapter of their lives, and we have accompanied our