Page:The golden book of King Edward VII.djvu/64

KING EDWARD VII.

duty—"as long as there was breath in his body." It is said that when King Edward ascended the throne, he assured one of his intimate friends that "he would play the game." It is the same idea in more homely phrase—the doing of one's duty. Working twelve hours a day for the public good—punctual, orderly, early-rising, abstemious,—disregarding physical discomfort and increasing infirmities,—the King almost in the very act of death persevered in the duties of Kingship. That which he had spoken of, in another man, as "admirable skill, indomitable patience and unceasing and unwearied energy," (1886) were his to the very end. Give in? Stop work? Not he! "No," said he, smiling, "my back is to the wall: I shall fight it out" He fully recognised that this was in all human probability the end: but with the same unflinching courage he repeated his "declaration of independence,"—his defiance of death, while yet life left him power to labour:—

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