been in any regular engagement, they all died that night and entered suddenly into their eternity.
And by experience, since many die suddenly. Why should we rake up mouldering bones, and seek for examples from ancient times? Look at the world of our own days, consider the dying of whatever age and condition they may be; few of them, nay, hardly one of them but is surprised by death in some way or other, and dies at a time when he thought he would live longer. For in the first place, they die suddenly who, being in the vigor of health, are assassinated, or drowned, or meet with a fatal accident, or are struck by lightning or by a fit of apoplexy, or who die in the delirium of a violent fever, or in a lethargy. These are ways of dying that may be rare in small communities; but for all that they are common enough in the world and occur very frequently, almost daily. It is beyond a doubt that all those people die when they do not expect death.
Shown by special examples.
You have perhaps heard, my dear brethren, what Bonfinius relates of the wedding of Ladislaus, king of Hungary and Bohernia. This monarch, who was in the bloom of youth and health, sent an embassy into France to bring from there the daughter of King Charles, whom he had already been formally betrothed to. The embassy was accompanied by six hundred knights out of the noblest families of Hungary, Bohemia, and Austria, led by Ulrich, Bishop of Passau, who brought with him a hundred nobles of Passau to escort the royal bride. Besides all these there were also four hundred ladies of the court to wait on the bride, and to add to the splendor of her escort. The magnificence of their apparel, the number of their attendants, the grandeur of their coaches and carriages made them look like so many gods and goddesses as they entered Paris. A vast multitude of the common people thronged the streets and lanes of the city to see the entry of the embassy, while the nobility occupied the windows of the houses. Thus they entered Paris to the sound of the drum and trumpet and the harmony of various musical instruments. The king, full of joy, and the bride, full of expectation, watched the procession eagerly from the palace. And behold, through the very gate through which it was entering, in the very midst of the festivities, came a courier in full gallop to announce to the king and the intended bride that Ladislaus had died suddenly in Prague, the capital of Bohemia. O wo and misery! In a moment all joy was at an end; festivities were changed into mourning; the king was overwhelmed with grief;