They begged him to attend to 3 Aug the concerns of his soul, as he could not live above two hours longer, according to the usual course of nature.

He then ordered his confessor to recite the seven penitential Psalms ; and when the verse was read on building the walls of Jerusalem, the word caught the king's ear ; he stopped the recitation, and mentioned that he had proposed to conquer Jerusalem and to have rebuilt it, if God had but granted him life.

The penitential Psalms were then finished, and he soon afterwards expired.

10 The character drawn of him by the contemporary French memoir- writer, may be read as containing his best and deserved panegyric 11 ; and yet we must admit, that the ten- dency of war to harden the human heart was fre- quently shewn in his French campaigns.

From the mistaken bigotry of the day, or from his father having founded his dynasty on the policy of supporting the papal hierarchy in England, Henry degraded his superior mind, and afflicted his nation, by abetting the ecclesiastical persecutions.