for death.' The duke joined heartily in the beautiful prayers for the
dying, of our Church, and yet there was a sort of selfishness and
indifference to others manifest even at the last.

'Mr. Gibson,' writes Lord Arran, 'asked him if he had made a will, or if
he would declare who was to be his heir? but to the first, he answered
he had made none; and to the last, whoever was named he answered, "No."
First, my lady duchess was named, and then I think almost everybody that
had any relation to him, but his answer always was, "No." I did fully
represent my lady duchess' condition to him, but nothing that was said
to him could make him come to any point.'

In this 'retired corner,' as Lord Arran terms it, did the former wit and
beau, the once brave and fine cavalier, the reckless plotter in
after-life, end his existence. His body was removed to Helmsby Castle,
there to wait the duchess' pleasure, being meantime embalmed. Not one
farthing could his steward produce to defray his burial. His George and
blue ribbon were sent to the King James, with an account of his death.

In Kirby Moorside the following entry in the register of burials
records the event, which is so replete with a singular retributive
justice--so constituted to impress and sadden the mind:--

'Georges Villus Lord dooke of Buckingham.'

He left scarcely a friend to mourn his life; for to no man had he been
true. He died on the 16th of April according to some accounts; according
to others, on the third of that month, 1687, in the sixty-first year of
his age. His body, after being embalmed, was deposited in the family
vault in Henry VII.'s chapel.[7] He left no children, and his title was