A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Death 131
their sadness.° Once, when she thought herself near her end, she
said what she imagined might be her last words to those around
her, and particularly thanked her sister-in-law for being with her,
saying: ‘You have always been a kind sister to me, Mary.’° When
the end at last came, she sank rapidly, and on being asked by her
attendants whether there was anything that she wanted, her reply
was, ‘Nothing but death.’ These were her last words. In quietness
and peace she breathed her last on the morning of July 18, 1817.
On the 24th of that month she was buried in Winchester Cathedral,
near the centre of the north aisle, almost opposite to the
beautiful chantry tomb of William of Wykeham. A large slab of
black marble in the pavement marks the place. Her own family
only attended the funeral. Her sister returned to her desolated
home, there to devote herself, for ten years, to the care of her aged
mother; and to live much on the memory of her lost sister, till
called many years later to rejoin her. Her brothers went back
sorrowing to their several homes. They were very fond and very
proud of her. They were attached to her by her talents, her virtues,
and her engaging manners; and each loved afterwards to
fancy a resemblance in some niece or daughter of his own to the
dear sister Jane, whose perfect equal they yet never expected to
see.