John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
10425 Appendix John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 10425 |
| AUTHOR: | Appendix |
| QUOTATION: | Die in the last ditch. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | To William of Orange may be ascribed this saying. When Buckingham urged the inevitable destruction which hung over the United Provinces, and asked him whether he did not see that the commonwealth was ruined, “There is one certain means,” replied the Prince, “by which I can be sure never to see my country’s ruin,—I will die in the last ditch.”—Hume: History of England. (1622.) |