"Your most bounden and faithful humble servant,
"S. P."

He employed the enforced idleness caused by being thrust out of his
employment in the collection of the materials for the valuable work which
he published in 1690, under the title of "Memoirs of the Navy." Little
more was left for him to do in life, but as the government became more
firmly established, and the absolute absurdity of the idea of his
disloyalty was proved, Pepys held up his head again as a man to be
respected and consulted, and for the remainder of his life he was looked
upon as the Nestor of the Navy.

There is little more to be told of Pepys's life. He continued to keep up
an extended correspondence with his many friends, and as Treasurer of
Christ's Hospital he took very great interest in the welfare of that
institution. He succeeded in preserving from impending ruin the
mathematical foundation which had been originally designed by him, and
through his anxious solicitations endowed and cherished by Charles II. and
James II. One of the last public acts of his life was the presentation of
the portrait of the eminent Dr. John Wallis, Savilian Professor of
Geometry, to the University of Oxford.

In 1701 he sent Sir Godfrey Kneller to Oxford to paint the portrait, and
the University rewarded him with a Latin diploma containing in gorgeous
language the expression of thanks for his munificence.'

On the 26th May, 1703, Samuel Pepys, after long continued suffering,
breathed his last in the presence of the learned Dr. George Hickes, the
nonjuring Dean of Worcester, and the following letter from John Jackson to