They praised his enlightened understanding, his honesty, his generosity and even his failure to speak when representing the people in the Chamber, for though he may have had no gift for oratory, he did, instead, have those sound qualities, far, far more valuable … and so on and so forth … with all the obligatory phrases: ‘Untimely death … boundless sorrow … that other homeland … not farewell but until we meet again in a better world …’