In the year 1804 he had obtained leave to retire from his professorship, on the condition of his giving a few lectures every year. On this occasion Napoleon said to him, " Great men die on the field of honour." Volta never forgot this saying, and after the fall of Buonaparte, he said, in allusion to it, " He, however, has not kept his word with me." Living in a frontier town, Volta was one of the first Italians who presented himself to Buonaparte when he entered Italy for the first time. His fellow-citizens sent him in 1796, along with Count T. B. Giovio, to request the protection of the con queror. From that time Buonaparte never lost an opportunity of honouring Volta. He conferred upon him the orders of the Legion of Honour, and of the Iron Crown, and the titles of Count and Senator of the kingdom of Italy; and at the form ation of the national Institute of Science and Let ters, when they were deliberating in his presence whether they should draw up a list of the members in an alphabetical order, Buonaparte wrote at the head of a sheet of paper Vona, and delivering it to the secretary he said, " Do as you please at present, provided that name is the first." Volta married in 1794, and had three children. Ile took a par ticular charge of their education, and he felt most bitterly the loss of one of them, who had given great promise of being a mathematician. In re turning to spend the remainder of his days in his paternal mansion at Como, he experienced the greatest comfort from the affection and tender soli citudes of his family. He had now given up his studies, and having been seized with a fever, he died after two days illness on the 5th March, 1827.
His death was universally lamented, and at a meet ing of his fellow-citizens, called on purpose on the 23d of March, it was resolved to strike a medal and erect a monument to his memory. On the modern facade of the public schools of Como, in the middle of the busts of Pliny, Giovio, and other great men who were natives of this place, an empty niche was left as a compliment to the genius and modesty of Volta.
To all the domestic virtues, Volta added the most sincere piety, and his last moments were marked with expressions of religious feeling. As a citizen he was highly esteemed, and his fellow countrymen entrusted him with all their public concerns, which he managed with the utmost in telligence and integrity.
In 1816 a complete collection of his works was published by the Chevalier Vincent Antinori at Florence, entitled Collezione dells Opere del Coy. Conte illexondro Volta. It was dedicated to Ferdi nand Ill. Grand Duke of Tuscany, and is em bellished by an excellent likeness of the author by Morghen. In order to complete this collection it is necessary to add, 1. The Latin poem which we have already mentioned. It treats of the prin cipal phenomena of physics and chemistry. 2. An Italian poem on Saussure's Voyage to Mont Blanc, and some other pieces in verse. 3. Observations and experiments on vapours: and 4. A number of articles on physics and chemistry, either unpub lished, or scattered through the pages of period ical and other works.