Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

from any betrayal of feeling by the medical attendants, for their faces wore studiously cheerful looks, especially whenever the prostrate man showed any signs of consciousness of his surroundings.

At seven o'clock Sunday morning, it was announced that he was fast sinking, and that the danger of a sudden ending of his intense agony was very great. His pulse was at this time 130. Dr. Fisher went down stairs in a hurried manner and asked something of the night clerk; then went back again. He looked very anxious.

Mrs. Fisk.

Immediately after this, when the hand of the clock pointed a quarter after seven, a carriage driven very rapidly, the horses, wet and dappled with the foam that flew from their nostrils and congealed in the cold air, stopped short at the door. The coachman sprang from his perch, pulled open the door and helped out a lady in a dark traveling dress, who stepped wearily to the ground. She walked quickly into the portico. This was Mrs. Fisk. She had traveled nearly all night, and was almost exhausted from fatigue and anxiety.

She was accompanied by a traveling companion, Miss Harrot, and arrived at the hotel in company with Mr. Comer, Mr. Fisk's private secretary, who had been in constant and faithful 'attendance upon him from a short time after he was wounded. Mrs. Fisk was met at the head of the stairs by

Mrs. Morse, between these ladies a long and cordial friendship had existed. Upon repairing to the room of her husband, Mrs. Fisk gave vent to the most frantic exclamations of grief and endearment, which drew tears from the eyes of every one present. By this time the wounded man had become entirely unconscious, and the wails and grief of his wife were never heard by him. The room was occupied by a large number of the relatives and friends of the sufferer, among whom were Mrs. James Fisk, Jr.; Miss Harrot, Messrs. Moore and Sanderson, brothers-in-law of Mr. Fisk, and Messrs. Bolden, Pollard, Aspell, George Barden and Drs. Fisher and Triplet. Mrs. Fisk was at the head of the bed, with her arms around the neck of the dying man, uttering lamentations and crying as if her heart would break. "Can nothing be done to save him?" cried the grief-stricken lady, of Dr. Fisher. "Alas! I fear not" replied the physician. Gradually the pulse increased; the patient's breath grew shorter, and the breathing more labored. It was too evident that death was near. Around the bed were grouped the persons named above, who with sobs and cries, gave evidence of the grief that was filling their hearts over the approaching loss of a near and dear friend. At twenty minutes before eleven the patient's breath grew quite short, and at times nearly stopped. stopped. Occasionally it became louder, and the pale and tear-stained faces near the patient for the moment grew brighter. The hope, however, proved an illusory one; for at a quarter

before eleven the soul of James Fisk, Jr., sped from its earthly tenement and he lay stiff and lifeless. The scene in the chamber was sad in the extreme. The widow of the great Erie magnate moaned and sobbed and called upon the attending physician to help him, who was of earth no more; but the cry was in vain. All pitied her and mingled their tears with hers. Thus was sympathy the only consolation she was able to obtain from those whomany of them-would gladly have laid down their lives to save that which had just been returned to Him who gave it. Her prayer at his death was, "Oh, God, if you must take him, take his soul!"

The Death Chamber.

The remains lay upon the bed in which Mr. Fisk was placed when first wounded. The sobbing mourners were finally induced to leave the room and the body was, for a time, watched over by the grief-stricken colored valet, who had for years attended Mr. Fisk. The room at this time was in a state of great confusion. Tumblers and vials and bandages were scattered about upon chairs, table, bureau and floor. On the back of the bed lay a palm-leaf fan, which had been used to cool the brow of the late sufferer. The head of the latter was bandaged with a napkin and the features wore their usual calm expression. The shirt was stained with the blood that had escaped from the wound, and the muscular arms were lying across the immense

« EdellinenJatka »