Page:Memorials of a Southern Planter.djvu/297

Rh "P. S.—Don't let Ben know that any accident happened to the oysters."

", 15th June, 1880.

"Sophy and I returned from Governor Brown's yesterday, our admirable friend having died the previous night of apoplexy, or something of that nature. Mrs. Brown was quite sick, and the governor went to Terry in the afternoon (Saturday) for a doctor and some ice, taking his carriage-driver along. The doctor left immediately, the governor following soon after. Arriving at the gate opening upon his lawn, he dismounted to open it, and leading through, he again mounted the horse and proceeded to the pond to water him. In about ten minutes afterwards the cook observed the horse loose, and gave the alarm. The carriage-driver went to the pond immediately, saw the hat floating and the governor's shoulders and the back of his head protruding above the water, which was two feet deep at that place. He was in a crouching posture, his arms thrust forward and downward, embracing his legs, and his face submerged. Neither his shoulders nor the back of his head had been in the water. How the equilibrium was maintained is a mystery. A doctor was there, who pronounced him dead. He was in the water not exceeding fifteen minutes, perhaps ten. His lungs could not have acted since the moment of the submergence of his face, as not a drop of water issued either from his mouth or nose. He therefore did not drown, neither did he fall from his horse. Had he fallen, he must have gone clear under. It is supposed, as the only tenable conjecture, that he lost his hat, and in attempting its recovery by means of his cane, he lost his balance, and, finding he must go, he clung to the horse's neck and mane until he got his feet into the water, and then sunk down dead. He had been complaining for some days of an undue determination of blood to the head, which Mrs. Brown had attempted to subdue by wet cloths, etc. ... As he was not wet all over, he did not fall, and, as not a drop