? MEMOIR. 



man, drawn toward the bank, and there, finding that she 

 could stand, she was led out of the water by two men. 

 With the rest of the bewildered, horror-stunned people, 

 she walked up and down the margin of the river looking 

 for her husband. Her brother and sister met her as she 

 walked here a meeting more sad than joyful. Still the 

 husband did not come, nor the mother, nor that friend 

 who had implored the mercy of God. Mrs. Downing was 

 sure that her husband was safe. He had come asha-e 

 above he was still floating somewhere he had been pick- 

 ed up he had swam out to some sloop in the river he 

 was busy rescuing the drowning he was doing his duty 

 somewhere he could not be lost. 



!She was persuaded into a little house, where she sat at 

 a window until nightfall, watching the wreck and the con- 

 fusion. Then she was taken home upon the railroad. The 

 neighbors and friends came to her to pass the night. They 

 sat partly in the house and partly stood watching at the 

 door and upon the piazza, waiting for news from the mes- 

 sengers who came constantly from the wreck. Mr. Vaux 

 and others left directly for the wreck, and remained there 

 until the end. The wife clung to her hope, but lay very 

 ill, in the care of the physician. The day dawned over 

 that blighted garden, and in the afternoon they told her 

 that the body of her husband had been found, and they 

 were bringing it home. A young woman who had been 

 saved from the wreck and sat trembling in the house, then 

 said what until then it had been impossible for her to say, 

 that, at the last moment, Mr. Downing had told her how 

 to sustain herself in the water, but that before she was 

 compelled to leap, she saw him struggling in the river 

 with his friend and others clinging to him. Then she 

 heard him utter a prayer to God, and saw him no more. 



