The morning news., 1894-11-11

been driven by my grandmothers old
coachman, Uncle Watt, and by his side,
on the lofty, Cld-fashioned dickey scat,
sat Matilda, the negro waiting maid. The
carriage could not enter the wood, so it
waited on the outskirts, 100 yards off.
Hampton Wigfall fell at the first fire,
killed instantly. The mother rushed
frantcally to the sce0e. The seconds and
doctors were terribly surprised. Such a
thing was unheard of as a woman near
a duel. And when the mother threw her
self upon the body OF her child she threw
herself also upon the body OF his unhap-
py slayer, for young Cogsdale, breaking
away from his seconds. had rushed to
the body thrown himself PROSTATE upon
the earth by it. wound his arms around
it, and was sobbins out like little child
and in tones of unutterable anguish, oh,
Hamnie. Hammie, Hammie" as If trying
to awake the dead boy
MY grandfather has often told me that
the cry of the SLAYER was ten thousand
times more heartrending than even the
cry Of the mother. And then followed
a scene of Christian fortitude and Chris
tian spirit perhaps unexampled in all his
tory. The hitherto wild mother calmly
unwound the arms of young Cogsdale,
and, lifting him up, kissed him tenderly
on the forehead and said with commin-
gled pity and fervor: God be with you,
my child. God be with you! You will need
Him more than l will, for / will soon be
with Him. l will soon be with my God
and with my child And as the sec
onds led the weeping boy away, she cried
out to him, Wringing her hands God
be with you, my child. In heaven Ham
mic and l will pray for you. 1t was
now quite nghtfall. and the twilight lin
gered upon the saddest picture that was
ever seen on sea or shore.
I'm the meantime the wretched mother
had overheard the words: We must wait
for the coroner Creeping up to my grand
mother, she whispered in tones of terrible
agony: NO coroner must touch the body
of my child and then, with what was
seen afterWard to be a Woman's and n
mothers cunning, she went twenty PAGES
away whittier the seconds, tho doctors,
Gen. Glascock and the negroes, had all
withdrawn, to leave her somewhat alone
with her dead, and begged them all to re-
tire for one hour to the ferry, "A half mile
away, that she might pray beside the
body Of her child. Knowing her TO be a
woman Of deepest and purest piety they
quickly departed, every one of them, to
the ferry.
''As soon as they were fairly out of
sight, although frall and slender woman,
she lifted the body Of her dead boy in her
arms and bore IL without shaking. or stag
gering OF resting q moment TO the carriage
at the skirt Of the wood. The carriage
was an immense old-fashioned. round
bodied coach. My grandmother and Ma
tilda followed her closely, pressing up In
fact, to her very shoulders to catch her
n she should fall But she did not waver
for a moment. and as the carriage came
in view she ran vigorously toward II. This
was q mother bearing her dead child
away from what she considered the pro-
flaming touch OF the coroner.
Delivering the body into the arms OF
Matilda and the coachman, she entered
the carriage and seated herself in q cor
ner Of the back seat. My grandmother
followed her and took the oblique front
corner Then Uncle Watt and Matilda
lifted IN the dead body. The mother re-
oeived the head upon her bosom, while
the legs rested upon my grandmother
lap. and through the fifteen miles home in
the warm, black summer might thus they
Travelled. Home was reached at mid
night. and the bereaved mother laid her
self upon her bed. and with her dead boy
on her bosom.
ron the morrow the coroner did comply
with the legal formalties, but the mother
never knew lt. She buried her boy. stand
ing at his grave without uftering n cry.
and then Fhe went bnck to Der bed, only
10 leave if. Hs she h1d said on the fatal
field, % go home to her God ana her boy
Young CoRsdaio. 10 years Of age. left c0l-
lege and icft the state. in bis thirtieth