Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/255

FRANKLIN PIERCE 201 versation just before the accident. The car was thrown from the track and dashed against the rocks, and the lad met his death instantly. Both parents were long deeply affected by the shock of the accident, and Mrs. Pierce never recovered from it. The sudden bereavement shattered the small remnant of her remaining health, yet she per formed her task at the White House nobly, and sustained the dignity of her husband s office. Mrs. Robert E. Lee wrote in a private letter: "I have known many of the ladies of the White House, none more truly excellent than the afflicted wife of President Pierce. Her health was a bar to any great effort on her part to meet the expectations of the public in her high position, but she was a refined, extremely religious, and well-educated lady." She was buried by the side of her three children, in the cemetery at Concord, New Hamp shire.