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begged him to stay among them. No longer despondent, he declared that he had promised them he would return immediately, should the scourge break out among them. "Thank God," he exclaimed, "Mr. Brands is still well." Concerned over the welfare of the victims and his confrere, it never crossed his mind that he himself might become ill. Optimistically he spoke of all that remained to be done. 60 Deatli of Vicar-General Paquin. "His zeal gave him no idle time and day and night he was found by the side of those infected with the fever and of the dying," wrote Doctor Labadie, life-long friend of both Paquin and Timon. After a day's hard work, Paquin and Brands on August 6, 1844, were still sitting at the table, having just finished their frugal evening meal, when, as Brands wrote almost a month later, weak and shaky, "Both of us commenced to complain at the same time of weariness. We decided to say our prayers and go to bed. Alas! who would have thought that we would never see one another any more? Yet it so happened." For five days the two veteran missionaries struggled bravely in sep- arate rooms against the fever that consumed them. Paquin, who showed signs of improvement,· was imprudently allowed to eat. The fever re- turned and in spite of all efforts the zealous missionary, more distressed by his inability to receive the last Sacraments than by his physical pain, died at ten o'clock on the night of August 13. "He repeatedly wished to see me," wrote Brands a month later, "but there was no chance. Sometimes I attempted to steal out of my room, but was stopped every time. No person was willing to lead me to him, and walk alone, I could not. . . This was hard on me, not to be able or allowed to give at least absolution to a dying brother." 61 By the middle of August the scourge began to subside and by Sep- tember it disappeared almost as suddenly as it had come. Doctor Labadie thought recurrent attacks of the epidemic in Texas were inevitable, "where both vegetable and animal decomposition is so greatly accelerated by a sun of 120 degrees heat, and in the shade an average of 92 degrees for 4 mos. out of 12." 62 60 Paquin to Timon, August 1, 1844; Brands to Timon, July 31, and August 8, 1844, C. A. T. 61 Brands to Timon, September 4, 1844; Dr. Labadie to Timon, August 14, 1844, C. A. T. According to Dr. Labadie, it was neglect on the part of the attending physician, Doctor Gardner, that Paquin died. It was by pure accident, Labadie stated, that Brands regained his health. 62 Labadie to Timon, August 14, 1844, C. A. T.
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