The Sin of Jasper Standish by Eliza Margaret Jane Humphreys

A POOR broken-down wreck of womanhood came out of that ordeal. Her hair had turned white in those days of agony and suspense. She had known how awful a thing it is to stand in the Shadow of Death; how the brain reels, and the heart grows sick, and reason totters on its throne. She had faced the ordeal her child had faced, and gone down into depths as deep and well-nigh as hopeless.

Yet the oath sworn over her child's deathbed had been unavailing.