The fit appears to have killed him, as a bullet might have killed him.
"He had been very dull and heavy on the previous day.

In the few words that he spoke before retiring to rest, my name was on his lips.

He said, "If I get better I should like to have David here, and to go on with him to our house of business in London." He was very much flushed, and complained of feeling giddy; but he would not allow the doctor to be sent for.

His brother assisted him to ascend the stairs to his room, and asked him some questions about his affairs.

He replied impatiently, 'Keller knows all about it--leave it to Keller.' "When I think of the good old man's benevolent and happy life, and when I remember that it was accidentally through me that he first met Madame Fontaine, I feel a bitterness of spirit which makes my sense of the loss of him more painful than I can describe.