Middletown transcript., 1869-10-09

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shoulders.
=" Present.
The two arms went up and each took
sight.
One-two-"
One report rang out. The last word
was deafened by it, On the word two
both pistols had been simultaneously dis.
charged. Their were two pufis of smoke,
and in an instant Barron was down croan-
ing.
Decatur Strengthened up a moment.
pinched his lips, dropped his pistol, and
the color went out of his face. He drew
his right hand to his side. Then he fell
to the ground speechless
The seconds OF both were beside them
instantly. Decatur was raised by his
friends and moved to higher ground, near
by Barron.
He opened his eyes directly, and said /:
6 am mortally wounded, at least be-
lieve so; and l wish l had fallen in the
service of my country"
Barron looked up to them all and said ::
Everything has been conducted in the
most honorable manner. [ am mortally
wounded. Commodore Decatur, I forgive
you from the bottom of my heart"
Immediately down the pathway to the
Valley of Chance came many gentlemen,
all friends of Decatur-Rodgers, and Por-
ter, and Bolton, two doctors, Baily Wash
ing.on and Trevitt, General Harper and
others, friends or idlers
There were anxious looks and utteran-
ceE Of "Tut tut! or "Dear dear!'
The doctors proceeded to loosen the
clothes of the sufferers and ascertain the ma
ture Of their wounds. The little green val
ley at the breakfast hour had become a
surgeons hospital. In it were reprcsen-
ted nearly all the naval victories in the
republic-Tripoli and Algiers, Lake Erie
and both oceans; they held solemn con-
gress in this holy amphithcatre.
Barron was struck in the hip and about
the groin Decatur had caught the ball
on his hip, and it had glanced upward into
his abdomen, severing the large blood YES
sells there. The two doctors exchanged
glances; there was no hope for Decatur !;
his puisation had almost ceased.
Now began on the ground, as they lay
upon cloaks spread for them, that dying
interview of mingled tenderness and re-
elimination which Writ has compared to
the last intercourse of Hamlet and Laer-
tes. Each striving to clear up his fame,
and prove that this crime was mistake of
the work of oficious enemies. Barron,
certain his hours were numbered, wished
to be at peace with his enemy that they
might enter the court of jud dgment, friends
Decatur was less relenting, but he con-
sented to forgive Barron, though not his
advisers.
1t was sadder scene than that of Mel
son, Decatur's admirer, dying in cockpit
during the battle, or Bayard, to whom he
had been compared, bleeding on the battle
field.
The carriage came, and they bore Deca-
tur to it, Bainbridge kissing his check.
He had wrested Banbridge from the dun
geons of the Moors. Brainbridge, in re,
turn, had measured the ground for him to
stain it with his blood.
Rodgers took Decaturs head upon his
shoulders, the doctor, levitt, seated with
them, and the carriage took its painful
way back to the city. Bainbridge and
Hambleton hastened to the navy yard,
where the tug lay to carry them back to
the Columbus, that ship of discord. At
half past ten o'clock, Decatur re-entered
his elegant mansion, his wife and house
hold disturbed at the breakfast table with
the appalling news, and they were taken
to the upper part of the house. Around
the city the evil news spread. Friends
crowded around the door and into the du-
elist's dying chamber. He signed his
will, refused to have the ball extracted
from his wound, and spoke affectionately
of his wife, whom he yet refused to see.
Excrntiating pains came to him. After one
of the spasms, he said:
~ did pot believe it possible for a per-
son to endure SO much pain as / feel"
The town was aroused, and his doorways
and payements crowded. They stopped
the drawing room at President Monroe's.
Uncomplaining, in the midst of anguish
to the last, the unconquerable soul of the
"Bayard Of the Seas" yielded itself up
without groan at half past ten o'clock in |
the plight.
Next day the little old "National Intel
ligencer" came out with loaded editorial
head saying that it would be ''affectatjon"
to be silent upon the fact that the duel had
occurred, and that the combatants were
mortally wounded. In "Postcript" it
related that Decatur was dead, and added
in the crude apostrophe of that period,
Mourn, Columbia! for one of thy bright
est stars is setP' Three days afterwards
the mail was robbed three miles from Bal
timore, the driver was tied to tree and
shot dead, and the mail bags picked over
in the bushes near by. All this time while
Decatur's body was going from his resi-
dence, close by the White House, to ''Ka-
lorama," an estate on hill overlooking
Georgetown, and while Barron lay in the
city, writhing in pain and listening to the
funeral drums. In Congress, John Ran
dolph offered consolotary resolutions, but
they were objected to. The tone of the