Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1870-03-02

Mons. De ShattUrn had so often been
successful, he considered that chance
and good fortune would not fOrsake him
I in an encounter wherein his skill would
avail him little or nothing; therefore
1 the proposed terms were accepted with
/ one exception-the time. Shatturn re-
T quested TO be allowed to make proper
: business arrangements i'm case the fates
should 90 against him.
entered the room in which the duel
was to be fought; it was eighteen by
( twenty-four feet in size, with high cell
ing and polished floor; the walls were
hard and sOmbre cOlOTed; there were no
windows. The door we entered was the
only ingress or escape, from the dark
and gloomy hall. 1 say escape, for that
/ is the only impulse one could feel enter
ing the place. The door closed, and the
darkness became so intense that it could
almost be felt.
The clock struck one as I embraced
CraWtOn, bade him goodbye, closed the
door, and left him shut up in that mid
night vault, crouched and cropping, and
/ gliding about as nOisless as the velvet
| footed tiger, creeping with twitching
muscles, charged with a desperate and
savage spring to grapple for his prey.
Two naked men, armed with keen
/ sharp knives, moving about in the dark
ness, straining eye and ear for a shadow
at which to strike; the very breath es-
Gaping from their set teeth and COM
pressed lips might bright the swift
stroke of death to one of the autagon-
/ lists.
Outside, leaning against the door, the
/ friend Of Mons. De Shatturn and my
! self were equally silent. Cold chills ran
| through my body, and started cold drops
of sweat from my brow.
I could almost feel the gloom of the
dark room pouring like a current OF
electricity through the heavy irOned
door, my excited Imagination followed
the naked antagonists as they stole
about as silent as serpents, while sec
Onds licked off into minutes, and minu-
tes into hours, so slowly that each one
seemed an age.
| Suspense most the accute, afflicted us
both.
We looked at each other OccasiOnlly,
/ though our eyes were eXpressionless ;
/ thought was dethTOned for the time; the
sense of hearing was the only faculty
remaining alive; and our hearts seemed
to stand still at times, and then to beat
painfully. -Four hours were husPassed,
when we were startled by thud or dull
sound and iarring of the floor, which
/ brought US to our senses.
The dull sound Was-tO us-a signal to
enter. Our lanterns were lighted with
nervous hands; the bolt was drawn {;
the door thrown open, and we rushed
! into the room to behold a sight which
neither of us viii ever forget. Mons
De Shatturn lay dead upon the floor
Crawton stood over him with his foot
upon his breast passing thereon. while
a stream of blood poured from a great
wound which had split the Frenchman's
heart almost in twain.
CrawtOn's eyes fairly stuck out from
their sockets.
The huge knife dripping with blood,
he still held in bis upraised hand his
face was as white as death, and his hair
which few hours before was black and
beautiful wasas white as winter His
! lips We're as firmly set as ehiseled mar
! bic. He stood thus for a few moments
staring down upon the bloody corpse be-
meath his feet; then dropping the huge
knife, he fell PROSTATE upon the body of
his dead foe. We instantly raised him
up, gave him restOratives, dressed him,
and hurried him to his hotel
The hearse followed by a few men,
which turned into Greenwood Cemetry
few Sabbath ago, bore the body of
Crawton to its last resting place.
He died in private mad-hOuse in
New York twenty-five years after the
terrible ordeal of that terrible duel, and,
strange as it may seem, during that
long period of time-a quarter of a cen
tury-he was not known to utter a
word. -.--..
MetaIIIOe-A New and Important In
VentiOn.