Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-03-20

81 y So spoke General R, as
U = we sat side by side in the veranda
of his snug little house in one of the
northwestern provinces of India, watch
ing the sun sink behind the endless line
of stately palm trees that stood ranged
like plumed soldiers along the opposite
bank of the river
"Suppose you tell it me now, general, .
suggested |, guessing from the grave look
on the old hero's weather-beaten face
that the forthcoming story must have
deeper interest than any of his ordinary
campaigning anecdotes.
81 don't mind if do" answered the
veteran; for although it is an affair that
have no great pleasure in looking back
upon, yet it taught me good lesson, if
only had the sense to profit by it
When | was quite young fellow,
and hadn't long joined the army, +" he re-
sumed, after pause, " / used to belong
to a fashionable club in London. the
members of which were just the sort of
men you read about in Levers novels, as
wild as wild could be always in some
scrape or other and spending their
whole time in riding, shooting, gambling,
or lighting, all except one.
That one was a small, quiet, pale
faced, gray-haired man, with a very sad.
weary look, as if he had once been crush
cd by some great sorrow, and had never
been able to shake it off. He hardly ever
spoke to any one, and when he did it was
in voice as meek as his face. SO of
course we made great fun Of him among
ourselves, finding these quiet ways of his
very queer contrast to our own rackety,
harum-scarum style, and we nicknamed
him the 'Quietest Man in the Club,
though, indeed, we might just as well
have called him the only quiet man in it,
"Well one evening when the room
was pretty full, and our friend the Quiet
Man was sitting as usual in the far corner
away from everybody else, we began to
talk about dueling; subject with which
we were all tolerably familiar, for there
was hardly man among us who hadn't
been tout once.
"sThey did some tidy dueling in the
old times, said Lord H, who was
killed afterward in action. You re-
member how those six chums of Henry
H., of France, fought three to three till
enOiS was oiiy OhS AeAe aiANc out Vi tne
six
g That was pretty fair, certainly
cried Charlie Thornton, of the Guards;
but, after all, it doesn't beat the great
duel, thirty years ago, between Sir Harry
Martingale and Colonel Fortescue.'
He had hardly spoken when up
jumped the Quiet Man as if somebody
had stuck pin into him.
az What on earths the matter with
himl whispered Thornton; never saw
him like that before
g But what was the story, then, Char
liel' asked another man; Eve heard of
Fortescue, of course, for he was the most
famous duelist of his time in all Eng
land and I've heard of his fight with
Martingale too; but l don't think I've
ever had any particulars, or at least none
worth speaking Of
"'I can give them to you, then,
answered Thornton; for my uncle was
Martingale's second. I've heard him tell
the story many time, and he always
said that although he had been in plenty
of duels, he had never seen one like that,
and never wanted to see it again. What
they quarreled about | don't know, and
] daresay they didn't know themselves;
but my uncle used to say he knew by the
look in their eyes when they took their
places to fire that it could not end with
out blood, and it didn't. They fired
twice, and every shot told; and then
their seconds, seeing that both men were
hard hit and bleeding fast, wanted to
put an end to it. But Fortescue-who was
one of those grim fellows who are always
most dangerous toward the end of fight
insisted upon third shot. The third
time, by some accident, Martingale fired
q moment too soon, and gave him bad
wound in the side; but Fortescue pressed
his hand to the wound to stop the bleed
ing, and then, almost bent double with
pain though he was, he fired and brought
down his man.
" Killed himl'
% Rather-shot him slap through
the heart. But it was his last duel, for
from that day he was never heard of
again and people said he had either