The herald., 1893-10-20
THE QUIET MAN.

When I was quite ayoung fellow and
hadn't long joined the army, l used to
belong to fashionable club in London,
the members of'which were just the sort
of men you readiaboutiin Levers novels
rs wild as wild couldsbe, always in some
scrape or other, 'and'spending their whole
time in riding, shooting, gambling OF
fighting all exceptsoile.
That one was a small, quiet, pale
faced, gray hatred'naan, with very sad
weary look, as ifF he had once beer
crushed by some great sorrow and ha6
never been ablesto shake it off. He hard
ly ever spoke ITO any one, and when he
did it was in aNvoice 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, haEum scarum style, and
we nicknamed him sthe "Quietest Man
In the Club" though, indeed, we might
just as well havecailled 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 cor
ner away from every body else, we be-
gan to talk about dueling, subject with
which we were all toleiably familiar, for
there was hardly a. man among US who
hadn't been 'out" once.
'sThey did some tidy dueling in the old
times" said Lord 'H.s who was killed
afterward in action. i"You remember
how those six chums of Henry III of
France fought three to three, till there
was only one left alive Nout of the six
''That was pretty fair certainly" cried
Charlie Thornton of the Guards, ''but
after all it doesn't beatsthe great duel 80
years ago between Sir EarrysMartingale
and Colonel Fortescue.
He had hardly spoken when up jumped
the quiet man as if somebody had stuck
pin into him.
"What on earth's the, matter with
him~ whispered Thornt OH. 81 never
saw him like that before."f
"But what was the stcEy, then, Char
ie?" asked another man. "'I've heard of
Fortescue, of course, f.n he was the
most famous duelist of his time in all
England, and I've hea rd of his fight
with Martingale, too, b ht don't think
I've ever had any particulars, or at
least none worth speaki hg Of"
81 can give them to lsyou, then" an.
swered Thornton; ''fo1F my uncle was
Martingale's second. Eve heard him
tell the story many dime. and he al
ways said that although; he had been in
plenty of duels he had tlever seen one
like that and never wa nted to see it
again. What they qua rreled about 1
don't know. and dare isay they didn't
know themselves, but nly uncle used to
say he knew by the look in their eyes
when they took their places to fire that
it could not end withl)u blood, and it
didn't.
''They fired twice, al I'd every shot told,
and then their seconG,, seeing that both
men were hard hit a nd bleeding fast,
wanted to put an end to it. But Fort
escue-who was oneiof those grim fell
lows who are alwaysfmost dangerous to-
ward the end .of the 4 ight-insisted upon
a third shot. <The Z alrd time, by some
accident, Martin galeI fired a moment too
soon and gave a. him bad wound in the
side, but FortescIye p1 essed his hand to the
wound to stop Che bleeding, and then,
almost bent doulle with pain though he
was, he fired and brought down his man"
"Killed himY'
"Rather. Shot kEim slap through the
heart. But it wasEllis last duel, for from
that day he was never heard of again,
and people said he had either committed
suicide or died of aEbroken heart"
"Well, don't see why he need have
done that, for, after all, it was a fair
fight" struck in Lord H., who had been
looking over the newspapers on the ta-
BILE. "But, if you talk Of dueling, what
do you say to this?
s'Another duelliIlg tragedy in Paris
The notorious Par sian bully and duel
list, Armand de Ailleneuve, has just
added another wreat h to hisiblood stained
laurels, the new victim being the Chew
a1ier Henri de Polhgnac, fine young
fellow of %, the only son OF a widowed
mother. Some strong expressions of dis
gust used by the Ghevalier with refer
ence to one Of De, Villeneuve's former
duels having come tb the latter's ears, he
sought out De Poiignac and insulted
him SO grossly as to- render meeting
inevitable.
''The chevalier having fired first and
missed, De VilleneuNse called out to him,
Look to the second. ibuttonhole of your
coatr and sent bullet through the spot
indicated into the breast'of his opponent,
who expired half an shour later in great
agony. His mother is said to be broken
hearted at his death. How much longer,
we wonder, will this savage be allowed
to offer these human sacrifices to his
own inordinate vanity"
Just then happened to look up and
saw the quiet man rise slowly from his
chair, with face SO changed that it
startled me almost as much as if | had
seen him disappear bodily and another
man rise up in his stead. / had once
seen an oil painting abroad in which an
avenging angel was hurting lightnings
upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and that
was just how this man looked at that
moment. He glanced at his watch and
theq came across the room and went
quickly out.
The next night, and the next, and the
next after that, the quiet man didn't APP
pear at the club and we all began to
wonder what could have become of him.
But when ] came in on the fourth even