Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-09-14
THE QUIET MAN.

When ! was quite young fellow and
hadn't long joined the army, ! used to
belong to 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
fghtiDg-all except one.
That one was a small, quiet, pale
faced, gray haired man, with very sad,
weary look, as If he had once been
crushed by some great sorrow and had
never been able to shake it of. He hard
ly ever spoke to any one, and when he
did it was in a 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 1t.
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 everybody else, we be-
gan 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.
"They did some tidy dueling in the old
times" said Lord H., who was killed
afterward in action. "You remember
how those six chums of Henry III Of
France fought three to three till there
was only one left alive out of the six"
"That was pretty fair certainly" cried
Charlie Thornton Of the Guards, "but
after all it doesn't beat the great duel 80
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.
"What on earth's the matter with
him% whispered Thornton. II never
saw him like that before"
"But what was the story, then, Char
lieT' asked another man. "I've heard oi
Fortescue, of course, for he was tht
most famous duelist of his time in al
England, and I've heard Of his fght
with Martingale, too, but don't thinl
I've ever had any particulars, or a
least none worth speaking Of"
II can give them to you, then," an
swered Thornton; "for my uncle wa
Martingale's second. I've heard hin
tell the story many time, and he al
ways said that although he had been il
plenty of duels he had never seen on
like that and never wanted to see i
again. What they quarreled about
don't know, and dare say they didn'
know themselves, but my uncle used t
say he knew by the look in their eye
when they took their places to fire tina
it could not end without blood, and
didn't.
"They fred twice, and every shot told
and then their seconds, seeing that bot
men were hard hit and bleeding fast
wanted to put an end to it. But Fort
escue-who was one of those grim fel
lows who are always most dangerous tc
ward the end Of the ight-insisted upo
third shot. The third time, by som
accident, Martingale fired a moment to
soon and gave him bad wound in th
side, but Fortescue pressed his hand to tn
wound to stop the bleeding, and ther
almost bent double with pain though b
was, he fred and brought down his man.
"Killed him?"
Rather. Shot him slap through th
heart. But it was his last duel, for fro1
that day he was never heard of agair
, and people said he had either committe
suicide or died of broken heart"
"Well, don't see why he need hav
done that, for, after all, it was fai
fight" struck in Lord H., who had bee
looking over the newspapers on the tt
BILE. "But, if you talk of dueling, whs
do you say to thisp
"Another duelling tragedy in Pari
The notorious Parisian bully and due
list, Armand de Villeneuve, has jul
added another wreath to his blood staine
. laurels, the new victim being the Che,
/ alier Henri de Poignac, a fine youn
Z fellow of %, the only son of widowe
mother. Some strong expressions of di
gust used by the chevalier with refe
a ence to one Of De Villeneuve's forme
duels having come to the latter's ears, h
a sought out De Polignac and insulte
him so grossly as to render a meetin
inevitable.
"The chevalier having fred first an
missed, De Villeneuve called out to hin
Look to the second buttonhole of you
, coatP and sent bullet through the spt
indicated into the breast of his opponen
who expired half an hour later in gres
agony. His mother is said to be broke
i hearted at his death. How much longe
a we wonder, will this savage be allowe
b to offer these human sacrifices to b
8 own inordinate vanity?"
j, Just then / happened to look up an
9 saw the quiet man rise slowly from hi
: chair, with face so changed that
= startled me almost as much as if ha
y seen him disappear bodily and anothe
: man rise up in his stead. / had ono
!. seen an oil painting abroad in which a
8 avenging angel was hurling lightning
upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and ths
was just how this man looked at tha
moment. He glanced at his watch an
d then came across the room and wer
t quickly out.
The next night, and the next, and tn
r next after that, the quiet man didn't al
pear at the club and we all began t
wonder what could have become of hin
But when came in on the fourth ever
Q "Certain hard words, made into pills,
Simply to swell the doctor bills"