retire, the steward handed him a note. An hour before he had struck a
"fashionable" man a severe blow, and he conjectured at once that it had
called forth this note. On opening the billet, his supposition proved to
be correct. It was a challenge from Maxwell.

We are very much opposed to duels and duelling, and we regret that
faithfulness to the facts of history compels us to record that Captain
Carroll accepted the challenge. He had moral courage enough to resist
the promptings of that artificial spirit of honor which encourages
duels, but there was "a lady in the case,"--a lady whom he fondly loved.
He felt that the insult which she had received was not sufficiently
punished. Besides, there was an audacity about the man which deserved to
be punished, and he resolved to punish it. Poor human nature! Henry
never reflected that he might be shot himself, and the persecutor of
innocence escape unharmed. No, he felt that the blow he had struck in
defence of innocence was a just retribution, as far as it went; and that
he should fall, _he_ who had espoused the cause of innocence, why it was
simply impossible!

He accepted the challenge, and requested a brother officer to act as his
"friend." The two seconds--Major Brunn on the part of Henry, and Vernon
on the part of Maxwell--arranged the preliminaries.

The boat would arrive at Natchez about daylight, and would remain there
long enough to allow the meeting to take place.

Henry Carroll, though his chivalrous spirit was gratified at the
opportunity to revenge the insult offered to Emily, was ill at ease. To
meet a man of no character (for such he supposed Maxwell to be) was not
a very ornamental accompaniment to an affair of honor. He had a hundred
times braved death on the field of battle, but to die in a duel with
such a man seemed to his now tranquillized mind anything but honorable.
Emily had retired, and he could not bid her farewell. Perhaps he had
seen her for the last time on earth, for the possibility of being killed
himself tardily came to his mind. He wrote a long letter to Emily, and
another to Uncle Nathan.

The worthy Northerner had produced a very favorable impression upon his
mind. He knew his liberal soul, and the design of the letter was to
interest him in her favor,--to induce him to conduct her to his Northern
home.

Henry returned to his couch with many painful doubts as to the morality,
and even the expediency, of his course. But the feeling of h