fate. I considered that I must be judged by the tenor of my
whole life, and that repentance, under chance of death, was of about the
same value as death-bed repentance.

As soon as the dock-yard men were mustered out, I returned to the hotel,
and sat down to dinner with the colonel. We had scarcely finished a
bottle of claret when it was time to be off. We walked out of the town,
to the place appointed, where I found my adversary and his second. The
ground was marked out by the colonel, and, when I took my station, I
found that the setting sun was in my eyes. I pointed it out to him, and
requested my position might be changed. The other second heard me do
so, and very handsomely agreed that I was entitled to what I asked, and
the colonel immediately apologised for his remissness to my interests.
The ground was then marked out in another direction, and the colonel
took me to my place, where I observed that one of the white-washed posts
was exactly behind me, making me a sure mark for my antagonist. "I am
not used to these things, Keene," replied Colonel Delmar, "and I make
strange mistakes." I then pointed out a direction which would be fair
for both parties. The pistols were then loaded, and put into our hands.
We fired at the signal. I felt that I was hit, but my adversary fell.
I was paralysed; and although I remained on my feet, I could not move.
Captain Green and the colonel went up to where my adversary lay: the
ball had passed through his chest.

"He is dead," said Captain Green--"quite dead."

"Yes," replied Colonel Delmar. "My dear Keene, I congratulate you: you
have killed the greatest scoundrel that ever disgraced his Majesty's
uniform."

"Colonel Delmar," replied Captain Green, "the observation might well be
spared: our errors and our follies die with us."

"Very true, Captain Green," replied I. "I can only express my surprise
that the colonel should have introduced to me a person whose memory he
now so bitterly assails." Somehow or another, from the commencement of
the duel, Colonel Delmar's conduct had excited my suspicions, and a
hundred things crowded into my memory, which appeared as if illumined
like a flash of lightning. I came suddenly to the conviction that he
was my enemy, and not my friend. But I was bleeding fast: some marines,
who were passing, were summoned, and the body of Major Stapleton was
carried away by one party, while I was committed to another, and taken
back to the