owitza's friends, that von Donniges should have
priority, but was overruled; and it was agreed that the duel should be
fought that very evening. Rustow protested that he could not find
another second in so short a time--General Becker does not seem to have
been available--but at length it was arranged that General Bethlem should
be asked to fill the office, and that the duel should take place on the
following morning, August 28. There seems to have been considerable
difficulty in finding suitable pistols, and at the last moment General
Bethlem declined to be a second, and Herr von Hofstetten consented to
act. Rustow called upon Lassalle at the Victoria Hotel at five o'clock.
At half-past six the party started for Carouge, a village in the
neighbourhood of Geneva, which they reached an hour later. Lassalle was
quite cheerful, and perfectly confident that he would come unharmed out
of the conflict. The opponents faced one another and Racowitza wounded
Lassalle, who was carried by Rustow and Dr. Seiler to a coach, and thence
to the Victoria Hotel, Geneva. He suffered dreadfully both then and
afterwards, and was only relieved by a plentiful use of opium. Three
days later, on Wednesday, August 31, 1864, he died.

Was it the chance shot of a delicate boy that killed one of the most
remarkable men of the nineteenth century, or was it a planned attack upon
one who loved the people? This last view was taken and is still taken by
many of his followers; but it is needless to say that it has no
foundation in fact. Lassalle was killed by a chance shot, and killed in
a duel which had not even the doubtful justification of hatred of his
opponent. "Count me no longer as a rival; for you I have nothing but
friendship," were the words written to Racowitza at the moment that he
challenged von Donniges, and he declared on his death-bed that he died by
his own hand.

The revolutionists of all lands assembled around his dead body, which was
embalmed by order of the Countess. This woman talked loudly of
vengeance, called not only von Racowitza but Helen a murderer, {218}
little thinking that posterity would judge her more hardly than Helen.
She proposed to take the corpse in solemn procession through Germany; but
an order from the Prussian Government disturbed her plans, and at
Breslau, Lassalle's native town, it was allowed to rest. Lassalle is
buried in the family vault in the Jewish Cemetery, and a simple monument
bears the in