nected with her, and a true version
of the circumstances leading to the duel. 'If I fall'--I sadly
thought--'will she appreciate my self-offering? Shall I leave her a
legacy of sorrow, if my death under these circumstances would grieve
her? No! I will die as I have thus far lived--making no expression of
the love which sways my soul.' I tore my letter into fragments and
burned them. Passing silently into her chamber,--the first time I had
entered it for long months,--I kneeled at her bedside and sobbed. By the
dim light I could trace the marks of grief--cold, heart-consuming
grief--on her beautiful features--marks which in the day-time resolute
pride effaced; as the furrows in the rocks of the sea-shore are seen at
ebb-tide, but are concealed when the waters bound at their flood. Slowly
and cautiously I approached my lips to hers, and lightly touched them.
She stirred, and I sank to the floor. Her sleep being but lightly
disturbed, I glided like a ghost from the chamber, and with a
heart-rending groan threw myself on my bed and forced forgetfulness and
slumber.

All parties were on the field at the appointed hour, and the
preliminaries were quickly arranged. There was in Sefton's countenance
the expression of deliberate criminality, encouraged by the expectation
of an easy triumph. Immediately upon the word, he fired. The ball grazed
my breast, tore from my shirt-front a pin, and, glancing off, fell into
a creek which partly encircled the ground. Had he been a moment less
precipitate in his determination to ensure my death, the slight movement
I would have made in raising my arm to fire would probably have changed
my position sufficiently to have received the bullet. My shot followed
immediately upon his. He was seen to stagger, but declared himself
unhurt, and demanded a second shot. The pistols were prepared and
delivered. I noticed that Sefton received his with the left hand. We
were again placed, and just as the word were being given, he fell to the
ground. On examination it appeared that at the first fire my ball had
struck immediately in front of the arm and shattered the clavicle,
thence passing--in one of the freaks peculiar to bullets--immediately
beneath the flesh, half round the body, lodging under the opposite
shoulder. He had fainted from the wound.

Of course the duel was ended. Sefton was confined to his house for
weeks, and on recovering removed to Texas, where in a few months
afterward he died from _m