the General expressed his determination to fight his antagonist. Dr.
Bruno wrote to M'Carter to come to Washington, and he came immediately,
and was as readily waited upon by the Doctor, who inquired if he would
receive a communication from his friend, Gen. Mason. M'Carter replied,
that he "would receive no communication from Gen. Mason, except a
challenge to fight." The challenge was therefore sent, and accepted, and
the Doctor appointed to make the necessary arrangements for the duel. He
proposed the weapons to be pistols, and the distance, ten paces; to
which M'Carter objected, because he said, "the General was a dead shot
with the pistol, while he hardly knew how to use one." Then it was left to
M'Carter to choose the mode of warfare. He proposed muskets and ten paces
distance. This was agreed upon, and finally the morning arrived for the
conflict, and people began to assemble in great numbers to witness this
murderous scene.

The belligerent parties unflinchingly took their place, each with his
loaded musket at his shoulder, and gazing in each other's face, with
feelings of the most bitter hatred, while their eyes flashed vengeance.

Oh! what a state of mind was this in which to meet inevitable death? How
could intelligent men, or gentlemen, if you please so to term them, look
placidly on such a horrid scene? Was there no heart of humanity to
interfere and arrest the murderous designs of these madmen? Alas, no! The
slaveholder's "code of honor" must be acknowledged, though it outrage the
laws of God and his country.

Dr. Bruno asks, "Gentlemen, are you ready?" and the duelists take their
deadly aim at each other. The signal to fire is given, and both weapons
are discharged, and when the smoke had cleared away, what a spectacle
was there presented to the duelist and spectator? Gen. Mason, a husband,
a father, a statesman, and a kind friend, lies bleeding, and gasping for
breath. He is no more! Who will bear to his loving and unsuspecting wife,
the sad intelligence of her sudden bereavement? Who will convey his
lifeless body to his late residence, and throw grief and consternation
into the bosom of his family, and drape in sadness his whole household?
And yet this painful task must be performed. The family of General Mason
remained entirely ignorant of what was transpiring regarding the duel,
until his mangled corpse was brought into his dwelling, from which he had
so recently gone forth in all the vigor of life an