up with a disappointment with good humour.' I never, during the whole
course of my existence, was more disposed to bear a disappointment with
good humour, to prove that I was incapable of bearing malice; and to
oblige the seconds, for form's sake, I agreed that we should take our
ground, and fire our pistols into the air. Mrs. Luttridge, with her
left-handed wisdom, fired first; and I, with great magnanimity, followed
her example. I must do my adversary's second, Miss Honour O'Grady, the
justice to observe, that in this whole affair she conducted herself not
only with the spirit, but with the good-nature and generosity
characteristic of her nation. We met enemies, and parted friends.

"Life is a tragicomedy! Though the critics will allow of no such thing in
their books, it is a true representation of what passes in the world; and
of all lives mine has been the most grotesque mixture, or alternation, I
should say, of tragedy and comedy. All this is apropos to something I have
not told you yet. This comic duel ended tragically for me. 'How?' you say.
Why, 'tis clear that I was not shot through the head; but it would have
been better, a hundred times better for me, if I had; I should have been
spared, in this life at least, the torments of the damned. I was not used
to priming and loading: my pistol was overcharged: when I fired, it
recoiled, and I received a blow on my breast, the consequences of which
you have seen.

"The pain was nothing at the moment compared with what I have since
experienced: but I will not complain till I cannot avoid it. I had not, at
the time I received the blow, much leisure for lamentation; for I had
scarcely discharged my pistol when we heard a loud shout on the other side
of the barn, and a crowd of town's people, country people, and haymakers,
came pouring down the lane towards us, with rakes and pitchforks in their
hands. An English mob is really a formidable thing. Marriott had