pals saluted each other courteously, according to the usage of the 'code.' Colonel Tatnall had won the choice of position, which gave to General Jesup the delivery of the word. They stood on a line east and west; there was a small stump just behind Mr. Clay, and a low gravelly bank rose just behind Mr. Randolph. The latter asked General Jesup to repeat the word as he would give it; and while in the act of doing so, and Mr. Randolph adjusting the butt of his pistol to his hand, the muzzle pointing downwards, and almost to the ground, it fired. Instantly Mr. Randolph turned to Colonel Tatnall, and said, "I protested against that hair trigger."

Colonel Tatnall took blame to himself

for having sprung the hair. Mr. Clay had not then received his pistol. Mr. Johnson, one of his seconds, was carrying it to him, and still several steps from him. This untimely fire, though clearly an accident, necessarily gave rise to some remarks, and a species of inquiry, which was conducted with the utmost delicacy, but which, in itself, was of a nature to be inexpressibly painful to a gentleman's feelings. Mr. Clay stopped it with the generous remark that the fire was clearly an accident, and it was so unanimously declared. Another pistol was immediately furnished; an exchange of shots took place, and, happily, without effect upon the persons. Mr. Randolph's bullet struck the stump behind Mr. Clay, and Mr. Clay's knocked up the earth and gravel behind Mr. Randolph, and in a line with the level of his hips, both bullets having gone so true and close, that it was a marvel how they missed.

The moment had now arrived when Colonel Benton felt that he could interpose. He accordingly went in among the parties, and offered his mediation. Nothing, however, could be done. Mr. Clay said, with that wave of the hand with which he was accustomed to put away a trifle, "This is child's play!" and required another fire. Mr. Randolph also demanded another fire. The seconds were directed

to reload. While this was doing, Colonel Benton prevailed on Mr. Randolph to walk away from his post, and importuned him, more pressingly than ever, to yield to some accommodation. The colonel found him, however, more determined than ever before, and for the first time impatient, and seemingly annoyed and dissatisfied at such approaches. The accidental fire of his pistol preyed upon his feelings. He was doubly chagrined at it, both as a circumstance susceptible in itself of an unfair interpretation, and as having been the immediate and controlling cause of his firing at Mr. Clay. He regretted this fire the instant it was over. He felt that it had subjected him to imputations from which he knew himself to be free,-a desire to kill Mr. Clay, and a contempt for the laws of his state; and the annoyances which he felt at these vexatious circumstances revived his original determination, and decided him irrevocably to carry it

out.

It was in this interval that Mr. Randolph told Colonel Benton what he had heard since they parted, and to which he alluded when speaking from the window. of the carriage. It was to this effect: that he had been informed by Colonel Tatnall, that it was proposed to give out the words with more deliberateness, so as to prolong the time for taking aim. This information grated harshly upon his feelings. It unsettled his purpose, and brought his mind to the inquiry expressed in the following note, which he had immediately written in pencil, to apprise Colonel Benton of his possible change:

"Information received from Colonel Tatnall since I got into the carriage may induce me to change my mind of not returning Mr. Clay's fire. I seek not his death. I would not have his blood upon my hands-it will not be upon my soul if shed in self-defense-for the world. He has determined, by the use of a long, preparatory caution by words, to get time to kill me. May I not, then, disable him? Yes, if I please."

According to the statement of General Jesup, already given, this information' was a misapprehension, Mr. Clay not having applied for a prolongation of time for the purpose of getting sure aim, but only to enable his unused hand, long unfamiliar with the pistol, to fire within the limited time. There was no prolongation, in fact, either granted or insisted upon; but Mr. Randolph was in doubt, and General Jesup having won the word, he was having him repeat it in the way he was to give it out, when his finger touched the hair trigger. The inquiry, 'May I not disable him?' was still on Mr. Randolph's mind, and dependent for its solution on the rising incidents of the moment, when the accidental fire of his pistol, gave the turn to his feelings which solved the

was to disable him, and spoil his aim. And then he added, with the deepest feeling

66

"I would not have seen him fall mortally, or even doubtfully, wounded, for all the land that is watered by the King of Floods and all his tributary streams."

Saying this, Mr. Randolph left Colonel Benton to resume his post, utterly refusing to explain out of the senate anything that he had said in it, and with the positive declaration that he would not return the next fire. Colonel Benton concludes his reminiscences of this most remarkable affair, as follows: I withdrew a little way into the woods, and kept my eyes fixed upon Mr. Randolph, whom I then knew to be the only one in danger. I saw him receive the fire of Mr. Clay, saw the

half-way, shook hands, Mr. Randolph saying jocosely," You owe me a coat, Mr. Clay," (the bullet had passed through the skirt of the coat, very near the hip) -to which Mr. Clay promptly and happily replied, "I am glad the debt is no greater." I had come up, and was prompt to proclaim what I had been obliged to keep secret for eight days. was extreme at this happy

The joy of all The joy of all termination of

a most critical affair, and we immediately left, with lighter hearts than we brought. I stopped to sup with Mr. Randolph and his friends, none of us wanted dinner, and had a characteristic time of it. A runner came in from the bank, to say that they had overpaid him, by mistake, one hundred and thirty dollars that day. Mr. Randolph answered, "I believe it is your rule not to correct mistakes, except at the time and at your counter." And with that answer the runner had to return. When gone, Mr. Randolph said, "I will pay it on Monday; people must be honest, if banks are not." He asked for the sealed paper he had given me, opened it, took out a check for one thousand dollars, drawn in my favor, and with which I was requested to have him carried, if killed, to Virginia, and buried under his patrimonial oaks, not let him be buried at Washington, with an hundred hacks after him. He took the gold from his left breeches pocket, and said to us (Hamilton, Tatnall, and I),—

"Gentlemen, Clay's bad shooting shan't rob you of your seals. I am going to London, and will have them made for you."

This he did (says Colonel Benton), and most characteristically, so far as mine was concerned. He went to the heraldry office in London, and inquired for the Benton family, of which I had often told him there was none, as we only dated on that side from my grandfather in North Carolina. But the name was found, and with it a coat of arms,-among the quarterings a lion rampant. "This is the family," said he; and had the arms engraved on the seal.

The account given by General James Hamilton, of this duel, states that, in company with Colonel Tatnall, he repaired, at midnight, to Mr. Randolph's lodgings, and found him reading Milton's great poem. For some moments he did not permit them to say one word in relation to the approaching duel, for he at once commenced one of those delightful criticisms on a passage of this poet, in which he was wont so enthusiastically to indulge. After a pause, Colonel Tatnall remarked:

"Mr. Randolph, I am told you have determined not to return Mr. Clay's fire; I must say to you, my dear sir, if I am only to go out to see you shot down, you must find some other friend."

"Well, Tatnall," said Mr. Randolph, after much conversation on the subject, "I promise you one thing; if I see the devil in Clay's eye, and that, with malice prepense, he means to take my life, I may change my mind."

As the sequel showed, however, he saw nodevil in Clay's eye,' but a man fearless, and expressing the mingled sensibility and firmness pertaining to the occasion. For, whilst Tatnall was loading Mr. Randolph's pistol, Hamilton approached Randolph, took his hand,-in the touch of which there was not the quivering of one pulsation,—and then, turning to Hamilton, Randolph said:

"Clay is calm, but not vindictive; I hold my purpose, Hamilton, in any event; remember this."

On Randolph's pistol going off without the word, General Jesup, Mr. Clay's friend, called out that he would instantly leave the ground with his friend, if that occurred again. On the word being given, Mr. Clay fired without effect, Mr. Randolph discharging his pistol in the air. On seeing this, Mr. Clay instantly approached Mr. Randolph, and with a gush of the deepest emotion, said,—

"I trust in God, my dear sir, you are untouched; after what has occurred, I would not have harmed you for a thousand worlds!"

On the ensuing Monday, Mr. Clay and