“I penned a message which was delivered by my young Virginian friend in person.  Wold said he had no quarrel with me, and strove to evade the subject.  He sent me a note, demanding wherein he had ever wronged me, and stating that he was ready and willing to explain any thing that might have offended me.  I returned his note, with a line on the same sheet, informing him that I was the friend of Laura; and that he must either meet me in the manner indicated in my message, or I would publicly brand him as a dastardly scoundrel.  He bit his lip, and referred my friend to one of his companions in iniquity, a Mr. Knabb, who lived by the profession of cards and dice.  It was arranged that we should meet on one of the islands near the city, and that it should be the next morning.  This was what I desired, and I had urged my friend to effect as speedy a consummation of the affair as possible.  All the tumult and perturbation that raged in my bosom on parting with Laura had returned, and the throbbing of my brain was almost insufferable.  It was with difficulty that my young friend prevailed upon me to embrace the few intermediate hours before the meeting to practice with the pistol.  I heeded not his declaration that Wold was an excellent shot, because I felt convinced that justice was on my side.  I thought that the criminal must inevitably fall.  However, I consented to practice a little to quiet his importunity.  Truly, it seemed that his urgent solicitation was reasonable enough, for the first fire my ball was several feet wide of the mark.  I had never fired a pistol before in my life.  But there was no quivering of nerve, no misgiving as to my fate; for notwithstanding I was aware of being a novice, yet I entertained a conviction, a presentiment, that the destroyer of my Laura’s innocence would fall beneath my hand.  The next fire I did better, and soon learned to strike the centre.

“We were all on the ground at the hour appointed.  While the seconds were arranging the necessary preliminaries, Wold, finding that my eyes rested steadily upon him, endeavoured to intimidate me.  There was a bush some thirty paces distant, from which a slim, solitary sprout ran up several feet above the rest of the branches.  He gazed an instant at it while I was marking him, and then raised his pistol, and fired in the direction.  The sprout fell.  Turning, his eyes met mine, while a slight smile was visible on his lip.  The effect did not realize his hopes.  I looked upon the act with such cold indifference that he at first betrayed surprise at my calmness, and then exhibited palpable signs of trepidation himself.  He beckoned Knabb to him, and, after a brief conference in a low tone, his second returned to my friend, and inquired if no amends, no reconciliation, could avert the exchange of shots.  My friend reported his words to me, and my reply was that nothing but the restitution of the maiden’s honour—­instant marriage—­would be satisfaction.  Wold protested—­marriage