At that moment Neil and Hyde were on their road to the fatal spot.  Neil had been gathering anger all day; Hyde, a vague regret.  The folly of what they were going to do was clear to both; but Neil was dominated by a fury of passion, which made the folly a revengeful joy.  If there had been any thought of an apology in Hyde’s heart, he must have seen its hopelessness in the white wrath of Neil’s face, and the calm deliberation with which he assumed and prepared for a fatal termination of the affair.

The sun dropped as the seconds measured off the space and offered the lot for the standing ground.  Then Neil flung off his coat and waistcoat, and stood with bared breast on the spot his second indicated.  This action had been performed in such a passion of hurry, that he was compelled to watch Hyde’s more calm and leisurely movements.  He removed his fine scarlet coat and handed it to Captain Earle, and would then have taken his sword; but Beekman advanced to remove also his waistcoat.  The suspicion implied by this act roused the soldier’s indignation.  “Do you take me to be a person of so little honour?” he passionately asked; and then with his own hands he tore off the richly embroidered satin garment, and by so doing exposed what perhaps some delicate feeling had made him wish to conceal,—­a bow of orange ribbon which he wore above his heart.

The sight of it to Neil was like oil flung upon flame.  He could scarcely restrain himself until the word “go” gave him license to charge Hyde, which he did with such impetuous rage, that it was evident he cared less to preserve his own life, than to slay his enemy.

Hyde was an excellent swordsman, and had fought several duels; but he was quite disconcerted by the deadly reality of Neil’s attack.  In the second thrust, his foot got entangled in a tuft of grass; and, in evading a lunge aimed at his heart, he fell on his right side.  Supporting himself, however, on his sword hand, he sprang backwards with great dexterity, and thus escaped the probable death-blow.  But, as he was bleeding from a wound in the throat, his second interfered, and proposed a reconciliation.  Neil angrily refused to listen.  He declared that he “had not come to enact a farce;” and then, happening to glance at the ribbon on Hyde’s breast, he swore furiously, “He would make his way through the body of any man who stood between him and his just anger.”

[Illustration:  The swords of both men sprung from their hands]

Up to this point, there had been in Hyde’s mind a latent disinclination to slay Neil.  After it, he flung away every kind memory; and the fight was renewed with an almost brutal impetuosity, until there ensued one of those close locks which it was evident nothing but “the key of the body could open.”  In the frightful wrench which followed, the swords of both men sprang from their hands, flying some four or five yards upward with the force.  Both recovered their weapons at the same time, and both, bleeding and exhausted, would have again renewed the fight; but at that moment Van Heemskirk and Semple, with their attendants, reached the spot.