MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.
TRENT, DEC. 3--14.
To-morrow is to be the day, that will, in all probability, send either
one or two ghosts to attend the manes of my CLARISSA.
I arrived here yesterday; and inquiring for an English gentleman of the
name of Morden, soon found out the Colonel's lodgings. He had been in
town two days; and left his name at every probable place.
He was gone to ride out; and I left my name, and where to be found; and
in the evening he made me a visit.
He was plaguy gloomy. That was not I. But yet he told me that I had
acted like a man of true spirit in my first letter; and with honour, in
giving him so readily this meeting. He wished I had in other respects;
and then we might have seen each other upon better terms than now we did.
I said there was no recalling what was passed; and that I wished some
things had not been done, as well as he.
To recriminate now, he said, would be as exasperating as unavailable.
And as I had so cheerfully given him this opportunity, words should give
place to business.--Your choice, Mr. Lovelace, of time, of place, of
weapon, shall be my choice.
The two latter be your's, Mr. Morden. The time to-morrow, or next day,
as you please.
Next day, then, Mr. Lovelace; and we'll ride out to-morrow, to fix the
place.
Agreed, Sir.
Well: now, Mr. Lovelace, do you choose the weapon.
I said I believed we might be upon an equal footing with the single
rapier; but, if he thought otherwise, I had no objection to a pistol.
I will only say, replied he, that the chances may be more equal by the
sword, because we can neither of us be to seek in that; and you would
stand, says he, a worse chance, as I apprehend, with a pistol; and yet
I have brought two, that you may take your choice of either; for, added
he, I have never missed a mark at pistol-distance, since I knew how to
hold a pistol.
I told him, that he spoke like himself; that I was expert enough that
way, to embrace it, if he chose it; though not so sure of my mark as
he pretended to be. Yet the devil's in it, Colonel, if I, who have slit
a bullet in two upon a knife's edge, hit not my man. So I have no
objection to a pistol, if it be your choice. No man, I'll venture to
say, has a steadier hand or eye than I have.
They may both be of use to you, Sir, at the sword, as well as at the
pistol: the sword, therefore, be the thing, if you please.
With all my heart.
We parted with a solemn sort of ceremonious civility: and this day I
called upon him; and we rode out together to fix upon the place: and
both being of one mind, and hating to put off for the morrow what could
be done to-day, would have decided it then: but De la Tour, and the
Colonel's valet, who attended us, being unavoidably let into the secret,
joined to beg we would have with us a surgeon from Brixen, whom La Tour
had fallen in with there, and who had told him he was to ride next
morning to bleed a person in a fever, at a lone cottage, which, by the
surgeon's description, was not far from the place where we then were, if
it were not that very cottage within sight of us.
They overtook so to manage it, that the surgeon should know nothing of
the matter till his assistance was called in. And La Tour, being, as I
assured the Colonel, a ready contriving fellow, [whom I ordered to obey
him as myself, were the chance to be in his favour,] we both agreed to
defer the decision till to-morrow, and to leave the whole about the
surgeon to the management of our two valets; enjoining them absolute
secrecy: and so rode back again by different ways.
We fixed upon a little lone valley for the spot--ten to-morrow morning
the time--and single rapier the word. Yet I repeatedly told him, that I
valued myself so much upon my skill in that weapon, that I would wish him
to choose any other.
He said it was a gentleman's weapon; and he who understood it not, wanted
a qualification that he ought to suffer for not having: but that, as to
him, one weapon was as good as another, throughout all the instruments of
offence.
So, Jack, you see I take no advantage of him: but my devil must deceive
me, if he take not his life or his death at my hands before eleven
to-morrow morning.
His valet and mine are to be present; but both strictly enjoined to be
impartial and inactive: and, in return for my civility of the like
nature, he commanded his to be assisting me, if he fell.
We are to ride thither, and to dismount when at the place; and his
footman and mine are to wait at an appointed distance, with a chaise to
carry off to the borders of the Venetian territories the survivor, if one
drop; or to assist either or both, as occasion may demand.
And thus, Belford, is the matter settled.
A shower of rain has left me nothing else to do; and therefore I write
this letter; though I might as well have deferred it till to-morrow
twelve o'clock, when I doubt not to be able to write again, to assure you
much I am
Yours, &c.
LOVELACE.