Weeps on tears of poison.”
—from Notes On Duels and Duelling by Lorenzo Sabine (1803–1877). Sabine was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, as well as a historian noted for writing on the subject of loyalists during the American Revolution. Anti-dueling books and treatises increased in the decades following the death of Alexander Hamilton at the hands of Aaron Burr in 1804.
Thomas Fuller’s Bird
Fabulous Bird—Among the many quaint and beautiful conceits in Fuller, there is one preeminently fine: in which he likens the life-long remorse of a man who has slain another in a duel to the condition of “a bird I have read of, which hath a face like, and yet will prey upon, a man; who, coming to the water to drink, and finding there, by reflection, that he had killed one like himself, pineth away by degrees, and never afterwards enjoyeth itself.”
—from the Feb 19th, 1853 edition of Notes and Queries. The Fuller quoted above is Thomas Fuller, the celebrated 17th century English churchman and historian. This selection is followed by a query from a reader, asking where Fuller might have read such a grim fable. Notes and Queries had no response. Neither did Charles Lamb or Charles Dickens, both of whom cited Fuller’s description of the raptor.
Unhappily Ever After
Captain Gillespie, who, as second of Lieutenant McKenzie in the duel of the latter with William Barrington, In Ireland in 1777, assassinated Barrington during an altercation, and who became afterward an eminent general officer in the British army, suffered a good deal from what the jury seemed to think was “justifiable homicide.” It has been said of Gillespie that he always seemed to court death during his many engagements with England’s enemies, and that he at last received a fatal bullet while leading his command into the thickest of the fight. Theodore Neuhoff, of Wesphalia, the remarkable young Jesuit who, in 1736, gained the throne of Corsica, never overcame the grief he experienced after killing a fellow-student in a duel in 1729, and died in England, in 1756, or remorse and disappointment.
James Paull, who killed Sir Francis Burdette in 1807, became frantic with insomnia afterward, and committed suicide in 1808. Captain Best, who killed Lord Camelford in 1804, although he did everything in his power, almost, to effect a reconciliation, never recovered from the shock he felt as seeing his antagonist fall mortally wounded and left for dead on the field. “No moment of my life has been an entirely happy one,” he once said, “since I killed that man. I often see poor Camelford standing up before me.” Best died from delirium tremens at the age of forty-eight. Mr. Thronhill, who killed Sir Cholmeley Dering in 1711, suffered great distress of mind in consequence. One of the most painful events in the annals of duelling was the meeting (in Ireland in 1808) of Messrs. Alcock and Colclough. They had been the warmest of friends; and soon after Aclock’s trial for murder, and his acquittal, he became demented and died in an asylum for the insane. His sister, who was engaged to be married to Colclough, also became hopelessly insane.
—from The Field Of Honor: Being A Complete and Comprehensive History of Duelling In All Countries by Major Ben C. Truman (1835–1916). Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Truman was a Civil War correspondent and respected authority on duels.
Reading III
Pharamond and Spinamont
by Richard Steele
… Quis talia fando
Myrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles Ulyssei
Temperet a Lachrymis?
(Who can such woes relate without a tear,
As stern Ulysses must have wept to hear?)
—Virgil
Looking over the old Manuscript wherein the private Actions of Pharamond7 are set down by way of Table-Book. I found many things which gave me great Delight; and as human Life turns upon the same Principles and Passions in all Ages, I thought it very proper to take Minutes of what passed in that Age, for the Instruction of this. The Antiquary, who lent me these Papers, gave me a Character of Eucrate8, the Favourite of Pharamond, extracted from an Author who lived in that Court. The Account he gives both of the Prince and this his faithful Friend, will not be improper to insert here, because I may have Occasion to mention many of their Conversations, into which these Memorials of them may give Light.
‘Pharamond, when he had a Mind to retire for an Hour or two from the Hurry of Business and Fatigue of Ceremony, made a Signal to Eucrate, by putting his Hand to his Face, placing his Arm negligently on a Window, or some such Action as appeared indifferent to all the rest of the Company. Upon such Notice, unobserved by others, (for their entire Intimacy was always a Secret) Eucrate repaired to his own Apartment to receive the King. There was a secret Access to this Part of the Court, at which Eucrate used to admit many whose mean Appearance in the Eyes of the ordinary Waiters and Door-keepers made them be repulsed from other Parts of the Palace. Such as these were let in here by Order of Eucrate, and had Audiences of Pharamond. This Entrance Pharamond called The Gate of the Unhappy, and the Tears of the Afflicted who came before him, he would say were Bribes received by Eucrate; for Eucrate had the most compassionate Spirit of all Men living, except his generous Master, who was always kindled at the least Affliction which was communicated to him. In the Regard for the Miserable, Eucrate took particular Care, that the common Forms of Distress, and the idle Pretenders to Sorrow, about Courts, who wanted only Supplies to Luxury, should never obtain Favour by his Means: But the Distresses which arise from the many inexplicable Occurrences that happen among Men, the unaccountable Alienation of Parents from their Children, Cruelty of Husbands to Wives, Poverty occasioned from Shipwreck or Fire, the falling out of Friends, or such other terrible Disasters, to which the Life of Man is exposed; In Cases of this Nature, Eucrate was the Patron; and enjoyed this Part of the Royal Favour so much without being envied, that it was never inquired into by whose Means, what no one else cared for doing, was brought about.
‘One Evening when Pharamond came into the Apartment of Eucrate, he found him extremely dejected; upon which he asked (with a Smile which was natural to him) “What, is there any one too miserable to be relieved by Pharamond, that Eucrate is melancholy? I fear there is, answered the Favourite; a Person without, of a good Air, well Dressed, and tho’ a Man in the Strength of his Life, seems to faint under some inconsolable Calamity: All his Features seem suffused with Agony of Mind; but I can observe in him, that it is more inclined to break away in Tears than Rage. I asked him what he would have; he said he would speak to Pharamond. I desired his Business; he could hardly say to me, Eucrate, carry me to the King, my Story is not to be told twice, I fear I shall not be able to speak it at all.” Pharamond commanded Eucrate to let him enter; he did so, and the Gentleman approached the King with an Air which spoke him under the greatest Concern in what Manner to demean himself. The King, who had a quick Discerning, relieved him from the Oppression he was under; and with the most beautiful Complacency said to him, “Sir, do not add to that Load of Sorrow I see in your Countenance, the Awe of my Presence: Think you are speaking to your Friend; if the Circumstances of your Distress will admit of it, you shall find me so.” To whom the Stranger: “Oh excellent Pharamond, name not a Friend to the unfortunate Spinamont. I had one, but he is dead by my own Hand9; but, oh Pharamond, tho’ it was by the Hand of Spinamont, it was by the Guilt of Pharamond. I come not, oh excellent Prince, to implore your Pardon; I come to relate my Sorrow, a Sorrow too great for human Life to support: From henceforth shall all Occurrences appear Dreams or short Intervals of Amusement, from this one Affliction which has seiz’d my very Being: Pardon me, oh Pharamond, if my Griefs give me Leave, that I lay before you, in the Anguish of a wounded Mind, that you, good as you are, are guilty of the generous Blood spilt this Day by this unhappy Hand: Oh that it had perished before that Instant!” Here the Stranger paused, and recollecting his Mind, after some little Meditation, he went on in a calmer Tone and Gesture as follows.