210
BENE PLANT.
friend, at the place which Captain Wilthorpe pro- posed?”
“None whatever.”
“It now remains with me to name the terms on which Captain Stewart will encounter you.”
“Ah, bah! as to the terms, Wilthorpe and yourself will settle them on the ground.”
“Pardon me, sir; Mr. Wilthorpe is a man with whom I wish to have as little intercourse as possible. I must, therefore, tell you how you are to fight.” I then briefly related to him the preparations Stewart was making to insure his own and his antagonist’s death. D’Egville’s face grew as dark as a thunder- cloud.
“I fight as a gentleman; I never turn butcher; I
will not agree to those terms!”
“On no other will my friend meet you: you are an excellent shot—he is not; he, therefore, proposes to equalize the chances, or, rather, to wash out your insult and his dishonour with the life’s blood of both. Re- fuse to meet him on those terms, and there is no spe- cies of degradation but Captain Stewart will heap upon you. Nay, sir, look not at me so menacingly, but give me your answer.” D'Egville eyed me from head to foot with a glance of contempt. I added, “I came not here, sir, to have a personal altercation; but to know from you whether you dare meet my friend on those desperate, but fair conditions; or do you refuse his challenge?”
“T refuse a challenge? Francois, refuse a challenge? and on Ais own terms.”
“Precisely at six, behind Iguanna rock.”
“T will be there.”
I bowed formally, and left him. As I quitted the house, I heard him call out, “Jeaw Pierre, bring me my pistols; Louis, run and call Vilthorpe; he is next door, at the billiard-table.”
At six, the parties met; that is, D'Egville, Wilthorpe, Stewart, and myself, were on the appointed ground, behind an immense black rock, on the sea-coast; in this place had been dug by Stewart's people a grave capable of holding two bodies. The earth or sand that came out of it, had been removed to some dis- tance. It was across the grave that the combatants were to hold a handkerchief, and fire at a signal; es-
I, Henri D'Egville, of Cape
I will meet your friend,
cape from death was hopeless. The glorious sun was joy I ever saw.
just setting; Stewart took a melancholy look at the orb
of day, assured of its being his last; methought I caw
his lips move in inaudible prayer, yet his mien wes
firm; that of D'Egville was sullen and immovable.
The pistols of our principals were loaded by Wilthorpe
and myself. The Columbian officer proposed tossing up a dollar to determine who should give the word of command to fire; to this I agreed, and he gave me a coin to decide the wager. I was suspicious of this man from what I had heard of him, and, therefore, glanced at the piece. It was fortunate that I used
kerchief was held by the parties across the grave, and
the pistols were placed in their hands.
“Gentlemen, are you ready?” _
“Yes!” was their reply, in low deep voices. I cast a look at the parties. Stewart’s looks were calm and firm; D’Egville’s eyes gleamed wildly; his teeth were clenched, and he held his breath, as if he mechanical- ly tried to screw his “courage to the sticking pitch.” A tremulous emotion was, however, visible on his lips, which increased. I paused,—and his agitation be- came greater;—I resolved not to give the fatal signal for a few moments. I still paused;—It was as I hoped —the whole of the Haytian’s features became distort- ed—his teeth now chattered,—at first the handker- chief and the pistol dropped irom his paralyzed hand —his knees shook—his legs refused to support him— he reeled, and fell into the grave!
There he lay on the ground, having the appearance of one attacked at once by palsy and ague. Stewart sprang across the grave: but, seeing the humiliating position of his enemy, threw down his pistol, and, with an aptitude, tone, and manner, that 1 never saw sur- passed for dignity, exclaimed—* Poor fallen wretch! you are too much an object of pity to excite wrath.”
He was, indeed, a fallen wretch!—fallen as Satan —but how unlike the dauntless “fiend that Milton drew.” Henri D’Egville, the dreaded duellist,—the slayer of twenty men—who delighted in the prospect of a mortal combat more than a miser joyed at gaining a treasure, lay on the earth which his presence had too Jong polluted—its vilest and most despised crea- ture—shuddering like a falcon that I have seen within the reach of a serpent, while the terror-struck bird had neither the power of defence or flight. His acquaint- ances (friends this man had not) declared that his pa- roxysm of panic was occasioned by a long course of ill- health and debauchery—whether it was entirely cor- rect [ am unable to say. I hurried Stewart to his boat, whieh was some three hundred yards off, and we em- barked—leaving the prostrated D’Egville to the care of his friend.
Two of the boat’s crew had been (concealed from our view) spectators to the whole of the transaction. So that, when we got on board, they related all that had taken place. The Planter’s crew, who adored their Captain, received Stewart with the most heartfelt In spite of his remonstrances, they carried him round the decks on their shoulders, huzza- ing like madmen. The news of the event spread through a whole convoy of merchantmen in the har- bour. The crews of each vessel gave us three cheers, which was replied to by the Planter’s.
BENE PLANT.
Tue seeds of this plant seem to have been introduced
into our southern states by the negroes from Africa,
!and is cultivated by them in almost every patch, or
this caution, for it had two heads, and no reverse; it negro garden, to a limited extent; and is considered
was the halves of two split dollars, so neatly joined by them as a specific in all cases of dysentery, diarrhoea
that the eye could not detect it, but by looking care- and cholera. For this purpose, about two quarts of
fully at the rim. Wilihorpe, amongst other of his ac- cold water are put into a vessel, two green leaves are
complishments, was a professed gambler; the trick of then taken from the bene plant, and the water kept
joining two heads, or reverses, of a coin, is an old one stirring with them for about five minutes, by which
among the hopeful fraternity, called blacklegs. I felt time the water will have assumed nearly the consist-
certain that something unfair was to be attempted in ence of starch, perfectly colourless and tasteless. Of
giving the fatal word; I knew not, nor have I since this water the patient is made to drink freely and
discovered, of what nature this was to be. Without
seeming to notice the cheat, I turned the ruse against
himself, by giving him, with dissembled carelessness,
his dollar, and requesting him to toss it; he bit his
lips with concealed passion, but could not refuse; I
called “head!” and, of course, won. The growl of
D'Egville, and his look of gloomy despair, confirmed
Tay suspicions, and convinced me that he was privy to
the plan, whatever it was, of his second. The hand-
ofien, with the most beneficial effects in those com-
plains. In this climate, the seed should be sown about
the first of April in a bot bed, and may be transplanted
into the open air about the first of May, in rows about
twelve or fifteen inches apart. As it is only cultivated
as a medical plant, a few seeds »ill probably be enough
for any one family. Whether it will preserve its
medical qualities after it is dried, I am not informed.
—Genesee Farmer.
