40 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



did. Yet that duel ruined him ; he has been a broken-down man 

 ever since." 



" How is that ? " 



" Why, you see, sir, they had a dispute about the winning 

 horse. He said that Centipede came in first, and Travers replied 

 that if he had not staked so much money on Centipede he would 

 have seen straighter. This was a 'reflection on his honour, sir, that 

 no one was expected to stand. No, sir, he couldn't stand it. He 

 challenged Travers, and Travers fell at the first fire. It wouldn't 

 have been so bad, but Travers' old mother got wind of the duel 

 from some of those Puritan meddlers, and came riding down to 

 the field with her grey hair all streaming, and when she saw her 

 son dead she cursed him. I wasn't there, but those that were 

 there said it was a tough thing to see. He never got over it, sir. 

 It was a windy afternoon, about sunset, when the duel occurred, 

 and to the present time, when there comes up a hard wind about 

 that time of day, the poor fellow rides off as if the devil was after 

 him, and will not speak to man or beast." 



" What a diseased mind a man must have to fight a duel ! " said 

 the Doctor. 



"How can he help it, sir — is he going to have his honour 

 impugned, his character insulted ? He would fall so low that no 

 one would speak to him." 



" But he does not mend his character by killing a friend, and 

 haunting his conscience ? " 



" That is an accident inseparable from society. There are 

 certain wrongs which the pistol alone will redress, and the duel 

 puts the feeble gentleman on an equality with the greatest bully." 



" No," said the Doctor, his impassible nature gradually warming, 

 " it lowers the gentleman to a bully. If he gets shot, his honour dies 

 with him ; if he kills, he is a broken man — either way the wrong 

 is doubled ; and it is, after all, the bully that supports the insti- 

 tution." 



" No, sir; it is the gentleman that supports the system, and is 

 supported by it. What else gives the navy and army its character 

 and holds it together, sir — what protects the weak, and cows the 

 labouring poor whose strength would make him over-reaching — 



