“My dearest Friend,—You bid me pity you. Pity me much more, who have to sustain the thought of having brought you, your dear wife and family, into such a situation as this. God grant that this man may live!
“All the world must agree that you acted nobly, yet all will think that you did much more than was right. . . .
“I say nothing as to my feelings in thinking what might have been. That thought indeed deprives
1 Scott’s “Letters,” ii. 113. The account in John Bull, February 16, 1821, says that the suggestion of a nocturnal meeting came from Mr. Scott. Horatio Smith confirms this, in an unquoted part of his narrative already cited. At the inquest a carpenter gave evidence that Mr. Scott shook hands with Mr. Christie, as he lay on the shutter which Christie had brought. Dr. Darling, who attended Mr. Scott, said that, according to his account, Mr. Christie, before the first fire, called out, “Mr. Scott, you must not stand there. I see your head above the horizon, you give me an advantage.” Mr. Scott described Mr. Christie as “very kind to him after he was wounded.” At the inquest, Mr. Pettigrew, the surgeon on the field, said that Mr. Patmore, some days after the event, remarked, “Mr. Christie’s friend was bound, after the fire, to have communicated to him the conduct pursued by Mr. Christie (firing in the air), of which he, Mr. Patmore, was entirely ignorant,” though Mr. Scott heard Traill’s remark, and asked a question on it. |
| THE DUKE’S VERDICT | 277 |
