A singular affair of honor.
[From the N. Y. Commercial.]
There arrived by the Edinburg on Saturday, from
Europe,
Captain C. Lee Moses, of
Saco, Maine, late
United States Astronomer, &c., who is yet the sufferer from the results of a singular and not unromantic affair of honor, which was fought on the Seine, near
Paris, on the 19th of August last.
The particulars of the affair are as follows:
‘
Capt. Moses, although a South Carolinian by birth, is a strong and devoted adherent to the cause of the
Union, and during his journey through
France made no hesitation in expressing his sympathies and feelings for the United States Government, and his abhorrence of the
Southern traitors and rebels.
Hon. F. G. Farquar, of
Virginia, meeting the
Captain at a hotel in
Paris, and knowing his parentage, reproached him in opprobrious terms as a renegade from his native State.
He charged him with being a traitor to the
South, and a man of no honor because he abandoned her when she needed all the services of her sons, particularly her seamen and navigators.
He took occasion in his vituperation, also, to cast imputations upon the character of Northern ladies, which, as the
Captain had married a
New England wife, was resented by a tremendous blow, entirely doubling up the chivalric
Virginian and laying him in ordinary for the remainder of the evening.
Farquar was taken in charge of by his friends, and when he had gathered his scattered faculties, sent a challenge to the
Captain by the hand of his friend
Mons. Stephanie.
The challenge received a prompt response, and not twenty-four hours from the first meeting of the combatants they stood on the banks of the Seine, prepared to take each other's lives.
The weapons selected were Derringer pistols.
The distance ten paces, the combatants being ordered to wheel and fire at the given signal.
Farquar was boastful and coarse in his manner and remarks.
The
Captain was calm, though determined.
All being ready,
Captain Moses handed two letters to his second--one addressed to the
American Consul at
Liverpool, and the other to his wife at
Saco, Maine, to be delivered in case he fell.
He then removed his coat, bandaged back the hair from his eyes, and took his position.
The word was then given and with a simultaneous report of both pistols the combatants fell to the ground.
Both were shot through the head.
Farquar received a mortal wound, with which he lingered several days, finally dying at a hamlet a few miles from
Paris, where he had been removed to avoid the noise of the city.
Before dying he solicited an interview with
Capt. Moses, made an acknowledgement of his base conduct, and solicited the latter's forgiveness, which was freely granted.
The
Captain, escaping from the
French police, took refuge at
Liverpool, where he was concealed by the American shippers of that city and sent on to New York by the Edinburg.
He is now at the
Stephens House, in this city, where he lies in a very critical condition.
The ball of his adversary passing immediately under the ear, caused a severe concussion of the brain, which was more dangerous from the fact that the
Captain had received a severe wound in the head in the
Mexican war. He bleeds frequently from the ears, and remains in a condition constantly threatening apoplexy.
’
