FATAL GERMAN DUEL.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 193, 14 August 1909, Page 15

FATAL GERMAN DUEL.

YOUNG OFFICER'S TRAGIC END. The false pretence still kept up In Germany 'that duelling Is iliegal is once more exposed In a recent encounter, in which Lieirt. Zwitzers was killed. The duel took place at Halle between Lieut. Granier, who was the challenger, and Lieut. Zwitzers, the challenged. The conditions, as arrung ed by the seconds, were: - 1. Ten paces distance. 2. An allowance of thirty seconds to take aim. 3. Alternative shooting until one of the combatants be disabled. 4. The challenger to have first shot. Two surgeons were present, and the duelling ground was kept by two detachments of troops. At the adjoining railway station a locomotive and an ambulance ear, both belonging to 'ibe Prussian State Railways, stood in readiness to convey the combatant who should fall to the nearest hospital at Halberstadt. Lieut. Granier, as the injured party ana challenger, opened the duel. He had' half-a-minute In which to shoot down a man standing motionless only ten paces from him. Apparently he aimed with extreme care at bis adversary's head, but the bullet failed to hit Its mark, though only very narrowly. It was now Lieut. Zwitzers' turn. He presented and pulled the trigged, but the pistol missed fire. According to the rules of the game this counted as a shot, so the duellists took fresh weapons from the hands of their seconds and began again. This time Lieut. Granier aimed better. Lieut. Zwitzers was hit in the right chest, and at once fell in a heap on the ground. The bullet had passed tnrough a lung, and lodged in one of the vertebrae. The wounded man was curried to the attendant train and conveyed to Halberstadt, where he expired a clay aud a-half later In the arms of bis heartbroken wife, a young woman who Is shortly expecting to become a motlier for the second lime. \ CAUSE OF THE QUARREL. And the crime, which has thus been explated with a youthful life aud the happiness of a family? According to the version based on information which comes from connections of the deceased, it was nothing more serious than an attempted kiss. On the Emperor's birthday Lieut. Zwitzers attended a ball given by his regiment In celebration of the occasion. As he happened to have been promoted from sub-lieutenant on the same day, he had a double cause for indulging lv a Jollification. He appears to have drunk rather more than was consistent with a severe regard for social punctilio, nnd whon the party broke up was in a condition of somewhat boisterous hilarity. Among 'the guests was a young lady affianced to Lieut. Granier, and the duty of seeing her fell to Lieut Zwitzers. Ou the way, under the influence of the liquor which he had swallowed, he so far forgot the obligations incumbent on an officer, a geutleman, and an escort as to attempt to kiss his eonipaniou. She vigorously and successfully repelled his approaches, lie 'then became conscious of the gravity of his fault, and apologised to the lady, who agreed to forgive it. They arranged ou her parents' doorstep that nothing was to be said to anyone about the incident, and there the matter was left. At Whitsuntide, however, seventeen weeks late, Lieut. Granier came to Blankenburg on leave, and his fiancee, for some reason or other, thought It best to tell him what had happened. The result was a challenge and the duel described above. Previously the matter bad come before one of those curious bodies know.n as Courts of Honour, and tlie conditions of 'the encounter were sanctioned by tills tribunal. Lieut. Zwitzers was asked by the court If the young woman had done anything to lead up to bis indiscretion. It being added that she denied having given him tlie least encouragement. To this he replied: "If the lady says that, then It is so." The above aceoun't appears to be based chieflly upon Lieut. Zwitzers' farewell letter to his wife, written on the eve of thfe duel. ---._,-..