FATAL DUEL IN MADRID.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 4938, 12 August 1887, Page 3

FATAL DUEL IN MADRID.

♦ A duel was fought on June 13 in the grounds of the Duke of Ossuna's palace, near Madrid, between an army surgeon and a young barrister. Pistols were used without result at thirty paces, but the second time at twenty paces the barrister dropped senseless, and died on the 10th. The duel has excited an unusual amount of interest, both principals being wellknown members of Madrid society, while an equally well-known married lady is mixed up in the affair. Very recently the young men quarrelled about the lady, when a duel was arranged. The lawyei

• being lame and unable to use a rapier on equal terms with his antagonist, it was i decided that the duel should be fought . with pistols. The conditions were for each to fire the first shot at thirty paces ; and turn to advance and firo again at will. The first shots had no effect, but on the second exchange the lawyer fell moruily wounded, the ball having perforated his liver. The wounded man was at once removed to his house, and the affair becoming known to the police, the judicial authorities went to the house and interrogated the dying man. He declared that the story of the duel was false, and that he had accidentally wounded himself while examining a pistol. Notwithstanding the transparent falsity of the statement, it has been so far sufficient to save the other principal and the seconds — a lieu-tenant-colonel, two majors, and a lawyer — from imprisonment. The husband of the lady who is compromised in the affair is still ignorant of the nature of the quarrel that led to the duel, which is the talk of tha town.