Select passages from the diary and letters of the late John Blackader, Esq.

XXIV ACCOUNT OF COL. BLACKADER ? S
challenge. In vain did he attempt to juftify him-
felf, and to fhew him that the words he had ufed,
on a very trifling occafion, were not capable of the'
eonftruftion he put upon them : in vain did he
allure him, that if he had given him juft provoca-
tion, he was ready to make any proper apology,
or any conceffion or reparation he had a right to
demand. In a paroxyfm of rage, deaf to the
voice of reafon, he rufhed on Colonel Blackader
fword in hand. He kept retreating, and expoftu-
lating for fame time, till at length, finding it im-
poffible to move him, and perceiving his own life
in danger, he was obliged to draw his fword in
his own defence. An unfortunate thruft from
the Colonel foon after put a period to his anta-
gonists life. Happily the conteft was feen from .
the ramparts of the town where it took place, by
fome foldiers, who bore witnefs to the neceffity
under which he was laid to defend himfelf, in
confequence of which, after a regular trial, he was
honourably acquitted.
The event, however, was too folemn t-o be for-
gotten, and the anniverfary of it, as I have heard,
was obferved during all his future life as a day of
fading and prayer. I have not been able to dif-
eover this in the diary, but the fad has been fo
confidently affirmed by more than one perfon con-
nected with him, as a circumftance handed down,
and well known by them all, that it cannot be
doubted.
At another period of his military life, but when