Phenix Gazette

Fatal Duel at Boulogne.-Death of Mr. Berkeley Bond, at Boulogne.--This fatal occurrence took place on Thursday, the 11th inst. Mr. Bond met his adversary, a Belgian officer, of the name of Esse, at four o'clock in the morning, in the neighbourhood of Capecur, which is about a mile distant from the town of Boulogne. He was shot in the groin, the ball passing nearly through the body, and lodging near the back-bone, whence it was cut out by a French surgeon, notwithstanding which, Mr. Bond died in great agony at eleven o'clock on Thursday morning, seven hours after the meeting. The dispute out of which this melancholy affair arose, originated in a debt at cards, which being claimed by Mr. Esse, was denied by Mr. Bond. The "lie direct" was given by one of the parties, retorted by a blow from the other, and an offer of honourable satisfaction. Mr. Esse having no friends at Boulogne, called upon a British naval officer to attend him. The parties first (on Wednesday evening) met at the Colonade, on the heights, but were disturbed by the police. They then met at the place already mentioned, and the manner of settling the duel is represented as remarkable. The parties were placed at 20 paces distant, and sticks were planted in the ground between the combatants, ten paces from each other, with liberty to the principals to advance upon each other, keeping within that limit. Mr. Esse, pointing his pistol steady at his adversary, from the moment of the signal, did advance till he reached the prescribed limit, and then fired with fatal effect. Mr. Bond, as our informant believes, did not fire at all. As the wound was instantly pronounced mortal by Dr. Allatt, an English physician, called in on the occasion, the survivors instantly fled, the principal to England in an open boat, and the two seconds in a carriage and four, for the Belgian frontier.

The deceased was a man well known in this country. He had an attachment and a family of five children by the sister of an admired English actress, who has lately figured in two elopements, and been the subject of a Divorce Bill in the House of Lords. Independently of this connexion, it is alleged that Mr. Bond has left a widow to deplore his untimely end. The death-bed scene, with his five children and their mother assembled to witness the last agonies, was of a most distressing nature. The deceased is said, with his dying breath, to have declared that the money claimed from him as a debt was not due. The French authorities have instituted a rigid inquiry into all the circumstances.