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ANOTHER DUEL.—SALICETI DIES.

399

as to have escaped the notice of the seconds, which wouldhave saved his adversary’s life, who happened to he theone who died.

About this time another noted duel took place betweenGeneral Caulaincourt and the Colonel Durand, of whom Ihave been speaking : they fought with pistols. Caulain-court received the fire of his opponent, who missed him.Returning- it, he lodged his ball over the right eye ofpoor Durand, which passed just over the “ tentorial ” mem-brane to the back of the head, where it remained lodgedwithout pressing on the cerebellum. Durand recovered andre-associated harmoniously with Caulaincourt: but eightmonths afterward, as Durand was straining in pulling onhis boots, he felt a sudden shock in his head, of which hehad but just time to complain before he became insensibleand shortly after died. The head was opened, and the ballwas found fallen from the lodgment and mucilaginousnidus it had formed, and pressing on the cerebellum. Someeffusion of blood had also taken place.

During the absence of Murat, attending the marriage ofthe Emperor , his minister, the early friend and countrymanof Napoleon , Cristofaro Saliceti, after dining at the houseof his reputed enemy Maghella, then Prefect of Police, wassuddenly seized with a mortal illness, having all the symp-toms of poison. Here again do we see the usefulness ofcoroners’ inquests! Maghella may have been quite inno-cent of the crime very generally imputed to him. I thinkthat a proper investigation would have made his innocenceappear as certain to the public, as it seems to have been tothe authorities and to the relations of Saliceti , who was saidto have died of a peculiarly malignant typhus. However,it was generally remarked that he who had escaped thesixty pounds of gunpowder of Queen Caroline , Lowe andCo., had fallen by a cup of Maghella coffee !