“Sparks, and Thomas Green Davidson,
  Rascals by nature and profession: 
  Dey can bos go to hell
  Wid Colonel Bob Hailles.”

I saw that the group would, with Marigny, soon approach me, and made haste to reply.  It was only a day or two before we were to adjourn.  When they came, and the squib was read, I read the following reply: 

  “Dear Marigny, we’re soon to part,
    So let that parting be in peace: 
  We’ve not been angered much in heart,
    But e’en that little soon shall cease.

  “When you are sleeping with the dead,
    The spars we’ve had I’ll not forget: 
  A warmer heart, or weaker head,
    On earth, I’ll own, I never met.

  “And on your tomb inscribed shall be,
    In letters of your favorite brass,
  Here lies, O Lord! we grieve to see,
    A man in form, in head an ass.”

He arched his brow, and, without speaking, retired.  An hour after, he came to me, and said:  “Suppose you write no more poetry.  I shall stop.  You can call me a villain, a knave, a great rascal:  every gentleman have dat said about him.  Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, General Jackson, all have been call so.  You can say dat; but I tell you, sir, I not like to be call ass.”

He was the aggressor, and, though offended, was too chivalrous to quarrel.  He had fought nineteen duels, and I did not want to quarrel either.

For many of his latter years he was destitute and miserable.  He had seen all his compeers pass away, and he felt that he was in the way of a generation who knew nothing of him, or his history, and who cared nothing for either.  At nearly ninety years of age he died in extreme poverty.  Nature had done much for Bernard Marigny.  His mind was of no ordinary stamp.  He was a natural orator, abounding in humor and wit, and was the life of society.  His person was symmetry itself, about five feet ten inches, and admirably proportioned; and, to the day of his death, he was truly a handsome man, so symmetrical and well-preserved were his features, and the sparkling light in his eyes.  He long enjoyed the luxuries of life, and lived to lament its follies in indigence and imbecility.

Of all the Creole population, A.B.  Roman was, at this time, the most prominent, and the most talented.  In very early life he was elected Governor of the State, and discharged the duties of the office with great ability, and, after Claiborne, with more satisfaction to the people than any man who ever filled the office.  The Constitution did not admit of his being elected a second time as his own successor, but he might be again chosen to fill the chair after the four years’ service of another.  He was elected to a second term, and when it expired, he was chosen president of the draining company, in which office he rendered most important services to the city, in planning and effecting a system of drainage which relieved the city of the immense swamp immediately in its rear.