The South-Carolinian stepped quickly aside, and dexterously threw his foot before the other, who—­his blow not meeting the expected resistance—­was unable to recover himself, and fell headlong to the floor.  The Colonel turned on his heel, and was walking quietly away, when the sharp report of a pistol sounded through the apartment, and a ball tore through the top of his boot, and lodged in the wall within two feet of where I was standing.  With a spring, quick and sure as the tiger’s, the Colonel was on the drunken man.  Wrenching away the weapon, he seized the fellow by the necktie, and drawing him up to nearly his full hight, dashed him at one throw to the other side of the room.  Then raising the revolver he coolly leveled it to fire.

But a dozen strong men were on him.  The pistol was out of his hand, and his arms were pinioned in an instant; while cries of ‘Fair play, sir!’ ‘He’s drunk!’ ‘Don’t hit a man when he’s down,’ and other like exclamations, came from all sides.

‘Give me fair play, you d—­d North-Carolina hounds,’ cried the Colonel, struggling violently to get away, ’and I’ll fight the whole posse of you.’

’One’s ‘nuff for you, ye d—­d fire-eatin’ ‘ristocrat,’ said a long, lean, bushy-haired, be-whiskered individual who was standing near the counter:  ’ef ye wan’t ter fight, I’ll ’tend to yer case to onst.  Let him go, boys,’ he continued as he stepped toward the Colonel, and parted the crowd that had gathered around him:  ’give him the shootin’-iron, and let’s see ef he’ll take a man thet’s sober.’

I saw serious trouble was impending, and stepping forward, I said to the last speaker:  ’My friend, you have no quarrel with this gentleman.  He has treated that man only as you would have done.’

‘P’raps thet’s so; but he’s a d—­d hound of a Seseshener thet’s draggin’ us all to h—­l; it’ll do th’ cuntry good to git quit of one on ’em.’

’Whatever his politics are, he’s a gentleman, sir, and has done you no harm—­let me beg of you to let him alone.’

‘Don’t beg any thing for me, Mr. K——­’ growled the Colonel through his barred teeth, ’I’ll fight the d—­d corn-cracker, and his whole race, at once.’

‘No you won’t, my friend.  For the sake of those at home you won’t,’ I said, as I took him by the arm, and partly led, partly forced, him toward the door.

‘And who in h—­l ar ye?’ asked the ‘corn-cracker,’ planting himself squarely in my way.

‘I’m on the same side of politics with you, Union to the core!’ I replied.

‘Ye ar!  Union!  Then giv us yer fist,’ said he, grasping me by the hand, ’by——­it does a feller good to see a man dressed in yer cloes thet haint ’fraid ter say he’s Union, so close to South-Car’lina, tu, as this ar!  Come, hev a drink:  come, boys—­all round—­let’s liquor!’

’Excuse me now, my dear fellow—­some other time I’ll be glad to join you.’

‘Jest as ye say, but thar’s my fist, enyhow.’