te regret that "he must abide the
consequences" simply meant fight, as his language had for a space of five
years.

A challenge was sent by the hand of Pendleton. Hamilton accepted. Being
the challenged man (for duelists are always polite), he was given the
choice of weapons. He chose pistols at ten paces.

At seven o'clock on the morning of July Eleventh, Eighteen Hundred Four,
the participants met on the heights of Weehawken, overlooking New York
Bay. On a toss Hamilton won the choice of position and his second also won
the right of giving the word to fire.

Each man removed his coat and cravat; the pistols were loaded in their
presence. As Pendleton handed his pistol to Hamilton he asked, "Shall I
set the hair-trigger?"

"Not this time," replied Hamilton. With pistols primed and cocked, the men
were stationed facing each other, thirty feet apart.

Both were pale, but free from any visible nervousness or excitement.
Neither had partaken of stimulants. Each was asked if he had anything to
say, or if he knew of any way by which the affair could be terminated
there and then.

Each answered quietly in the negative. Pendleton, standing fifteen feet to
the right of his principal, said: "One--two--three--present!" and as the
last final sounding of the letter "t" escaped his teeth, Burr fired,
followed almost instantly by the other.

Hamilton arose convulsively on his toes, reeled, and Burr, dropping his
smoking pistol, sprang towards him to support him, a look of regret on his
face.

Van Ness raised an umbrella over the fallen man, and motioned Burr to be
gone.

The ball passed through Hamilton's body, breaking a rib, and lodging in
the second lumbar vertebra.

The bullet from Hamilton's pistol cut a twig four feet above Burr's head.

While he was lying on the ground Hamilton saw his pistol near and said,
"Look out for that pistol, it is loaded--Pendleton knows I did not intend
to fire at him!"

Hamilton died the following day, first declaring that he bore Colonel Burr
no ill-will.

Colonel Burr said he very much regretted the whole affair, but the
language and attitude of Hamilton forced him to send a challenge or remain
quiet and be branded as a coward. He fully realized before the meeting
that if he killed Hamilton it would be political death for him, too.

At the time of the deed Burr had no family; Hamilton had a wife and seven
children, his oldest son having fallen in a duel fought three years before