[3] We have not been to find any account of this combat in Napier's History of the Peninsular War. The historian overlooked it.
CHAPTER IX.
Captain Bragg, with an appetite rendered voracious by his exercise in the open air at so early an hour, made a hearty breakfast on an abundant supply of ham and eggs, which Lord Byron has said is a dish good enough for an emperor. Having finished his repast, he arose from the table, and going to his apartment, proceeded to prepare the placard in which he intended to make known the poltroonery of Botts to the public. When a man's mind is full of his subject, composition is performed with ease and rapidity. The words roll off from the end of the pen as naturally as water flows from a perennial fountain. Bragg's writing instrument galloped across the paper and soon covered the foolscap with a terrible denunciation of the unfortunate Botts.
The indignant duelist hurried off to a printing-office, and said to the proprietor, "I want you to print this immediately."
"Will you be so good as to furnish me with your name?" said the proprietor.
"Of what consequence is my name to you?" said Bragg. "I want you to print the advertisement, and here is the money."
"Can't do it," said the proprietor. "Can't put anything in my paper without the name of the party who furnishes it; advertisement or no advertisement,—paid for or not,—I can't print it."
"Why not?" said Bragg.