“It is with astonishment that I received your letter demanding an explanation of the ground upon which Lord Petersham now calls upon you for satisfaction. You have not contradicted, but encouraged a most scandalous and prejudicial report against his personal honour: he calls upon you positively to contradict it, or give him that satisfaction which is due to a gentleman falsely accused. The cause of your having been kept waiting during the day has clearly been explained; I must, therefore, now repeat the necessity of your immediately fixing upon the time and place of meeting to-morrow, or giving under your hand, for publication, a contradiction of that scandalous and false report before alluded to. Too much time has already been lost to attend to explanations that may, under some pretence, be withdrawn.
“From yours,
“Foley.
“P.S.—An immediate answer is expected to the above, directed to Brookes’s Club House, St. James’s-street.”
“To Lord Foley.
“I am perfectly of Lord Foley’s opinion, that too much time has been lost in this affair; but I beg to ask to whom is that delay to be ascribed? Since every circumstance has been made public, and since so much has passed between the parties, I considered it necessary, on that account alone, to demand ‘the distinct grounds on which Lord Petersham calls upon me.’ Lord Foley presents me with an alternative which is wholly out of the question. I am aware of no ‘false reports’ in currency against Lord Petersham, and if Lord Foley means that I could be capable of withdrawing any explanation I had once given, I must repel such an insinuation with indignation, and I will not permit any person to dictate that line of conduct to me which is alone consistent with my own honour to point out. I now, therefore, name three o’clock P.M., at Combe Wood, near Kingston, where I shall expect to meet Lord Petersham.
“T. Webster Wedderburne.”
“I have received your letter, appointing three o’clock to-morrow afternoon, to meet Lord Petersham at Combe Wood, which shall be punctually complied with.
“From yours,
“Foley.