This is the history of the quarrel between Slade and Jules Reni, as I have received it from a gentleman familiar with all its phases from its commencement to its close. The aggravated form in which the narrative has been laid before the public, charging Slade with having tied his victim to a tree, and firing at him at different times during the day, taunting him meantime, and subjecting him to a great variety of torture, before killing him, is false in every particular. Jules was not only the first, but the most constant aggressor. In a community favored with laws and an organized police, Slade would not have been justified in the course he pursued, yet, under our most favored institutions, more flagrant cases than this daily escape conviction. In the situation he accepted, an active business man, intrusted with duties which required constant exposure of his person both night and day, what else could he do, to save his own life, than kill the person who threatened and sought an opportunity to take it? Law would not protect him. The promise which Jules had made with the halter about his neck, to leave the country, did not prevent his return to avenge himself upon Slade. It was impossible to avoid a collision with him; and to kill him under such circumstances was as clear an act of self-defence, as if, in a civilized community, he had been slain by his adversary with his pistol at his heart. Slade’s career, relieved from the infamy of this transaction, presents no feature for severe public condemnation, until several years after its occurrence. He retained his position as division agent, discharging his duties acceptably, and was, in fact, regarded by the company as their most efficient man. When the route was changed from Laramie to the Cherokee Trail, he removed his headquarters to a beautiful nook in the Black Hills, which he named Virginia Dale, after his wife, whom he loved fondly. His position as division agent often involved him unavoidably in difficulty with ranchemen and saloon-keepers. At one time, after the violation of a second request to sell no liquor to his employees, Slade riddled a wayside saloon, and poured the liquor into the street. On another occasion, seemingly without provocation, he and his men took possession of the sutler’s quarters at Fort Halleck, and so conducted themselves as to excite the animosity of the officers of the garrison, who determined to punish him for the outrage. Following him in the coach to Denver, they arrested and would not release him, until the company assured them he should leave the division.