"It showed on his brow, the dark shadow of fatality and doom, that night when he sat beneath the candles in his dining room and turned a wine glass in his fingers while he talked to his son. The railroad was finished, and today he had been elected to the legislature after a hard and bitter fight, and on his brow lay the shadow of his doom and a little weariness. 'And so' he said, 'Redlaw'll kill me tomorrow, for I shall be unarmed. I'm tired of killing men . . ." (6-7).

Redlaw does end up killing the Colonel. Later the Colonel's son, Old Bayard, ordered the following epitaph on the Colonel's grave:

Colonel John Sartoris, C.S.A.
1823-1876
Soldier, Statesman, Citizen of the World
For man's enlightenment he lived
By man's ingratitude he died

Pause here, son of sorrow; remember death.


"This inscription had caused some furore on the part of the slayer's family, and a formal protest followed. But in complying with opinion, Old Bayard had his revenge: he caused the line "by man's ingratitude he died' to be chiselled crudely out and added beneath it: 'Fell at the hand of ____Redlaw, Aug. 4, 1876" (428).

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