Sicilies was cancelled and instead he was transferred to Lisbon in November 1859, where he served until retirement in 1866. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in September 1856. In July 1866, the month following his retirement, he was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order (GCB). Death of Pushkin In 1837, the esteemed Russian poet Alexander Pushkin asked Magenis, then attaché to the British Consulate-General in Saint Petersburg, to be his second at his doomed duel with his brother-in-law Baron d'Anthès van Heeckeren, a member of Russia's Imperial Knight Guards. Pushkin had faced scandalous rumours that his beautiful young wife, Natalia, was having an affair with d'Anthès de Heeckeren, who had recently married her sister. The scandal escalated to a duel between the two men. Pushkin saw Magenis as a very decent man and respected him for his honest disposition. Magenis agreed to discuss the matter with d'Anthès's second, Viscount Olivier d'Archiac (1811–1848), attaché at the French Embassy; however, since Magenis was not formally Pushkin's second, d'Archiac refused any discussion. Magenis searched for Pushkin, however, he had already left for home. Afraid of waking Pushkin's wife, Natalia, Magenis sent Pushkin a note at 2 o'clock in the morning. He declined to be his second because the possibility of a peaceful settlement had already been quashed, and the first responsibility of the second was to try to bring about a reconciliation. Thus Pushkin failed to obtain a second. Thus on 8 February 837, the duel went ahead at Saint Petersburg's Black River, where Pushkin was fatally injured and died two days later. D'Anthès de Heeckeren was promptly arrested but was pardoned by Tsar Nicholas I. He was discharged from the Russian Army and deported along with his wife. Notes References 1800s births 1867 deaths People from County Fermanagh Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Portugal Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Sweden Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Switzerland Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath 19th-century British people