himself
a young man, Valence must tell him before all his schoolmates that he
regretted having treated him as a child, and would henceforth regard him
as a young man.

Louis, who was waiting in his friend's room, was sent for. He was
introduced into the conclave assembled in the playground of the younger
pupils.

There Valence, to whom his comrades had dictated a speech carefully
debated among themselves to safeguard the honor of the Grands toward the
Petits, assured Louis that he deeply deplored the occurrence; that
he had treated him according to his age and not according to his
intelligence and courage, and begged him to excuse his impatience and to
shake hands in sign that all was forgotten.

But Louis shook his head.

"I heard my father, who is a colonel, say once," he replied, "that he
who receives a blow and does not fight is a coward. The first time I see
my father I shall ask him if he who strikes the blow and then apologizes
to avoid fighting is not more of a coward than he who received it."

The young fellows looked at each other. Still the general opinion was
against a duel which would resemble murder, and all, Bonaparte included,
were unanimously agreed that the child must be satisfied with what
Valence had said, for it represented their common opinion. Louis
retired, pale with anger, and sulked with his great friend, who, said
he, with imperturbable gravity, had sacrificed his honor.

The morrow, while the Grands were receiving their lesson in mathematics,
Louis slipped into the recitation-room, and while Valence was making a
demonstration on the blackboard, he approached him unperceived, climbed
on a stool to reach his face, and returned the slap he had received the
preceding day.

"There," said he, "now we are quits, and I have your apologies to boot;
as for me, I shan't make any, you may be quite sure of that."

The scandal was great. The act occurring in the professor's presence,
he was obliged to report it to the governor of the school, the Marquis
Tiburce Valence. The latter, knowing nothing of the events leading up
to the blow his nephew had received, sent for the delinquent and after
a terrible lecture informed him that he was no longer a member of the
school, and must be ready to return to his mother at Bourg that very
day. Louis replied that his things would be packed in ten minutes, and
he out of the school in fifteen. Of the blow he himself had received he
said not a word.

The repl