aration he made while they ascended the ramparts.

His attendant perceiving the physician and his second at the distance
of a hundred paces before them, gave him notice of their appearance,
and advised him to make ready, and behave like a man. Pallet in vain
endeavoured to conceal his panic, which discovered itself in a universal
trepidation of body, and the lamentable tone in which he answered this
exhortation of Pipes, saying, "I do behave like a man; but you would
have me act the part of a brute. Are they coming this way?" When Tom
told him that they had faced about, and admonished him to advance,
the nerves of his arm refused their office, he could not hold out his
pistol, and instead of going forward, retreated with an insensibility
of motion; till Pipes, placing himself in the rear, set his own back to
that of his principal, and swore he should not budge an inch farther in
that direction.

While the valet thus tutored the painter, his master enjoyed the terrors
of the physician, which were more ridiculous than those of Pallet,
because he was more intent upon disguising them. His declaration to
Pickle in the morning would not suffer him to start any objections when
he received the challenge; and finding that the young gentleman made
no offer of mediating the affair, but rather congratulated him on the
occasion, when he communicated the painter's billet, all his efforts
consisted in oblique hints, and general reflections upon the absurdity
of duelling, which was first introduced among civilised nations by the
barbarous Huns and Longobards. He likewise pretended to ridicule the use
of firearms, which confounded all the distinctions of skill and address,
and deprived a combatant of the opportunity of signalizing his personal
prowess.

Pickle assented to the justness of his observations; but, at the same
time, represented the necessity of complying with the customs of this
world, ridiculous as they were, on which a man's honour and reputation
depend: so that, seeing no hopes of profiting by that artifice, the
republican's agitation became more and more remarkable; and he proposed,
in plain terms, that they should contend in armour, like the combatants
of ancient days; for it was but reasonable that they should practise
the manner of fighting, since they adopted the disposition of those iron
times.

Nothing could have afforded more diversion to our hero than the sight of
two such duellists cased in iron; and he wish