you!"

"Will you be my second?" asked I of him.

"_Ma foi!_ if you wish it," said he, with a shrug of the shoulders and
a glance of such tender pity that could not be mistaken. "Let us follow
them!"

And so saying, we strolled leisurely on after the others, who, now
passing through a small wicket, entered a little wood that adjoined the
garden. A few minutes more brought us to an open space, which I rightly
guessed had been often before the scene of similar affairs.

I had never witnessed a duel in my life. I knew nothing of the
formalities which were observed in its arrangement; and the questions
which I asked the captain so palpably betrayed my ignorance that he
stared at me with mute astonishment.

"Have you any friends, boy," asked he, after a pause, "to whom I can
write for you?"

"Not one," said I.

"All the better!" rejoined he, tersely.

I nodded an assent; and from that moment we understood each other
perfectly. No lengthy explanation could more plainly have declared that
he thought I was doomed, and that I concurred in the foreboding.

"My sabre will be too heavy for you, boy," said he; "I 'll see and
borrow a lighter one from one of my comrades. Chasteler, will you lend
me yours?"

"_Parbleu!_ that will I not. I'd never wear it again if used in such a
quarrel."

"Right, Chasteler," cried another; "I hope there is only one amongst us
could forget an insult offered to the whole regiment."

"I wore my epaulette when you were in the cradle, Lieutenant Hautmain,"
said the old captain; "so don't pretend to teach me the feelings that
become a soldier. There, boy," he added, drawing his sabre as he spoke,
"take mine."

By this time my antagonist had divested himself of coat and neckcloth,
and stood, with open shirt-breast and the sleeve of his sword-arm rolled
up to the shoulder, before me.

He was as much an overmatch for me in strength and vigor as in skill,
and I felt an acute sense of shame in pitting myself against him. As
he swung his sabre jauntily to and fro with the dexterous facility of a
practised swordsman, I could read the confidence with which he entered
upon the encounter.

"It is the first time you ever handled a sword, I think?" said the
captain, as he assisted me off with my coat.

"The very first," said I, endeavoring, I know not how successfully, to
smile.

"_Parbleu!_" cried he, aloud. "This is no better than a murder! The boy
knows nothing of fencing; he never had a sabre