re carried forcibly
off the field by their marvelling and horrified seconds. Later on,
besieged by comrades avid of details, these gentlemen declared that they
could not have allowed that sort of hacking to go on. Asked whether the
quarrel was settled this time, they gave it out as their conviction that
it was a difference which could only be settled by one of the parties
remaining lifeless on the ground. The sensation spread from army to army
corps, and penetrated at last to the smallest detachments of the troops
cantoned between the Rhine and the Save. In the cafes in Vienna where
the masters of Europe took their ease it was generally estimated from
details to hand that the adversaries would be able to meet again in
three weeks' time, on the outside. Something really transcendental in
the way of duelling was expected.

These expectations were brought to naught by the necessities of the
service which separated the two officers. No official notice had been
taken of their quarrel. It was now the property of the army, and not
to be meddled with lightly. But the story of the duel, or rather their
duelling propensities, must have stood somewhat in the way of their
advancement, because they were still captains when they came together
again during the war with Prussia. Detached north after Jena with
the army commanded by Marshal Bernadotte, Prince of Ponte-Corvo, they
entered Lubeck together. It was only after the occupation of that town
that Captain Feraud had leisure to consider his future conduct in view
of the fact that Captain D'Hubert had been given the position of third
aide-de-camp to the marshal. He considered it a great part of a night,
and in the morning summoned two sympathetic friends.

"I've been thinking it over calmly," he said, gazing at them with
bloodshot, tired eyes. "I see that I must get rid of that intriguing
personage. Here he's managed to sneak onto the personal staff of the
marshal. It's a direct provocation to me. I can't tolerate a situation
in which I am exposed any day to receive an order through him, and God
knows what order, too! That sort of thing has happened once before--and
that's once too often. He understands this perfectly, never fear. I
can't tell you more than this. Now go. You know what it is you have to
do."

This encounter took place outside the town of Lubeck, on very open
ground selected with special care in deference to the general sense of
the cavalry division belonging to th