use to make her
acquaintance, or refrain from perusing the letters she wrote to him,
or, finally, prevent that forward young person from falling into his
arms, and bursting into tears, with her head on his shoulder. The
moment was, however, ill-chosen for so dramatic a scene, inasmuch as
it occurred under the very noses of her father and her _fiance_, both
of whom, unknown to the fair wanderer, had followed Rosalie, on
purpose to find out where it was she walked day after day so
perseveringly.

My uncle had scarcely recovered his surprise at the first
demonstration ere he was staggered by the second--"_Malheureuse!_"
exclaimed the father; "_Perfide!_" groaned the lover; "_Traitre!_"
shouted the marquis; "_Lache!_" growled the general. My uncle turned
from one to the other, completely at a nonplus, Rosalie in the
meantime clinging to his breast and imploring him passionately to save
her! My uncle's waistcoat came undone--his real mistress's miniature
dropped out; the sight added fuel to the fire of the belligerents.
Nothing would satisfy them but his blood. In vain he protested, in
vain he swore, in extremely bad French, that he had no _penchant_ for
Rosalie, had never made love to her in his life; in fact, rather
disliked her than otherwise.

The Frenchmen _sacreed_, and fumed, and stormed at him, and jostled
him, till my uncle lost all patience, shook himself clear of Rosalie,
who fell fainting to the ground, knocked each of his adversaries down
in turn, and walked home to his quarters, very much disgusted with the
world in general, and the wilfulness of French young ladies in
particular. Of course he knew perfectly well it was not to end here.
He sent for Grape, then a brother subaltern, and placed his honour in
that officer's hands.

No message came for two days, that interval having elapsed in
consequence of a deadly quarrel between the marquis and the general as
to who should take the thing up first. Grape firmly believes they
decided the matter with small swords; another version is, that they
played piquet for eight-and-forty hours to settle it--the best out of
so many games. Be this how it may, the general appeared as the
ostensible champion, and the marquis officiated as his _temoin_.
Grape, as my uncle's second, chose pistols for the weapons, and
selected a retired piece of ground in a large garden near the chateau
as the lists. I give the conclusion in his own words:--

"Horsingham was as cool as a c