y
rank and set aside my state; that still I was eager and glad to do; but
I waived them and forgot them, because only thus could I avenge them. By
his challenge, his insult, his defiance, he had violated what I held
sacred in me, and almost the only thing that I held sacred. I hear now
the Englishman's mocking epithet in my ears--"Mediaeval!" I did not hear
it then. Wetter had insulted the King; the King would cease to be the
King to punish him. I had this cool anger in my heart when I went with
Vohrenlorf to the Pavilion at six in the morning. But half the
bitterness of it was due to my own inmost knowledge that my acts had led
him on; that, if he had committed the sacrilege, my hand had flung open
the doors of the shrine. He had defaced the image; it was I who had
taught him no more to reverence it. Because he reminded me of this, I
thought that I hated him, as we took our way to the Pavilion.

Men who have been through many of these affairs have told me that on the
first occasion they felt some fear, or, at least, an excitement so great
as to seem like fear. I recollect no such feeling. This was not because
I was especially courageous or more indifferent to death than other men;
it did not occur to me that I should be killed or even hit. Coralie had
a strong presentiment of evil for some one; I had none for myself. If
she were right, it seemed to me that Wetter's fate must prove her so.

The other pair came punctually. They had encountered some slight
obstacle in entering. The sentry had been seized with scruples, and the
officer of the guard had been summoned. Varvilliers pleaded an express
appointment with me, and the officer, surprised but conquered, had let
them pass. All this Varvilliers told us in his usual airy manner, Wetter
sitting apart the while. The clock struck a quarter past six.

"We waste time, Vicomte," said I, and I sat down in a chair, leaving him
to make the arrangements with Vohrenlorf, or, rather, to announce them
to Vohrenlorf; for my second was unmanned by the business, and had quite
lost his composure.

Varvilliers had just measured the distance and settled the places where
we were to stand, when there was a step outside and a knock at the door.
The seconds looked round. Wetter sprang to his feet.

"Open it, Vohrenlorf. We're doing nothing secret," I said, with a smile.

Varvilliers nodded approvingly.

"But our visitor mustn't stay long," he observed.

"It's one of my privileges to s