ter mornings when everything is as
bright and brittle as glass. The trees, coated with hoar frost, seemed
to have been sweating ice; the earth rang under a footstep, the dry air
carried the slightest sound to a distance, the blue sky seemed to shine
like a mirror, and the sun, dazzling and cold itself, shed upon the
frozen universe rays which did not warm anything.

Rival observed to Duroy: "I got the pistols at Gastine Renette's. He
loaded them himself. The box is sealed. We shall toss up, besides,
whether we use them or those of our adversary."

Duroy mechanically replied: "I am very much obliged to you."

Then Rival gave him a series of circumstantial recommendations, for he
was anxious that his principal should not make any mistake. He
emphasized each point several times, saying: "When they say, 'Are you
ready, gentlemen?' you must answer 'Yes' in a loud tone. When they give
the word 'Fire!' you must raise your arm quickly, and you must fire
before they have finished counting 'One, two, three.'"

And Duroy kept on repeating to himself: "When they give the word to
fire, I must raise my arm. When they give the word to fire, I must raise
my arm." He learnt it as children learn their lessons, by murmuring them
to satiety in order to fix them on their minds. "When they give the word
to fire, I must raise my arm."

The carriage entered a wood, turned down an avenue on the right, and
then to the right again. Rival suddenly opened the door to cry to the
driver: "That way, down the narrow road." The carriage turned into a
rutty road between two copses, in which dead leaves fringed with ice
were quivering. Duroy was still murmuring: "When they give the word to
fire, I must raise my arm." And he thought how a carriage accident would
settle the whole affair. "Oh! if they could only upset, what luck; if he
could only break a leg."

But he caught sight, at the further side of a clearing, of another
carriage drawn up, and four gentlemen stamping to keep their feet warm,
and he was obliged to open his mouth, so difficult did his breathing
become.

The seconds got out first, and then the doctor and the principal. Rival
had taken the pistol-case and walked away with Boisrenard to meet two of
the strangers who came towards them. Duroy watched them salute one
another ceremoniously, and then walk up and down the clearing, looking
now on the ground and now at the trees, as though they were looking for
something that had fallen do