e at the firm,
intrepid figure that stood there unflinching, on the edge of the grave.
But HE never took his eye off Raynal. The next minute the sad letter was
finished, and Raynal walked out of the tent, and confronted the man he
had challenged to single combat.

I have mentioned elsewhere that Colonel Dujardin had eyes strangely
compounded of battle and love, of the dove and the hawk. And these,
softened by a noble act he meditated, now rested on Raynal with a
strange expression of warmth and goodness. This strange gaze struck
Raynal, so far at least as this; he saw it was no hostile eye. He was
glad of that, for his own heart was calmed and softened by the solemn
prospect before him.

"We, too, have a little account to settle before I order out the men,"
said he, calmly, "and I can't give you a long credit. I am pressed for
time."

"Our quarrel is at an end. When duty sounds the recall, a soldier's
heart leaves private feuds. See! I come to you without anger and
ill-will. Just now my voice was loud, my manner, I dare say, offensive,
and menacing even, and that always tempts a brave fellow like you to
resist. But now, you see, I am harmless as a woman. We are alone. Humbug
to the winds! I know that you are the only man in this army fit to
command a division. I know that when you say the assault of that bastion
is death, death it is. To the point then; now that my manner is no
longer irritating, now that I am going to die, Camille Dujardin, my old
comrade, have you the heart to refuse me? am I to die unhappy?"

"No; no: I will do whatever you like."

"You will marry that poor girl, then?"

"Yes."

"Aha! did not I always say he was a good fellow? Clench the nail; give
me your honor."

"I give you my honor to marry her, if I live."

"You take a load off me; may Heaven reward you. In one hour those poor
women, whose support I had promised to be, will lose their protector;
but I give them another in you. We shall not leave that family in tears,
Rose in shame, and your child without a name."

Dujardin stared at the speaker. What new and devilish deception was
this?

"My child!" he faltered. "What child?"

"Ah," said Raynal, "what a fool I was! That is the first thing I ought
to have told you. Poor little fellow! I surprised him in his cradle; his
mother and Josephine were rocking him, and singing over him. Oh! it was
a scene, I can tell you. My poor wife had been ill for some time, and
was so weakened by it