ime, and had never mentioned to anyone else my
intention of returning to my country, he came to the conclusion that my
retirement was nothing but a "ruse" to free myself from the clutches of
his family.

He could not let me slip without playing his last card, which was to
frighten me into marriage if possible. With this object he managed to
pick a quarrel with me, asking me if I thought it was behaving like a
gentleman to excite hopes in the breast of a young and innocent girl,
and then absconding, saying that he could not see his sister pining
away day by day without taking her cause in hand, etc.

There was nothing left me, he said, but to marry his sister or to fight
him. My decision was soon made. I told him that I would never be forced
into marriage through fear of a wound, and I resolved to fight him.

An officer in the army is the only grade of man that a German student
deigns to fight with. All others are beneath his notice. Now, as my
adversary was an officer, it was considered no degradation on my part to
accept the challenge, so weapons were provided, compliments exchanged
between seconds, and the adversaries met.

The offence towards his family was seen in such a grave light by my foe,
that instead of the ordinary method adopted by German students--the use
of the customary leaden collar, and pads to protect the more vital
parts--nothing would satisfy him but a duel with the sabre, without pads
and bandages.

This is the most terrible challenge, save that with the pistol, but I
did not shrink from it. I left a letter directed to the gentleman in
England who had lent me the money to pursue my studies at the university
in the hands of my second, to be posted in case of my death, and
hastened to meet my adversary. The fight was short, though desperate. My
adversary fell severely wounded in the arm. Parties tried to hush up the
matter, but of course the town was soon full of it. The story of the
duel was variously told. Some said that I had vanquished the captain,
and others that he had vanquished me; but the truth soon oozed out.

Fraulein von Hammelstengel subsequently married an old count, who was
supposed to be rich, but who proved afterwards not to possess a penny.

But to return to myself. Disgusted with my experience of human nature,
and of womankind in particular, I set to work now more diligently than
ever. Bade farewell to my "chor," and gave up rioting and revelling, and
wrote to my school frien