ming face to face with you this morning. The times are too troublous
and the province is in too dangerous a condition to admit of an act
that might draw the eyes of the Keeper of the Seals upon Lavedan. To
my respect, then, to Monsieur le Vicomte and to my own devotion to the
Cause we mutually serve do you owe it that you still live. I am on my
way to Spain to seek shelter there from the King's vengeance.

To save myself is a duty that I owe as much to myself as to the Cause.
But there is another duty, one that I owe my sister, whom you have so
outrageously slighted, and this duty, by God's grace, I will perform
before I leave. Of your honour, monsieur, we will not speak, for reasons
into which I need not enter, and I make no appeal to it. But if you have
a spark of manhood left, if you are not an utter craven as well as a
knave, I shall expect you on the day after tomorrow, at any hour before
noon, at the Auberge de la Couronne at Grenade. There, monsieur, if you
please, we will adjust our differences. That you may come prepared, and
so that no time need be wasted when we meet, I send you the length of my
sword.

Thus ended that angry, fire-breathing epistle. I refolded it
thoughtfully, then, having taken my resolve, I leapt from the bed and
desired Anatole to assist me to dress.

I found the Vicomte much exercised in mind as to the meaning of Marsac's
extraordinary behaviour, and I was relieved to see that he, at least,
could conjecture no cause for it. In reply to the questions with which
he very naturally assailed me, I assured him that it was no more than
a matter of a misunderstanding; that Monsieur de Marsac had asked me to
meet him at Grenade in two days' time, and that I should then, no doubt,
be able to make all clear.

Meanwhile, I regretted the incident, since it necessitated my remaining
and encroaching for two days longer upon the Vicomte's hospitality. To
all this, however, he made the reply that I expected, concluding
with the remark that for the present at least it would seem as if
the Chevalier de Saint-Eustache had been satisfied with creating this
trouble betwixt myself and Marsac.

From what Anatole had said, I had already concluded that Marsac had
exercised the greatest reticence. But the interview between his sister
and Roxalanne filled me with the gravest anxiety. Women are not wont to
practise the restraint of men under such circumstances, and for all that
Mademoiselle de Marsac may not hav