him, with a single bound the captain sprang on to the croup.

The baron had spoken truly; his horse was not accustomed to so heavy a
load, therefore he attempted to get rid of it. Neither had the captain
exaggerated, and the animal soon felt that he had found his master; so
that, after a few attempts, which had no other effect than to show to
the passers-by the address of the two cavaliers, he became obedient, and
went at a swinging trot down the Quai de l'Ecole, which at that time was
nothing but a wharf, crossed at the same pace the Quai du Louvre and the
Quai des Tuileries, through the gate of the Conference, and leaving on
the left the road to Versailles, threaded the great avenue of the
Champs-Elysees, which now leads to the triumphal Arc de l'Etoile.
Arrived at the Pont d'Antin, the Baron de Valef slackened his horse's
pace a little, for he found that he had ample time to arrive at the Port
Maillot at the hour fixed.

The captain profited by this respite.

"May I, without indiscretion, ask why we are going to fight? I wish, you
understand, to know that, in order to regulate my conduct toward my
adversary, and to know whether it is worth killing him."

"That is only fair," answered the baron; "I will tell you everything as
it passed. We were supping last night at La Fillon's. Of course you know
La Fillon, captain?"

[Illustration: HE ATTACKED THE CAPTAIN WITH SUCH FURY THAT THEIR SWORDS
ENGAGED AT THE HILT.--Page 244.]

"Pardieu! it was I who started her in the world, in 1705, before my
Italian campaign."

"Well," replied the baron, laughing, "you may boast of a pupil who does
you honor. Briefly, I supped there tete-a-tete with D'Harmental."

"Without any one of the fair sex?"

"Oh, mon Dieu, yes! I must tell you that D'Harmental is a kind of
Trappist, only going to La Fillon's for fear of the reputation of not
going there; only loving one woman at a time, and in love for the moment
with the little D'Averne, the wife of the lieutenant of the guards."

"Very good!"

"We were there, chatting, when we heard a merry party enter the room
next to ours. As our conversation did not concern anybody else, we kept
silence, and, without intending it, heard the conversation of our
neighbors. See what chance is. Our neighbors talked of the only thing
which we ought not to have heard."

"Of the chevalier's mistress, perhaps?"

"Exactly. At the first words of their discourse which reached me, I
rose, and tried to g