dition could drive.

The precaution of Chapron's sister was, therefore, baffled in that
direction, and she succeeded no better with regard to her brother, who,
to avoid all explanation with Lincoln, had gone, under the pretext of a
visit to the country, to dine and sleep at the hotel. It was there that
Montfanon and Dorsenne met him to conduct him to the rendezvous in the
classical landau. Hardly had they reached the eminence of the circus of
Maxence, on the Appian Way, when they were passed by Boleslas's phaeton.

"You can rest very easy," said Montfanon to Florent. "How can one aim
correctly when one tires one's arm in that way?"

That had been the only allusion to the duel made between the three men
during the journey, which had taken about an hour. Florent talked as he
usually did, asking all sorts of questions which attested his care
for minute information--the most of which might be utilized by his
brother-in-law-and the Marquis had replied by evoking, with his habitual
erudition, several of the souvenirs which peopled that vast country,
strewn with tombs, aqueducts, ruined villas, with the line of the Monts
Albains enclosing them beyond.

Dorsenne was silent. It was the first affair at which he had assisted,
and his nervous anxiety was extreme.

Tragical presentiments oppressed him, and at the same time he
apprehended momentarily that, Montfanon's religious scruples
reawakening, he would not only have to seek another second, but would
have to defer a solution so near. However, the struggle which was taking
place in the heart of the "old leaguer" between the gentleman and
the Christian, was displayed during the drive only by an almost
imperceptible gesture. As the carriage passed the entrance to the
catacomb of St. Calixtus, the former soldier of the Pope turned away his
head. Then he resumed the conversation with redoubled energy, to pause
in his turn, however, when the landau took, a little beyond the Tomb of
Caecilia, a transverse road in the direction of the Ardeatine Way. It
was there that 'l'Osteria del tempo perso' was built, upon the ground
belonging to Cibo, on which the duel was to take place.

Before l'Osteria, whose signboard was surmounted by the arms of Pope
Innocent VIII, three carriages were already waiting--Gorka's phaeton,
a landau which had brought Cibo, Pietrapertosa and the doctor, and
a simple botte, in which a porter had come. That unusual number of
vehicles seemed likely to attract th