was demanded. He felt the chill of failure in this cooler air, but
was of no mind to return to his own country. He was intelligent, and,
having some means, meant that his handsome face should secure for him an
American wife, and with her a comfortable dowry; for who knew of his
obscure life in Paris? And now here was that affair at Avignon and the
ruin of his plans. He would at least close one mouth and deny what it
might have uttered. There was no other way, and for the rest--well, a
French _emigre_ had heard him speak rashly and had been brutal. The
Jacobin clubs would believe and stand by him. De la Foret must arrange
the affair, and so far this insolent _ci-devant_ could have said nothing
else of moment.

De la Foret called early the next day, and was referred to Schmidt as
Rene left the room. No pacific settlement was discussed or even
mentioned. The consul, well pleased, accepted the sword as the weapon,
and this being Sunday, on Thursday at 7 A.M. there would be light
enough, and they would cross on the ice to New Jersey; for this year one
could sleigh from the city to the capes, and from New York to Cape
Cod--or so it was said.

Meanwhile the Jacobin clubs rang with the insult to a French secretary,
and soon it was the talk in the well-pleased coffee-houses and at the
tables of the great merchants. Rene said nothing, refusing to gratify
those who questioned him.

"A pity," said Mrs. Chew to Penn, the Governor, as men still called him.
"And why was it? The young man is so serious and so quiet and, as I
hear, religious. I have seen him often at Christ Church with his mother,
or at Gloria Dei."

"One can get a good deal of religion into a blow," remarked Hamilton,
"or history lies. The man insulted him, I am told, and the vicomte
struck him." Even Hamilton knew no more than this.

"Still, there are milder ways of calling a man to account," said young
Thomas Cadwalader, while Hamilton smiled, remembering that savage duel
in which John Cadwalader, the father, had punished the slanderer,
General Conway.

"Will there be a fight?" said Mrs. Byrd.

"Probably," said Penn, and opinion among the Federals was all for the
vicomte. Meanwhile no one spoke of the matter at the widow's quiet
house, where just now the severe winter made social visits rare.

As for De Courval he fenced daily with Du Vallon, who was taken into
their confidence and shared Schmidt's increasing anxiety.

XVII

On Thursday, at the