antagonist. I left
the cafe, jumped into a cabriolet, and made all speed to Oakley's
lodging. He was out. I went again, as late as eleven o'clock, but
still he was absent; and I was obliged to content myself with leaving
a note, containing a word of caution and advice, which I prudently
abstained from signing. I then went home and to bed, not a little
uneasy about him. The next morning I breakfasted at the coffee-house,
in order to get the news; and the first thing I heard was intelligence
of Oakley's capture. He had been taken the previous evening, in the
neighbourhood of the colonel's house, around which he doubtless
hovered in hopes to obtain sight or speech of Bertha.

Few courts-martial ever excited a stronger interest in the French
military world than those held upon Lieutenant Victor de Berg and the
_marechal des logis_ Francis Oakley. The case was one almost
unparalleled in the annals of military offences. A duel between an
officer and a sergeant was a thing previously unheard of; and the
mystery in which its causes were enveloped aggravated the universal
curiosity and excitement. The offenders resolutely refused to throw
light upon the subject; it had been vainly endeavoured to ascertain
their seconds; the surgeon who attended on the ground had been sought
for equally in vain; after placing the first dressings he had
disappeared, and another had been summoned to the sufferer's bedside.
The wound proved of little importance, and, with the assistance of
crutches, De Berg was soon able to get out. Upon their trials, he and
Oakley persisted in the same system of defence. When off duty, they
said, they had met in society, and had had a dispute on a subject
unconnected with the service; the result had been an agreement to
settle their difference with pistols. Oakley refused to state from
whom the challenge proceeded; but Lieutenant de Berg proclaimed
himself the aggressor, and, aware that the sentence would weigh far
more heavily on Oakley than on himself, generously assumed a large
share of blame. As to the cause of quarrel, names of the seconds, and
all other particulars, both culprits maintained a determined silence,
which no endeavours of friends or judges could induce them to break.
Colonel de Bellechasse and various other officers visited Oakley in
his prison, and did their utmost to penetrate the mystery. Their high
opinion both of him and De Berg, convinced them there was something
very extraordinary and un