d have got my hands upon him he
would have taken a short road to his fathers. Him and his lashings! As
I stood there with a black glare at him, the impudent scoundrel
repeatedly winked at me with the readable information that if I only
would be patient and bide a moment he would compass something very
clever. As I faced Colonel Royale I was so wild with thinking of what
I would do to Paddy, that, for all I knew, I might have been crossing
swords with my mother.

And now as to this duel. I will not conceal that I was a very fine
fencer in both the French and Italian manners. My father was in his
day one of the finest blades in Paris, and had fought with some of the
most skillful and impertinent gentlemen in all France. He had done his
best to give me his eye and his wrist, and sometimes he would say that
I was qualified to meet all but the best in the world. He commonly
made fun of the gentlemen of England, saying that a dragoon was their
ideal of a man with a sword; and he would add that the rapier was a
weapon which did not lend itself readily to the wood-chopper's art. He
was all for the French and Italian schools.

I had always thought that my father's judgment was very good, but I
could not help reflecting that if it turned out to be bad I would have
a grievance as well as a sword-thrust in the body. Colonel Royale came
at me in a somewhat leisurely manner, and, as I said, my mind was so
full of rage at Paddy that I met the first of my opponent's thrusts
through sheer force of habit. But my head was clear a moment later,
and I knew that I was fighting my first duel in England and for my
father's honour. It was no time to think of Paddy.

Another moment later I knew that I was the Colonel's master. I could
reach him where I chose. But he did not know it. He went on prodding
away with a serious countenance, evidently under the impression that
he had me hard put to it. He was as grave as an owl-faced parson. And
now here I did a sorry thing. I became the victim of another of my mad
impulses. I was seized with an ungovernable desire to laugh. It was
hideous. But laugh I did, and, of necessity, square in the Colonel's
face. And to this day I regret it.

Then the real duel began. At my laugh the Colonel instantly lost his
grave air, and his countenance flushed with high, angry surprise. He
beset me in a perfect fury, caring no more for his guard than if he
had been made of iron. Never have I seen such quick and tremen