“I trust you will pardon me, gentlemen,” said he, “that I should have approached you thus alone, like a forsaken orphan; but the hour selected by that gentleman,” he added, raising his hat to Paul, who returned the salutation, “was precisely that fixed upon for the funeral obsequies of the marquis; I have therefore left Emanuel to fulfil the duties of a son, and have come here without a second, trusting that I had to deal with an adversary generous enough to procure some friend of his own to aid me in this dilemma.”
“We are entirely at your service, baron,” replied Paul; “here are two friends of mine. Select which you please, and he who shall be honored by your choice, will instantly become yours.”
“I have no preference, I swear to you,” said Lectoure; “please to designate which of these two gentlemen you may desire should reader me this service.”
“Walter,” said Paul, “be so good as to officiate as second to the baron.”
The lieutenant assented; the two adversaries again bowed to each other.
“And now, sir,” continued Paul, “permit me, before our respective seconds, to address a few words to you, not of apology, but explanation.”
“At your own pleasure, sir, replied Lectoure.
“When I uttered the words which have been the cause of your coming hither, the events which have since occurred at the castle were hidden in the womb of time, and these events might have entailed the misery of a whole family. You, sir, had on your side Madame d’Auray, Emanuel, and the Marquis—Marguerite had but me alone. Every chance was, therefore, in your favor. It was for this reason that I addressed myself directly to you, for had I fallen by your hand from circumstances which must for ever remain hidden to you, Marguerite could not have married you. If I had killed you, the case would have been still more simplified, and requires no commentary.
“This exordium is really most logical, sir,” replied the baron, smiling, and tapping his boots with his riding-whip; “let us proceed, if you please, to the main body of the discourse.” |
“Now,” continued Paul, bowing in sign of acquiescence, “every circumstance has changed; the marquis is dead, Emanuel has received his commission, the marchioness renounces your alliance, honorable as it may be, and Marguerite marries the Baron Anatole de Lusignan, who, for that reason, I did not name your second.”