"You made a remark last night, Herr
Rittmeister," said I, "which did not at the moment
produce the profound impression upon me that
subsequent reflection has enforced. You said
that if his royal highness were fully aware that
his antagonist was the son of a practising
chemist and apothecary—"

"That I could have put off this event; true
enough, but when you refused that alternative,
and insisted on satisfaction, I myself, as your
countryman, gave the guarantee for your rank,
which nothing will now make me retract.
Understand me well— nothing will make me retract."

"You are pleased to be precipitate," said I,
with an attempt to sneer; "my remark
had but one object, and that was my personal
disinclination to obtain a meeting under a false
pretext."

"Make your mind easy on that score. It
will be all precisely the same in about an hour
hence."

I nearly fainted as I heard this, it seemed as
though a cold stream of water ran through my
spine and paralysed the very marrow inside.

"You have your choice of weapons," said he,
curtly; "which are you best at."

I was going to say the "javelin," but I was
ashamed, and yet should a man sacrifice life for
a false modesty; while I reasoned thus, he
pointed to a group of officers close to the
garden wall of the convent, and said,

"They are all waiting yonder, let us hasten
on."

If I had been mortally wounded, and was
dragging my feeble limbs along to rest them for
ever on some particular spot, I might have,
probably, effected my progress as easily as I now
did. The slightest inequality of ground tripped
me, and I stumbled at every step.

"You are cold," said my companion, "and
probably unused to early rising, taste this."

He gave me his brandy-flask, and I finished
it off at a draught. Blessings be on the man
who invented alcohol! all the ethics that ever
were written cannot work the same miracle in
a man's nature as a glass of whisky. Talk of
all the wonders of chemistry, and what are they
to the simple fact that two-pennyworth of cognac
can convert a coward into a hero?

I was not quite sure that my antagonist had
not resorted to a similar sort of aid, for he
seemed as light-hearted and as jolly as though
he was out for a pic-nic. There was a jauntiness,
too, in the way he took out his cigar and scraped
his lucifer match on a beech-tree, that quite
struck me, and I should like to have imitated it
if I could.

"If it's the same to you, take the sabre, it's
his weakest weapon," whispered the Rittmeister
in my ear, and I agreed. And now there was a
sort of commotion about the choice of the ground
and the places, in which my friend seemed to
stand by me most manfully. Then there followed
a general measurement of swords, and a
fierce comparison of weapons. I don't know
how many were not thrust into my hand, one
saying, "Take this, it is well balanced in the
wrist, or if you like a heavy guard, here's your
arm!"

"To me, it is a matter of perfect indifference,"
said I, jauntily. "All weapons are alike."

"He will attack fiercely, and the moment the
word is given," whispered the Rittmeister, "so
be on your guard; keep your hilt full before
you, or he'll slice off your nose before you are
aware of it."

"Be not so sure of that till you have seen my
sword play," said I, fiercely; and my heart swelled
with a fierce sentiment that must have been
courage, for I never remember to have felt the like
before. I know I was brave at that moment,
for if, by one word, I could have averted the
combat, I would not have uttered it.

"To your places," cried the umpire, "and
on your guard! Are you ready?"

"Ready," re-echoed I, wildly, while I gave a
mad flourish of my weapon round my head that
threw the whole company into a roar of laughter;
and, at the same  instant, two figures, screaming
fearfully, rushed from the beech copse, and,
bursting their way through the crowd, fell upon
me with the most frantic embraces, amidst the
louder laughter of the others. O shame and
ineffable disgrace! O misery never to be
forgotten! It was Vaterchen who now grasped
my knees, and Tintefleck who clung round my
neck and kissed me repeatedly. From the time
of the Laocoon, no one ever struggled to free
himself as I did, but all in vain— my efforts,
impeded by the sword, lest I might unwillingly
wound them, were all fruitless, and we rolled
upon the ground inextricably commingled and
struggling.

"Was I right?" cried the prince. "Was I
right in calling this fellow a saltimbanque? See
him now with his comrades around him, and say
if I was mistaken."

"How is this?" whispered the Rittmeister.
"Have you dared to deceive me?"

"I have deceived no one," said I, trying to
rise, and I poured forth a torrent of not very
coherent eloquence, as the mirth of my audience
seemed to imply; but, fortunately, Vaterchen
had now obtained a hearing, and was detailing
in very fluent language the nature of the relations
between us. Poor old fellow, in his boundless
gratitude I seemed more than human; and
his praises actually shamed me to hear them.
How I had first met them, he recounted in the
strain of one assisted by the gods in classic times;
his description made me a sort of Jove coming
down on a rosy cloud to succour suffering
humanity; and then came in Tintefleck with her
broken words, marvellously aided by "action,"
as she poured forth the heap of gold upon the
grass and said it was all mine!

Wonderful metal, to be sure, for enforcing
conviction on the mind of man: there is a sincerity
about it far more impressive than any vocal
persuasion. The very clink of it implies that the
real and the positive are in question, not the
imaginary and the delusive. "This is all his!"
cried she, pointing to the treasure with the air
of one showing Aladdin's cave; and though her