"Welcome, provided always the brave man has no need of my purse, for I confess, freely, that I have just left my last crown in a cabaret on the Port de la Tonnelle."
"Nobody wants your purse, captain; on the contrary, I beg you to believe that mine is at your disposal."
"To whom have I the honor to speak?" asked the captain, visibly touched by this reply, "and in what can I oblige you?"
"I am the Baron Rene de Valef," replied the cavalier.
"I think," interrupted the captain, "that I knew, in the Flemish wars, a family of that name."
"It was mine, since we are from Liege." The two speakers exchanged bows.
"You must know then," continued the Baron de Valef, "that the Chevalier Raoul d'Harmental, one of my most intimate friends, last night, in my company, picked up a quarrel, which will finish this morning by a meeting. Our adversaries were three, and we but two. I went this morning to the houses of the Marquis de Gacé and Comte de Sourgis, but unfortunately neither the one nor the other had passed the night in his bed; so, as the affair could not wait, as I must set out in two hours for Spain, and that we absolutely require a second, or rather a third, I installed myself on the Pont Neuf with the intention of addressing the first gentleman who passed. You passed, and I addressed myself to you."
"And you have done right, pardieu! rest satisfied, baron, I am your man. What hour is fixed for the meeting?"
"Half-past nine this morning."
"Where will it take place?"