"And you fight with?..."
"Swords. Like you, I am better with the pistol than the sword; but I confess I have a weakness for swords; with the sword, one defends one's life; with the pistol, one renounces it."
"So you do not need me?"
"No."
"Not for anything?"
"No thanks."
"Good luck, dear friend!"
Carrel shrugged his shoulders as much as to say: "That will be as God pleases!"
I went home, where I found two of my friends waiting in readiness to offer themselves to me in case I was on the list. I told them of Carrel's decision. He was so absolutely brave that it surprised no one that he made himself the champion of the Republic, although he was a strange sort of Republican, and took the duel upon himself.
Meanwhile, that is to say on 1 February 1833, the reply of M. Albert de Calvimont was taken to La Tribune by MM. Albert Berthier and Théodore Anne, commissioned to uphold the struggle on personal lines, the only grounds on which M. Albert de Calvimont would accept. There was a lengthy debate between the two seconds of M. Albert de Calvimont and M. Marrast, to whom M. de Calvimont's reply was addressed. M. Marrast, surrounded by all his friends, urged on by them, wanted a real battle, wherein the strength of the two parties should be tested. M. de Calvimont's friends, on their side, could only offer the duel, all other agreements exposing them to a charge of recantation. In the middle of the debate, a communication arrived from Le National: it announced the challenge received by Carrel. They conferred together and decided that no engagement ought to be made before knowing what Carrel would do. For the time being, therefore, they confined themselves to showing the communication to M. de Calvimont's two seconds and to adjourning the discussion until night. By then, Carrel's decision was known: he had chosen M. Roux-Laborie, junior, not only because he was a Royalist but, still more, because he was the son of a man who had an interest in the Journal des Débats, a paper devoted to the Royalist cause of July. The details of the duel were settled between MM. Grégoire and d'Hervas, Carrel's seconds, and Théodore Anne and Albert Berthier, M. Roux-Laborie's seconds. Carrel, as instigator, had the choice of arms, and chose swords. Next day, Saturday, 2 February (the day of the first performance of Lucrèce Borgia), M. Roux-Laborie, accompanied by MM. Berthier and Théodore Anne, presented themselves at the barrière de Clichy, where, almost immediately afterwards, Armand Carrel arrived, supported by M. d'Hervas, capitaine de chasseurs, and by Grégoire. The two adversaries each stayed in their carriages whilst the seconds got out and conferred together. Then arose an incident amongst the seconds, which, in the case of a man other than brave and loyal Carrel, would have been made the occasion for giving up the duel. M. Roux-Laborie's seconds, with instructions received from the leaders of the Carlist party, declared that their friend was ready to answer his challenge; but that he desired to fight with some other than Carrel, seeing that the feelings the Legitimists had for the chief editor of Le National were much more those of gratitude than of hatred, Carrel having, before the Assises of Blois, by his open and loyal evidence, saved the life of one of their party, M. de Chièvres, accused of participation in the affairs of la Vendée. Carrel, on that occasion, had done for M. de Chièvres, in 1832, what M. de Chièvres did for Carrel when he was accused in 1823 of plotting against the State.