On Sunday morning M. d'Hervas received this reply—
"3 February 1833
"SIR,—The police have seized me, and I have only time to reply that, for the moment, it is impossible for me to respond to your challenge. You will understand my situation.—Yours, etc.,
ALBERT BERTHIER"
A letter pretty nearly in the same terms as that to M. Berthier was written by M. Grégoire to Théodore Anne. But, like M. Albert Berthier, Théodore Anne had also been arrested. He was therefore obliged to postpone the meeting. But, in order that it should be clearly known that only force majeure could hinder the proposed duels, the Republican party inserted the following paragraph in the newspapers, as a public answer to the letters of MM. Berthier and Théodore Anne:—
"We keenly regret, gentlemen, that arrest or a threatened arrest does not permit you to reply to the letter we wrote you yesterday; we hope, as much as you yourselves can do so, that a speedy liberation will allow you to respond to our challenge. However, we will gladly accept in the meantime any Legitimists you may be pleased to substitute until you are yourselves ready.
"D'HERVAS, GRÉGOIRE"
It will be seen that the tourney was fully begun and in good earnest. The arrest of MM. Berthier and Théodore Anne only, as one might imagine, exasperated the two parties all the more. The real enemy throughout, as both Carlists and patriots thoroughly realised, was the Government of Louis-Philippe. The following letter was addressed to the editors of the Revenant:—
"GENTLEMEN,—We look upon your remarks of yesterday in the National and Tribune as a direct challenge. You refused our challenge yesterday; to-day, after what has just happened between MM. Armand Carrel and Roux-Laborie, we adhere more closely than ever to upholding our views and to the pursuit of your party BY ALL METHODS to gain a just and public reparation. We send you a preliminary list of twelve persons, since yesterday you spoke of twelve on your side. We do not demand a dozen duels simultaneously, but successively, and in the time and places most convenient to you. No excuse, no pretext would save you from cowardice, nor from the subsequent consequences of such cowardice. Henceforth, the first duel will be the declaration of war between your side and ours. There shall be no truce until one of the two has succumbed to the other—
"ARMAND MARRAST
"GODEFROY CAVAIGNAC
"GARDARIN"
Then came the names of twelve patriots. A similar letter was addressed to the offices of La Quotidienne. It was signed by Ambert, Guinard and by M. Thévenin. At the same time, Germain Sarrut, supported by MM. Delsart and Saint-Edme, went to M. de Genoude, who replied to the explanations demanded—
"MONSIEUR,—The editors of La Gazette officially disapprove of the conduct of the men of their party who have incited the contributors of the different newspapers, and they consequently refuse to take any part whatsoever in the quarrel raised between the two parties."
La Quotidienne, in its turn, wrote the following letter in reply to that of Ambert, Guinard and Thévenin—
"M. de Montfort, M. de Calvimont and others, being arrested, or under the pressure of a warrant, the business of the letter from the gentlemen of the National cannot be attended to for the moment—3 February."
This letter was received on the 4th. On the 5th the patriotic papers contained the following paragraph:—