"You are right," replied Pepusch, "it seems as if I could not speak to you so rationally as I really do, if I had actually sent a ball through my brain. The people, too, maintain that my pistols were not particularly dangerous, nor, indeed, of iron, but of wood--in fact mere toys--and so neither the duel nor the suicide could have been any thing more than a pleasant mockery. We must have changed our parts; and I have begun to mystify myself and play the child at the moment you have left the world of dream to enter into real life. But be this as it may, it is requisite that I should be certain of your generosity and my fortune, and then the clouds will dissipate which trouble my sight, or perhaps deceive me with the illusions of the Fata Morgana. Come, my Peregrine, accompany me to the fair Dörtje Elverdink."
Pepusch took his friend's arm, and was hastening off with him; but their intended walk was spared, for the door opened, and in tripped Dörtje Elverdink, lovely as an angel, and behind her the old Swammer. Leuwenhock, who had so long remained dumb, casting angry looks first at Pepusch and then at Peregrine, seemed, upon seeing the old Swammerdamm, as if struck by an electric shock. He stretched his clenched hands towards him, and cried out in a voice hoarse with rage--"Ha! do you come to mock me, you old deceitful monster? But you shall not succeed. Defend yourself: your last hour has struck."
Swammerdamm started a few steps back, and as Leuwenhock was ready to fall upon him with his telescope, drew the like arms for his defence. The duel, which had begun at Peregrine's, seemed about to be renewed. George Pepusch threw himself between the combatants, and while with his left hand he beat down a murderous glance of Leuwenhock's, which would have stretched his adversary to the earth, with the left he turned aside the weapon of Swammerdamm, so that he could not injure Leuwenhock. He then declared that he would not allow of any battle between them, till he thoroughly knew the cause of their dissension. Peregrine found this protest so reasonable, that he did not hesitate to throw himself between the champions with a similar declaration. To this the combatants were forced to yield. Swammerdamm, moreover, asserted, that he had not at all come with hostile intentions, but merely to enter into some composition with Leuwenhock, and thus to end a feud which had so long divided two similarly-created principles, whose united researches only could exhaust the deepest springs of knowledge. With this he looked smilingly at Peregrine, into whose arms Dörtje had fled, and expressed a wish that he would mediate.
Leuwenhock, on the other hand, admitted that Dörtje was, indeed, the apple of contention, but that he had just now discovered a new trick of his unworthy colleague. It was not only that, to revive his unjust pretensions to Dörtje, he denied the possession of a certain microscope which he had received on a certain occasion as a quittance; but the more to torment him,--Leuwenhock,--he had given it to another. In answer to all this, Swammerdamm swore, high and low, that he had never received the microscope, and had great reason to believe that Leuwenhock had shamefully purloined it.
"The fools!"--softly whispered Master Flea to Peregrine--"the fools! they are talking of the microscope which is in your eye. You know that I was present at the treaty of peace concluded between them about the possession of the princess, and, when Swammerdamm was flinging into the pupil of his left eye the microscopic glass which he had, in fact, received from Leuwenhock, I snapped it up, because it was not Leuwenhock's, but my lawful property. Tell them plainly at once, that you have the jewel."
Upon this Peregrine made no hesitation in declaring that he was in possession of the microscopic glass which Swammerdamm should have received, but did not receive, from Leuwenhock; and moreover that the union was not yet settled, and neither Leuwenhock nor Swammerdamm had at present the unconditional right to look on Dörtje Elverdink as his foster-daughter.
After much argument, it was agreed by the disputants that Mr. Tyss should marry Dörtje Elverdink, who tenderly loved him; and then, after seven months, should decide which of the two microscopists was the most desirable father-in-law.
However beautiful Dörtje appeared in a dress so admirable that it might seem to have been fashioned by the Loves, and whatever burning looks of passion she might cast at Peregrine, yet he still thought of his protegé as well as of his friend, and remained true to his plighted word, declaring again that he renounced Dörtje's hand. The microscopists were not a little astonished, when Peregrine announced George Pepusch for the man who had the justest claims to the princess, and that he, at all events, had no right to interfere with her choice.
With tears in her eyes the maiden staggered towards Peregrine, who caught her in his arms as she was sinking senseless to the earth. "Ingrate!"--she sighed--"you break my heart in thrusting me from you.--But you will have it.--Take, then, my parting kiss, and let me die!"
Peregrine bent down to her, but when his mouth touched her mouth, she bit his lips so violently that the blood started, at the same time exclaiming merrily,--"Monster! it is so one must punish you!--Be reasonable, be civil, and take me, let the other cry out as he will."