I did as he bade me, and he marked every syllable attentively.

"You vary not a word," he said; "and I well know that your honour and your memory never fail. You have saved me from torments not to be told, and perhaps from deeds that might have brought greater torments still; you have acted wisely and nobly, and henceforth I treat you as my son. Now, leave me, my good boy, and to-morrow by six of the clock be here in the library, when we will speak of what farther steps are to be taken in this affair."

I left him without reply, and went to bed, satisfied with my own conduct, and gratified by the result. The next morning I was in the library as the clock struck the hour that he had named; but Monsieur de Villardin was down before me, and had probably been so some time, as there were several sheets of parchment before him, and he had just concluded the writing of a paper of some length as I entered. He looked up with a smile when he perceived me, and said, "General St. Maur, or, as I believe I ought to call him, Lord Langleigh, informed me that he and Lord Masterton had, in recompence for the services you had rendered them, assigned you a sufficient revenue from one of their farms to maintain you at ease in the station which you are destined to fill. Pray how much did they thus grant you?"

"A thousand crowns per annum, my lord," replied I; "and, indeed, in your house I do not know what to do with it."

"Oh, time will teach you plenty of uses for it," answered the Duke; "and for the service you have rendered me, I am about to add nearly double what you already possess. There is a small farm, which I bought lately, near my estates at Dumont, which produces about eighteen hundred crowns; and besides the farm-house, there is upon it the dwelling of the former proprietor, whose family is now extinct. It is called Juvigny. I give it to you for ever, holding only the right of guardianship over you and it, till you are of age by law to use it yourself. There are the papers, together with my directions to a notary in regard to the cession. Bid a groom take them to Rennes, and bring back the deed drawn up this evening, when I will sign it."

Warmly, most warmly, did I express my gratitude, fancying myself now richer than princes; for the sum of three thousand crowns per annum went far beyond any dreams which I yet had of expense. Monsieur de Villardin smiled at the enthusiasm with which I poured forth the thanks, and at the ideas I seemed to entertain of the boundlessness of my wealth.

"Well, well," he said, "you will learn to appreciate it more justly in time. Go now and give the groom the papers, with particular orders to bring back the deed to-night, for no one can tell what to-morrow may bring forth. Return to me as soon as you have given him your directions."

I immediately obeyed, and choosing one of the grooms who was my more especial favourite in the family, I gave him the papers, with injunctions to use all speed and diligence. I then returned to the library, and found that the Duke had just concluded a billet, on which he wrote the address of the Count de Mesnil; and after drawing a small cord of floss silk across the folds, he sealed the ligature at both ends, and put the note into my hands:--"You will take that," he said, with a calm smile, "to our good friend the Count de Mesnil; but do not go till after breakfast, nor let it seem by your manner that there is anything extraordinary in your mission; for, to my taste, things of this kind had better always be conducted as quietly as possible. Deliver it into the Count's own hand, when you have reached his dwelling, and bring me back his reply."

Of course I very well understood that I was charged with one of those cartels of mortal defiance which were then so common in every country of Europe. The matter certainly was nothing new to me, for many a very trifling dispute had I seen brought to the arbitrement of the sword when I followed the camp of the Cavaliers; but it did seem strange to me that the Duke so far departed from the general customs of the day as to send his defiance by a page, instead of by some man equal in rank and station to the person for whom it was intended. I found afterwards, however, that his irritable fear of ridicule, which was the next prominent characteristic of his mind to its susceptibility of the slightest suspicion, was the cause of anything that appeared irregular in his method of proceeding. However that might be, of course I did not object to the task, though it seemed to me doubtful how Monsieur de Mesnil would receive such a cartel from a page, and what might be his treatment of the bearer. Personal risk seldom entered into my calculation in these matters, and I ordered my horse to be ready after breakfast, and a groom to be prepared to accompany me, as gaily as if I had been going upon an errand of pleasure. Before setting out, however, I had an opportunity of seeing the behaviour of the Duke towards his wife, and it, I confess, was the first thing that gave me any pain in the business. It was so gentle, so affectionate, so different from what it had been on former occasions, that, as the thought flashed across my mind, that the first day of such tenderness might be the last of his life, I would have given more than all I had in the world to have prevented the proposed encounter from taking place. To do so was, of course, impossible; and accordingly after breakfast I mounted my horse, and rode away for Mesnil Moray, the dwelling of Monsieur de Villardin's adversary.

Though I was a little gloomy when I set out, old habits soon got the better of new feelings, and I readily brought myself to look upon the affair altogether as one of those matters which every man must undertake, at least, a hundred times in the course of his life. "Monsieur de Villardin," I thought, "will fight fifty more, I hope, before he has done with the sword," and with this consolatory reflection, I cantered on as fast as I could. Somewhat less than an hour brought me to the gates of the château; and, on demanding to see Monsieur de Mesnil, I was instantly admitted to his presence. I thought he turned rather pale when he saw me, but it might be merely imaginary; and certainly, throughout the whole, he behaved like a man of honour and courage. He took the billet, and, cutting the silk, read it attentively, with a slight frown knitting his brows. He then asked me in a calm tone, "Do you know the contents of this note, young man?"