Horatio, full of disturbed emotions, conducted his disconsolate mistress to the gate of the Tuilleries, and there took a farewel of her, which he had too much reason to fear would be his last, at least for a long time.  He was tempted by his first emotions to seek de Coigney, and call him to account for the affront he had put upon him, and either lose his own life, or oblige the other to secrecy; but then he considered, that there was some probability he would not dare to own that he had given himself any concern about mademoiselle Charlotta, after the injunction laid on him by his father, much less as he had attempted a duel in her cause, having, as has been already mentioned, been before guilty of a like offence against the laws, which in that country are very strict, on account of madame de Olonne; and this prevailed with him to be passive as to what had happened, till he should hear how the other would behave, and find what turn the affair would take.

Charlotta in the mean time was in the most terrible anxieties:—­she could not imagine what had brought monsieur de Coigney, who she thought had been many miles distant, so suddenly to Paris:  but on making some private enquiry, she was informed, that having met some difficulty in the execution of his office, he had taken post, in order to lay his complaints before the king, and had arrived that very day.—­She now blamed her own inadvertency in holding any discourse with Horatio, of a nature not proper to be over-heard, in a place so public as the Tuilleries, where others, as well as he, might have possibly been witnesses of what was said.

Young monsieur de Coigney suffered little less from the turbulence of his nature, and the mortification it gave his vanity, to find a person, whom he looked upon as every way his inferior, preferred to him.  His thoughts were wholly bent on revenge; but in what manner he should accomplish it, he was for some time uncertain:  when he acquainted his father with the discovery he had made, and the resentment he had testified against this unworthy rival, as he called him, the old gentleman blamed him for taking any notice of it.  Let them love on, son, said he; let them marry;—­we shall then have a fine opportunity of reproaching the haughty baron with his new alliance.  This did not however satisfy monsieur de Coigney:  all the love he once had for mademoiselle Charlotta was now turned into hate; and in spite of his father’s commands not to meddle in the affair, he could not help throwing out some reflections among his companions, very much to the disadvantage of the young lady’s reputation.  But these might possibly have blown over, as he had but a small time to vent his malice.  His father knowing the violence of his temper, in order to prevent any ill consequences, compelled him to return to his employment; taking upon himself the management of that business which had brought him so unluckily to Paris.