“What does he mean?” said Madame Hochon.

“He says it is not playing fair,” answered Hochon.

“Then we will say no more about it,” said the old lady, “I shall pray for you.”

“Well, madame, prayer—­and a good point—­can do no harm,” said Philippe, making a thrust as if to pierce Monsieur Hochon’s heart.

The old lady kissed the colonel on his forehead.  As she left the house, she gave thirty francs—­all the money she possessed—­to Benjamin, requesting him to sew the relic into the pocket of his master’s trousers.  Benjamin did so,—­not that he believed in the virtue of the tooth, for he said his master had a much better talisman than that against Gilet, but because his conscience constrained him to fulfil a commission for which he had been so liberally paid.  Madame Hochon went home full of confidence in Saint Solange.

At eight o’clock the next morning, December third, the weather being cloudy, Max, accompanied by his seconds and the Pole, arrived on the little meadow which then surrounded the apse of the church of the Capuchins.  There he found Philippe and his seconds, with Benjamin, waiting for him.  Potel and Mignonnet paced off twenty-four feet; at each extremity, the two attendants drew a line on the earth with a spade:  the combatants were not allowed to retreat beyond that line, on pain of being thought cowardly.  Each was to stand at his own line, and advance as he pleased when the seconds gave the word.

“Do we take off our coats?” said Philippe to his adversary coldly.

“Of course,” answered Maxence, with the assumption of a bully.

They did so; the rosy tints of their skin appearing through the cambric of their shirts.  Each, armed with a cavalry sabre selected of equal weight, about three pounds, and equal length, three feet, placed himself at his own line, the point of his weapon on the ground, awaiting the signal.  Both were so calm that, in spite of the cold, their muscles quivered no more than if they had been made of iron.  Goddet, the four seconds, and the two soldiers felt an involuntary admiration.

“They are a proud pair!”

The exclamation came from Potel.

Just as the signal was given, Max caught sight of Fario’s sinister face looking at them through the hole which the Knights of Idleness had made for the pigeons in the roof of the church.  Those eyes, which sent forth streams of fire, hatred, and revenge, dazzled Max for a moment.  The colonel went straight to his adversary, and put himself on guard in a way that gained him an advantage.  Experts in the art of killing, know that, of two antagonists, the ablest takes the “inside of the pavement,”—­to use an expression which gives the reader a tangible idea of the effect of a good guard.  That pose, which is in some degree observant, marks so plainly a duellist of the first rank that a feeling of inferiority came into Max’s soul, and produced the same disarray of powers which demoralizes a gambler when, in presence of a master or a lucky hand, he loses his self-possession and plays less well than usual.