“I begin to perceive now, uncle,” said Charles, reproachfully, “why you, with such apparent readiness, agreed to this duel taking place.”

“Well, I intended to fight the fellow myself, that’s the long and short of it, boy.”

“How could you treat me so?”

“No nonsense, Charles.  I tell you it was all in the family.  I intended to fight him myself.  What was the odds whether I slipped my cable with his assistance, or in the regular course a little after this?  That’s the way to argufy the subject; so, as I tell you, I made up my mind to fight him myself.”

Charles looked despairingly, but said,—­

“What was the result?”

“Oh, the result!  D—­n me, I suppose that’s to come.  The vagabond won’t fight like a Christian.  He says he’s quite willing to fight anybody that calls him out, provided it’s all regular.”

“Well—­well.”

“And he, being the party challenged—­for he says he never himself challenges anybody, as he is quite tired of it—­must have his choice of weapons.”

“He is entitled to that; but it is generally understood now-a-days that pistols are the weapons in use among gentlemen for such purposes.”

“Ah, but he won’t understand any such thing, I tell you.  He will fight with swords.”

“I suppose he is, then, an adept at the use of the sword?”

“He says he is.”

“No doubt—­no doubt.  I cannot blame a man for choosing, when he has the liberty of choice, that weapon in the use of which he most particularly, from practice, excels.”

“Yes; but if he be one half the swordsman he has had time enough, according to all accounts, to be, what sort of chance have you with him?”

“Do I hear you reasoning thus?”

“Yes, to be sure you do.  I have turned wonderfully prudent, you see:  so I mean to fight him myself, and mind, now, you have nothing whatever to do with it.”

“An effort of prudence that, certainly.”

“Well, didn’t I say so?”

“Come—­come, uncle, this won’t do.  I have challenged Sir Francis Varney, and I must meet him with any weapon he may, as the challenged party, choose to select.  Besides, you are not, I dare say, aware that I am a very good fencer, and probably stand as fair a chance as Varney in a contest with swords.”

“Indeed!”

“Yes, uncle.  I could not be so long on the continent as I have been without picking up a good knowledge of the sword, which is so popular all over Germany.”

“Humph! but only consider, this d——­d fellow is no less than a hundred and fifty years old.”

“I care not.”

“Yes, but I do.”

“Uncle, uncle, I tell you I will fight with him; and if you do not arrange matters for me so that I can have the meeting with this man, which I have myself sought, and cannot, even if I wished, now recede from with honour, I must seek some other less scrupulous friend to do so.”