it is an advantage."

M. de Barjols no longer insisted. He took one of the two pistols at
random. Sir John offered the other to Roland, who took it, and, without
even examining its mechanism, cocked the trigger, then let it fall at
arm's-length at his side.

During this time M. de Valensolle had measured forty paces, staking a
cane as a point of departure.

"Will you measure after me?" he asked Sir John.

"Needless, sir," replied the latter: "M. de Montrevel and myself rely
entirely upon you."

M. de Valensolle staked a second cane at the fortieth pace.

"Gentlemen," said he, "when you are ready."

Roland's adversary was already at his post, hat and cloak removed.
The surgeon and the two seconds stood aside. The spot had been so well
chosen that neither had any advantage of sun or ground. Roland tossed
off hat and coat, stationed himself forty paces from M. de Barjols,
facing him. Both, one to right the other to the left, cast a glance at
the same horizon. The aspect harmonized with the terrible solemnity of
the scene about to take place.

Nothing was visible to Roland's right and to M. de Barjols' left, except
the mountain's swift incline and gigantic peak. But on the other side,
that is to say, to M. de Barjols' right and Roland's left, it was a far
different thing.

The horizon stretched illimitable. In the foreground, the plain, its
ruddy soil pierced on all sides by rocks, like a Titan graveyard with
its bones protruding through the earth. Then, sharply outlined in the
setting sun, was Avignon with its girdle of walls and its vast palace,
like a crouching lion, seeming to hold the panting city in its claws.
Beyond Avignon, a luminous sweep, like a river of molten gold, defined
the Rhone. Beyond the Rhone, a deep-hued azure vista, stretched the
chain of hills which separate Avignon from Nimes and d'Uzes. And far
off, the sun, at which one of these two men was probably looking for the
last time, sank slowly and majestically in an ocean of gold and purple.

For the rest these two men presented a singular contrast. One, with his
black hair, swarthy skin, slender limbs and sombre eyes, was the type of
the Southern race which counts among its ancestors Greeks, Romans, Arabs
and Spaniards. The other, with his rosy skin, large blue eyes, and hands
dimpled like a woman's, was the type of that race of temperate zones
which reckons Gauls, Germans and Normans among its forebears.

Had one wished to magnify the sit