d it, and
since in all my life I have never fought a single duel. My service in
his Majesty's army has happily afforded me the means of dispensing with
any such proof of courage as the duel is supposed to give. I say I
might have called witnesses to that fact and I have not done so. This is
because, fortunately, there are several among the members of this court
to whom I have been known for many years, and who can themselves, when
this court comes to consider its finding, support my present assertion.

"Let me ask you, then, gentlemen, whether it is conceivable that,
entertaining such feelings as these towards single combat, I should have
been led to depart from them under circumstances that might very well
have afforded me an ample shield for refusing satisfaction to a too
eager and pressing adversary? It was precisely because I hold the duel
in such contempt that I spoke with such asperity to the deceased when he
pronounced Lord Wellington's enactment a degrading one to men of birth.
The very sentiments which I then expressed proclaimed my antipathy to
the practice. How, then, should I have committed the inconsistency of
accepting a challenge upon such grounds from Count Samoval? There is
even more irony than Major Swan supposes in a situation which himself
has called ironical.

"So much, then, for the motives that are alleged to have actuated me.
I hope you will conclude that I have answered the prosecution upon that
matter.

"Coming to the question of fact, I cannot find that there is anything to
answer, for nothing has been proved against me. True, it has been proved
that I arrived at Monsanto at half-past eleven or twenty minutes to
twelve on the night of the 28th, and it has been further proved that
half-an-hour later I was discovered kneeling beside the dead body of
Count Samoval. But to say that this proves that I killed him is more, I
think, if I understood him correctly, than Major Swan himself dares to
assert.

"Major Swan is quite satisfied that Samoval came to Monsanto for the
purpose of fighting a duel that had been prearranged; and I admit that
the two swords found, which have been proven the property of Count
Samoval, and which, therefore, he must have brought with him, are a
prima-facie proof of such a contention. But if we assume, gentlemen,
that I had accepted a challenge from the Count, let me ask you, can you
think of any place less likely to have been appointed or agreed to by
me for the enco