ed their faces; but the caps of many a gaudy colour
proclaimed them students. At a little distance behind, and with a slower
step, came another party, among whom I noticed one who walked between
two others, his head sunk on his bosom, and evidently overcome with
emotions of deep sorrow. A movement of my horse at this instant
attracted their attention towards the thicket; they stopped, and a voice
called out my name. I looked round, and there stood Eisendecker before
me. He was dressed in deep mourning, and looked pale and worn, his black
beard and moustache deepening the haggard expression of features, to
which the red borders of his eyelids, and his bloodless lips, gave
an air of the deepest suffering. 'Ah, my friend,' said he, with a sad
effort at a smile, 'you are here quite _a propos_. I am going to fight
Adolphe this morning/ A fearful presentiment that such was the case came
over me the instant I saw him; but when he said so, a thrill ran through
me, and I grew cold from head to foot.

'I see you are sorry,' said he, tenderly while he took my hand within
both of his; 'but you would not blame me--indeed you would not--if you
knew all.'

'What, then, was the cause of this quarrel? How came you to an open
rupture?'

He turned round, and as he did so his face 'was purple, the blood
suffused every feature, and his very eyeballs seemed as if about to
burst. He tried to speak; but I only heard a rushing noise like a
hoarse-drawn breath.

'Be calm, my dear Eisendecker,' said I. 'Cannot this be settled
otherwise than thus?'

'No, no!' said he, in the voice of indignant passion I used to hear from
him long before, 'never!' He waved his hand impatiently as he spoke, and
turned his head from me. At the same moment one of his companions made a
sign with his hand towards me.

'What!' whispered I in horror--'a blow?'

A brief nod was the reply. Alas! from that minute all hope left me.
Too well I knew the desperate alternative that awaited such an insult.
Reconciliation was no longer to be thought of. I asked no more, but
followed the group along the path towards the mill.

In a little garden, as it was called--we should rather term it a
close-shaven grass-plot--where some tables and benches were placed under
the shade of large chestnut-trees, Adolphe von Muhry stood, surrounded
by a number of his friends. He was dressed in his costume as a member of
the Prussian club of the Landsmanschaft--a kind of uniform of blue
an