FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55  
56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   >>   >|  
sued. He said to himself: "I know how to manage. Now it will be all right!" But at the end of an hour he had emptied the decanter, and his agitation was worse than ever. A mad longing possessed him to throw himself on the ground, to bite, to scream. Night fell. A ring at the bell so unnerved him that he had not the strength to rise to receive his seconds. He dared not even to speak to them, wish them good-day, utter a single word, lest his changed voice should betray him. "All is arranged as you wished," said the colonel. "Your adversary claimed at first the privilege of the offended part; but he yielded almost at once, and accepted your conditions. His seconds are two military men." "Thank you," said the vicomte. The marquis added: "Please excuse us if we do not stay now, for we have a good deal to see to yet. We shall want a reliable doctor, since the duel is not to end until a serious wound has been inflicted; and you know that bullets are not to be trifled with. We must select a spot near some house to which the wounded party can be carried if necessary. In fact, the arrangements will take us another two or three hours at least." The vicomte articulated for the second time: "Thank you." "You're all right?" asked the colonel. "Quite calm?" "Perfectly calm, thank you." The two men withdrew. When he was once more alone he felt as though he should go mad. His servant having lighted the lamps, he sat down at his table to write some letters. When he had traced at the top of a sheet of paper the words: "This is my last will and testament," he started from his seat, feeling himself incapable of connected thought, of decision in regard to anything. So he was going to fight! He could no longer avoid it. What, then, possessed him? He wished to fight, he was fully determined to fight, and yet, in spite of all his mental effort, in spite of the exertion of all his will power, he felt that he could not even preserve the strength necessary to carry him through the ordeal. He tried to conjure up a picture of the duel, his own attitude, and that of his enemy. Every now and then his teeth chattered audibly. He thought he would read, and took down Chateauvillard's Rules of Dueling. Then he said: "Is the other man practiced in the use of the pistol? Is he well known? How can I find out?" He remembered Baron de Vaux's book on marksmen, and searched it from end to end. Georges Lamil was not menti
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55  
56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

vicomte

 

wished

 
thought
 

colonel

 

strength

 

seconds

 

possessed

 

feeling

 

marksmen

 

testament


started
 

incapable

 

Perfectly

 

remembered

 

regard

 

decision

 

withdrew

 

connected

 

lighted

 

servant


Georges

 

searched

 

traced

 

letters

 

conjure

 

Chateauvillard

 

ordeal

 

preserve

 

picture

 
chattered

audibly

 
attitude
 

exertion

 

effort

 

longer

 

pistol

 

determined

 

Dueling

 

mental

 

practiced


inflicted

 

single

 

changed

 

receive

 

betray

 

offended

 

yielded

 
privilege
 

arranged

 

adversary