o
me that you are incapable of leaving a brave man in distress."

"Welcome, provided always the brave man has no need of my purse, for I
confess, freely, that I have just left my last crown in a cabaret on the
Port de la Tonnelle."

"Nobody wants your purse, captain; on the contrary, I beg you to believe
that mine is at your disposal."

"To whom have I the honor to speak?" asked the captain, visibly touched
by this reply, "and in what can I oblige you?"

"I am the Baron Rene de Valef," replied the cavalier.

"I think," interrupted the captain, "that I knew, in the Flemish wars, a
family of that name."

"It was mine, since we are from Liege." The two speakers exchanged bows.

"You must know then," continued the Baron de Valef, "that the Chevalier
Raoul d'Harmental, one of my most intimate friends, last night, in my
company, picked up a quarrel, which will finish this morning by a
meeting. Our adversaries were three, and we but two. I went this morning
to the houses of the Marquis de Gace and Comte de Sourgis, but
unfortunately neither the one nor the other had passed the night in his
bed; so, as the affair could not wait, as I must set out in two hours
for Spain, and that we absolutely require a second, or rather a third, I
installed myself on the Pont Neuf with the intention of addressing the
first gentleman who passed. You passed, and I addressed myself to you."

"And you have done right, pardieu! rest satisfied, baron, I am your man.
What hour is fixed for the meeting?"

"Half-past nine this morning."

"Where will it take place?"

"At the Port Maillot."

"Diable! there is no time to lose; but you are on horseback and I am on
foot; how shall we manage that?"

"There is a way, captain."

"What is it?"

"It is that you should do me the honor of mounting behind me."

"Willingly, baron."

"I warn you, however," added the young cavalier, with a slight smile,
"that my horse is rather spirited."

"Oh, I know him!" said the captain, drawing back a step, and looking at
the beautiful animal with the eye of a connoisseur; "if I am not
mistaken, he was bred between the mountains of Grenada and the Sierra
Morena. I rode such a one at Almanza, and I have often made him lie down
like a sheep when he wanted to carry me off at a gallop, only by
pressing him with my knees."

"You reassure me. To horse then, captain."----"Here I am, baron."

And without using the stirrup, which the young cavalier left free for