handsome face
brazen in the sun. But it might have struck a stranger as odd that there
appeared in his train, not only his seconds carrying the sword-case, but
two of his servants carrying a portmanteau and a luncheon basket.

Early as was the hour, the sun soaked everything in warmth, and Syme was
vaguely surprised to see so many spring flowers burning gold and silver
in the tall grass in which the whole company stood almost knee-deep.

With the exception of the Marquis, all the men were in sombre and solemn
morning-dress, with hats like black chimney-pots; the little Doctor
especially, with the addition of his black spectacles, looked like an
undertaker in a farce. Syme could not help feeling a comic contrast
between this funereal church parade of apparel and the rich and
glistening meadow, growing wild flowers everywhere. But, indeed, this
comic contrast between the yellow blossoms and the black hats was but a
symbol of the tragic contrast between the yellow blossoms and the black
business. On his right was a little wood; far away to his left lay the
long curve of the railway line, which he was, so to speak, guarding from
the Marquis, whose goal and escape it was. In front of him, behind the
black group of his opponents, he could see, like a tinted cloud, a small
almond bush in flower against the faint line of the sea.

The member of the Legion of Honour, whose name it seemed was Colonel
Ducroix, approached the Professor and Dr. Bull with great politeness,
and suggested that the play should terminate with the first considerable
hurt.

Dr. Bull, however, having been carefully coached by Syme upon this point
of policy, insisted, with great dignity and in very bad French, that it
should continue until one of the combatants was disabled. Syme had made
up his mind that he could avoid disabling the Marquis and prevent
the Marquis from disabling him for at least twenty minutes. In twenty
minutes the Paris train would have gone by.

"To a man of the well-known skill and valour of Monsieur de St.
Eustache," said the Professor solemnly, "it must be a matter of
indifference which method is adopted, and our principal has strong
reasons for demanding the longer encounter, reasons the delicacy of
which prevent me from being explicit, but for the just and honourable
nature of which I can--"

"Peste!" broke from the Marquis behind, whose face had suddenly
darkened, "let us stop talking and begin," and he slashed off the head