am, damn it! Be on your guard,
each of you!"

The combatants were facing one another, with their seconds by their
sides.

He uttered the single word:

"Come!"

Cisy became dreadfully pale. The end of his blade was quivering like a
horsewhip. His head fell back, his hands dropped down helplessly, and he
sank unconscious on the ground. Joseph raised him up and while holding a
scent-bottle to his nose, gave him a good shaking.

The Vicomte reopened his eyes, then suddenly grasped at his sword like a
madman. Frederick had held his in readiness, and now awaited him with
steady eye and uplifted hand.

"Stop! stop!" cried a voice, which came from the road simultaneously
with the sound of a horse at full gallop, and the hood of a cab broke
the branches. A man bending out his head waved a handkerchief, still
exclaiming:

"Stop! stop!"

M. de Comaing, believing that this meant the intervention of the police,
lifted up his walking-stick.

"Make an end of it. The Vicomte is bleeding!"

"I?" said Cisy.

In fact, he had in his fall taken off the skin of his left thumb.

"But this was by falling," observed the Citizen.

The Baron pretended not to understand.

Arnoux had jumped out of the cab.

"I have arrived too late? No! Thanks be to God!"

He threw his arms around Frederick, felt him, and covered his face with
kisses.

"I am the cause of it. You wanted to defend your old friend! That's
right--that's right! Never shall I forget it! How good you are! Ah! my
own dear boy!"

He gazed at Frederick and shed tears, while he chuckled with delight.
The Baron turned towards Joseph:

"I believe we are in the way at this little family party. It is over,
messieurs, is it not? Vicomte, put your arm into a sling. Hold on! here
is my silk handkerchief."

Then, with an imperious gesture: "Come! no spite! This is as it should
be!"

The two adversaries shook hands in a very lukewarm fashion. The Vicomte,
M. de Comaing, and Joseph disappeared in one direction, and Frederick
left with his friends in the opposite direction.

As the Madrid Restaurant was not far off, Arnoux proposed that they
should go and drink a glass of beer there.

"We might even have breakfast."

But, as Dussardier had no time to lose, they confined themselves to
taking some refreshment in the garden.

They all experienced that sense of satisfaction which follows happy
_denouements_. The Citizen, nevertheless, was annoyed at the duel having
been