tallow candle. Then snatching an
unlucky glass tumbler off the mantelpiece he dashed it violently on the
floor.

Now that D'Hubert was an officer of superior rank there could be no
question of a duel. Neither of them could send or receive a challenge
without rendering himself amenable to a court-martial. It was not to be
thought of. Lieut. Feraud, who for many days now had experienced no
real desire to meet Lieut. D'Hubert arms in hand, chafed again at the
systematic injustice of fate. "Does he think he will escape me in that
way?" he thought, indignantly. He saw in this promotion an intrigue, a
conspiracy, a cowardly manoeuvre. That colonel knew what he was doing.
He had hastened to recommend his favourite for a step. It was outrageous
that a man should be able to avoid the consequences of his acts in such
a dark and tortuous manner.

Of a happy-go-lucky disposition, of a temperament more pugnacious than
military, Lieut. Feraud had been content to give and receive blows for
sheer love of armed strife, and without much thought of advancement; but
now an urgent desire to get on sprang up in his breast. This fighter by
vocation resolved in his mind to seize showy occasions and to court the
favourable opinion of his chiefs like a mere worldling. He knew he was
as brave as any one, and never doubted his personal charm. Nevertheless,
neither the bravery nor the charm seemed to work very swiftly. Lieut.
Feraud's engaging, careless truculence of a beau sabreur underwent a
change. He began to make bitter allusions to "clever fellows who stick
at nothing to get on." The army was full of them, he would say; you had
only to look round. But all the time he had in view one person only, his
adversary, D'Hubert. Once he confided to an appreciative friend: "You
see, I don't know how to fawn on the right sort of people. It isn't in
my character."

He did not get his step till a week after Austerlitz. The Light Cavalry
of the Grand Army had its hands very full of interesting work for a
little while. Directly the pressure of professional occupation had been
eased Captain Feraud took measures to arrange a meeting without loss of
time. "I know my bird," he observed, grimly. "If I don't look sharp he
will take care to get himself promoted over the heads of a dozen better
men than himself. He's got the knack for that sort of thing."

This duel was fought in Silesia. If not fought to a finish, it was, at
any rate, fought to a standstill. T