g his military services,
caught sight of him with a sudden recollection of his own passionate
threat. There had been nothing in Mordaunt's words which would in our
times have justified a challenge; but in that day duels were fought upon
the slightest provocation. Lord Ulswater therefore rode up at once to
a gentleman with whom he had some intimate acquaintance, and briefly
saying that he had been insulted both as an officer and gentleman by Mr.
Mordaunt, requested his friend to call upon that gentleman and demand
satisfaction.

"To-morrow," said Lord Ulswater, "I have the misfortune to be
unavoidably engaged. The next day you can appoint place and time of
meeting."

"I must first see the gentleman to whom Mr. Mordaunt may refer me," said
the friend, prudently; "and perhaps your honour may be satisfied without
any hostile meeting at all."

"I think not," said Lord Ulswater, carelessly, as he rode away; "for Mr.
Mordaunt is a gentleman, and gentlemen never apologize."

Wolfe was standing unobserved near Lord Ulswater while the latter thus
instructed his proposed second. "Man of blood," muttered the republican;
"with homicide thy code of honour, and massacre thine interpretation of
law, by violence wouldst thou rule, and by violence mayst thou perish!"

CHAPTER LXXVII.

Jam te premet nox, fabulaeque Manes,
Et domus exilis Plutonis.--HORACE.

["This very hour Death shall overcome thee, and the fabled Manes,
and the shadowy Plutonian realms receive thee."]

The morning was dull and heavy as Lord Ulswater mounted his horse,
and unattended took his way towards Westborough Park. His manner was
unusually thoughtful and absent; perhaps two affairs upon his hands,
either of which seemed likely to end in bloodshed, were sufficient to
bring reflection even to the mind of a cavalry officer.

He had scarcely got out of the town before he was overtaken by our
worthy friend Mr. Glumford. As he had been a firm ally of Lord Ulswater
in the contest respecting the meeting, so, when he joined and saluted
that nobleman, Lord Ulswater, mindful of past services, returned his
greeting with an air rather of condescension than hauteur. To say truth,
his lordship was never very fond of utter loneliness, and the respectful
bearing of Glumford, joined to that mutual congeniality which sympathy
in political views always occasions, made him more pleased with the
society than shocked with the intrusion of the squire; so that whe