ed army
like ours, causes for dispute and jealousy are sure to arise, and
without some stringent regulation we should be always fighting
among ourselves."

At an early hour on the following morning a stranger would have
supposed that some great military spectacle was about to take
place, so large was the number of officers riding from Liege and
the military stations around it towards the place fixed upon for
the duel. The event had created a very unusual amount of
excitement, because, in the first place, the attempt to murder
Rupert at the mill of Dettinheim had created much talk. The
intention of Captain Muller to force a quarrel on the officers of
the 5th had also been a matter of public comment, while the manner
in which the young cornet of that regiment had taken up the gage,
added to the extraordinary inequality between the combatants, gave
a special character to the duel.

It was eight in the morning when Rupert Holliday rode up to the
place fixed upon, a quiet valley some three miles from the town. On
the slopes of hills on either side were gathered some two or three
hundred officers, English, Dutch, and German, the bottom of the
valley, which was some forty yards across, being left clear. There
was, however, none of the life and animation which generally
characterize a military gathering. The British officers looked
sombre and stern at what they deemed nothing short of the
approaching murder of their gallant young countryman; and the
Germans were grave and downcast, for they felt ashamed of the
inequality of the contest. Among both parties there was earnest
though quiet talk of arresting the duel, but such a step would have
been absolutely unprecedented.

The arrival of the officers of the 5th, who rode up in a body a few
minutes before Rupert arrived with Lord Fairholm and his friend
Dillon, somewhat changed the aspect of affairs, for their cheerful
faces showed that from some cause, at which the rest were unable to
guess, they by no means regarded the death of their comrade as a
foregone event. As they alighted and gave their horses to the
orderlies who had followed them, their acquaintances gathered round
them full of expressions of indignation and regret at the
approaching duel.

"Is there any chance of this horrible business being stopped?" an
old colonel asked Colonel Forbes as he alighted. "There is a report
that the general has got wind of it, and will at the last moment
put an end to it by arres