s; and the surgeon running up,
pronounced that life was already extinct.

The crowd of spectators now flocked down, the English with
difficulty repressing their exclamations of delight, and
congratulated Rupert on the result, which to them appeared almost
miraculous; while the senior German officer present came up to him,
and said:

"Although Captain Muller was a countryman of mine, sir, I rejoice
in the unexpected result of this duel. It has rid our army of a man
who was a scourge to it."

Plasters and bandages were now applied to Rupert's wounds; and in a
few minutes the whole party had left the valley, one German orderly
alone remaining to watch the body of the dead duellist until a
party could be sent out to convey it to the town for burial.

Chapter 10: The Battle Of The Dykes.

For some time after his duel with Captain Muller, it is probable
that the little cornet was, after Marlborough himself, the most
popular man in the British army in Flanders. He, however, bore his
honours quietly, shrinking from notice, and seldom going down into
the town. Any mention of the duel was painful to him; for although
he considered that he was perfectly justified in taking up the
quarrel forced upon his regiment, yet he sincerely regretted that
he should have been obliged to kill a man, however dangerous and
obnoxious, in cold blood.

Two days after the duel he received a letter from his grandfather.
It was only the second he had received. In the previous letter
Colonel Holliday alluded to something which he had said in a prior
communication, and Rupert had written back to say that no such
letter had come to hand. The answer ran as follows:

"My dear Grandson--Your letter has duly come to hand. I regret to
find that my first to you miscarried, and by comparing dates I
think that it must have been lost in the wreck of the brig Flora,
which was lost in a tempest on her way to Holland a few days after
I wrote. This being so, you are ignorant of the changes which have
taken place here, and which affect yourself in no slight degree.

"The match between your lady mother and Sir William Brownlow is broken
off. This took place just after you sailed for the wars. It was brought
about by our friend, Monsieur Dessin. This gentleman--who is, although
I know not his name, a French nobleman of title and distinction--received,
about the time you left, the news that he might shortly expect to hear
that the decree which had sent him