shot with the biggest
cutting-whip he could find in any shop in Piccadilly; but then it
occurred to him that at Aldershot he would have all the British army
against him, and that the British army might do something to him
worse even than the London magistrate. Then he would wait till the
Colonel could be met elsewhere. He ascertained that the Colonel was
still at Stalham, where he had passed the Christmas, and he thought
how it might be if he were to attack the Colonel in the presence of
his friends, the Alburys. He assured himself that, as far as personal
injury went, he feared nothing. He had no disinclination to be hit
over the head himself, if he could be sure of hitting the Colonel
over the head. If it could be managed that they two should fly at
each other with their fists, and be allowed to do the worst they
could to each other for an hour, without interference, he would be
quite satisfied. But down at Stalham that would not be allowed. All
the world would be against him, and nobody there to see that he got
fair play. If he could encounter the man in the streets of London it
would be better; but were he to seek the man down at Stalham he would
probably find himself in the County Lunatic Asylum. What must he do
for his revenge? He was surely entitled to it. By all the laws of
chivalry, as to which he had his own ideas, he had a right to inflict
an injury upon a successful--even upon an unsuccessful--rival. Was it
not a shame that so excellent an institution as duelling should have
been stamped out? Wandering about the lawns and shrubberies at Merle
Park he thought of all this, and at last he came to a resolution.

The institution had been stamped out, as far as Great Britain was
concerned. He was aware of that. But it seemed to him that it had not
been stamped out in other more generous countries. He had happened to
notice that a certain enthusiastic politician in France had enjoyed
many duels, and had never been severely repressed by the laws of his
country. Newspaper writers were always fighting in France, and were
never guillotined. The idea of being hanged was horrible to him,--so
distasteful that he saw at a glance that a duel in England was out
of the question. But to have his head cut off, even if it should
come to that, would be a much less affair. But in Belgium, in Italy,
in Germany, they never did cut off the heads of the very numerous
gentlemen who fought duels. And there were the Southern States of th