Page:Louise de la Valliere text.djvu/99

Rh LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE. 89 "I beg your pardon, but you forget one circumstance." "What is that?" each other on foot, your swords between your teeth, and your pistols in your hands/' "True." "While now, on the contrary, as I cannot walk, you your- self admit that we shall have to mount our horses again, and charge, and the first who wishes to fire will do so." "That is the best course, no doubt; but it is quite dark; we must make allowance for more missed shots than would be the case in the daytime." "Very well; each will fire three times; the pair of pistols already loaded, and one reload." "Excellent! Where shall our engagement take place?" "Have you any preference?" "No." "You see that small wood which lies before us." "The wood which is called Eochin?" "Exactly." "You know it, then?" "Perfectly." "You know that there is an open glade in the center?" "Yes." "Well, this glade is admirably adapted for such a pur- pose, with a variety of roads, by-places, paths, ditches, windings, and avenues. We could not find a better spot." "1 am perfectly satisfied, if you are so. We have arrived, if I am not mistaken." "Yes. Look at the beautiful open space in the center. The faint light which the stars afford seems concentrated in this spot; the woods which surround it seem, with their barriers, to form its natural limits." "Very good. Do, then, as you say." "Let us first settle the conditions." "These are mine; if you have any objection to make, you .^ill state it." "I am listening." "If the horse be killed, its rider will be obliged to fight on foot." "That is a matter of course, since we have no change of horses here." "But that does not oblige his adversary to dismount." "His adversary will, in fact, be free to act as he likes." "The adversaries, having once met in close contact, can-
 * That in your duel with Follinent you advanced toward