Volume IV Part 61 (2/2)

Schinable, andno reply to the other's boast placed himself between two trees, distant about four paces fro two pistols from his pocket said to d'Ache,

”Place yourself at a distance of ten paces, and fire first I shall walk to and fro between these two trees, and you may walk as far if you like to do so whencould be clearer or more calmly delivered than this explanation

”But we must decide,” said I, ”who is to have the first shot”

”There is no need,” said Schht to the first shot”

De Pyene placed his friend at the proper distance and then stepped aside, and d'Ache fired on his antagonist, alking slowly to and fro without looking at him Schmit turned round in the coolest manner possible, and said,

”You have ht he wasof the kind D'Ache fired a second tiain missed; and Schmit, without a word, but as calm as death, fired his first pistol in the air, and then covering d'Ache with his second pistol hit hiround He put back his pistols into his pocket and went off directly by hi his walk In twothat the unfortunate d'Ache no longer breathed

I was in a state of amazement Such a duel was more like a combat of romance than a real fact I could not understand it; I had watched the Swiss, and had not noticed the slightest change pass over his face

I breakfasted with Madame d'Urfe, whom I found inconsolable It was the full ht to perform the mysterious creation of the child in which she was to be born again

But the Lascaris, on who in her bed, contorting herself in such a way that it would be irief, when I heard what had happened, was hypocritical; in the first place because I no longer felt any desire for the girl, and in the second because I thought I saay in which I could eance on her

I lavished consolations on Mada the oracle I found that the Lascaris had been defiled by an evil genius, and that I in whose purity must be under the protection of more powerful spirits I saw that my madwoman was perfectly happy with this, and I left her to visit the Corticelli, whom I found in bed with her mother beside her

”You have convulsions, have you, dearest?” said I

”No, I haven't I aivewicked,yourto behave like this, probably you will have it”

”I will reveal all”

”You will not be believed; and I shall send you back to Bologna without letting you take any of the presents which Madaiven me back the casket when I declared nora Laura told h I was not the father

”Who is, then?” I asked

”Count N----, whose ue”

It did not seeht be so I was obliged to plot ht, and without saying anything to them I shut myself up with Mada the operation which was to make her happy

After several answers, more obscure than any returned from the oracular tripod at Delphi, the interpretation of which I left to the infatuated Madame d'Urfe, she discovered herself--and I took care not to contradict her--that the Countess Lascaris had goneher obtain from a cabalistic pyramid the statement that the reason the princess had not conceived was that she had been defiled by an evil genius--an enemy of the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross This put Madame d'Urfe fairly on the way, and she added on her own account that the girl nouidance on our quest, and I so directed things that the answer came that she must write to the ht her to her senses, only made her more crazy than ever She was quite ecstatic, and I aness of all this I show have had nothing for my trouble Her conclusion would probably have been that I was possessed by an evil spirit, and was no longer a true Rosy Cross

But I had no idea of undertaking a cure which would have done ood Her chimerical notions made her happy, and the cold naked truth would doubtless have made her unhappy