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As for Schmit, he fought like a brave gentleman, and I don't think you could get much out of him if he were still here. Good-day, madam." I had scarcely got fifty paces from the house when I was joined by de Pyene, who said that rather than Madame d'Ache should have to complain of me he would cut my throat on the spot. We neither of us had swords.
"I feel for your condition," I replied, "as I feel your abuse of me; and I cannot help saying that you have shewn yourself the vilest of women in inciting de Pyene, who may be an honest man for all I know, to assassinate me.
I called on him at day-break, and found him still in bed. As soon as he saw me, he said, "I am sure you have come to ask me to fight with d'Ache. I am quite ready to burn powder with him, but he must first pay me the twenty Louis he robbed me of." "You shall have them to-morrow, and I will attend you. D'Ache will be seconded by M. de Pyene." "Very good. I shall expect you at day-break."
I pledged the Corticelli's casket for a thousand louis, and proceeded to play in an English club where I had a much better chance of winning than with Germans or Frenchmen. Three or four days after d'Ache's death, his widow wrote me a note begging me to call on her. I found her in company with de Pyene.
"I should be sorry," said I, "to have anything to do with a fellow like de Pyene, and if you can rid me of him I promise you a hundred crowns." "I daresay that can be managed," he replied, "and I will tell you what I can do to-morrow!"
De Pyene placed his friend at the proper distance and then stepped aside, and d'Ache fired on his antagonist, who was walking slowly to and fro without looking at him. Schmit turned round in the coolest manner possible, and said, "You have missed me, sir; I knew you would. Try again." I thought he was mad, and that some arrangement would be come to; but nothing of the kind.
Two hours after I saw de Pyene, and we fixed the meeting for the next day, at six o'clock in the morning. The arms were to be pistols. We chose a garden, half a league from the town, as the scene of the combat. At day-break I found the Swiss waiting for me at the door of his lodgings, carolling the 'ranz-des-vaches', so dear to his fellow-countrymen. I thought that a good omen.
She called me her persecutor, and said that since the departure of her best friend, de Pyene, she did not know where to turn; that she had pledged all her belongings, and that I, who was rich, ought to aid her, if I were not the vilest of men.
An officer, named de Pyene, took me up and said that he himself would give me the twenty louis which d'Ache had taken, but that the Swiss must give satisfaction. I had no hesitation in promising that he would do so, and said I would bring a reply to the challenge the next morning. I had no fears myself.
I pledged the Corticelli's casket for a thousand louis, and proceeded to play in an English club where I had a much better chance of winning than with Germans or Frenchmen. Three or four days after d'Ache's death, his widow wrote me a note begging me to call on her. I found her in company with de Pyene.
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