THE COMBAT AND ITS ISSUE.
Lord Aspenly made one or two eager passes at his opponent, which were
parried with perfect ease and coolness; and before he had well
recovered his position from the last of those lunges, a single clanging
sweep of the major's sword, taking his adversary's blade from the point
to the hilt with irresistible force, sent his lordship's weapon
whirring through the air some eight or ten yards away.
"Take your life, my lord," said the major, contemptuously; "I give it
to you freely, only wishing the present were more valuable. What do you
say _now_, my lord, to the terms?"
"I say, sir--what do _I_ say?" echoed his lordship, not very
coherently. "Major O'Leary, you have disarmed me, sir, and you ask me
what I say to your terms. What do I say? Why, sir, I say again what I
said before, that I cannot and will not subscribe to them."
Lord Aspenly, having thus delivered himself, looked half astonished and
half frightened at his own valour.
"Everyone to his taste--your lordship has an uncommon inclination for
slaughter," observed the major coolly, walking to the spot where lay
the little gentleman's sword, raising it, and carelessly presenting it
to him: "take it, my lord, and use it more cautiously than you _have_
done--defend yourself!"
Little expecting another encounter, yet ashamed to decline it, his
lordship, with a trembling hand, grasped the weapon once more, and
again their blades were crossed in deadly combat. This time his
lordship prudently forbore to risk his safety by an impetuous attack
upon an adversary so cool and practised as the major, and of whose
skill he had just had so convincing a proof. Major O'Leary, therefore,
began the attack; and pressing his opponent with some slight feints and
passes, followed him closely as he retreated for some twenty yards, and
then, suddenly striking up to the point of his lordship's sword with
his own, he seized the little nobleman's right arm at the wrist with a
grasp like a vice, and once more held his life at his disposal.
"Take your life for the second and the _last_ time," said the major,
having suffered the wretched little gentleman for a brief pause to
fully taste the bitterness of death; "mind, my lord, for the _last_
time;" and so saying, he contemptuously flung his lordship from him by
the arm which he grasped.
"Now, my lord, before we begin for the _last_ time, listen to me," said
the major, with a sternness, which commanded all the attention of the
affrighted peer; "I desire that you should _fully_ understand what I
propose. I would not like to kill you under a mistake--there is nothing
like a clear, mutual understanding during a quarrel. Such an
understanding being once established, bloodshed, if it unfortunately
occurs, can scarcely, even in the most scrupulous bosom, excite the
mildest regret. I wish, my lord, to have nothing whatever to reproach
myself with in the catastrophe which you appear to have resolved shall
overtake you; and, therefore, I'll state the whole case for your dying
consolation in as few words as possible. Don't be in a hurry, my lord,
I'll not detain you more than five minutes in this miserable world.
Now, my lord, you have two strong, indeed I may call them in every
sense _fatal_, objections to my proposal. The first is, that if you
write the letter I propose, you must fight Sir Richard and young Henry
Ashwoode. Now, I pledge myself, my soul, and honour, as a Christian, a
soldier, and a gentleman, that I will stand between you and them--that
_I_ will protect you completely from all responsibility upon that
score--and that if anyone is to fight with either of them, it shall not
be you. Your second objection is, that having been fool enough to tell
the world that you were coming here for a wife, you are ashamed to go
away without one. Now, without meaning to be offensive, I never heard
anything more idiotic in the whole course of my life. But if it _must_
be so, and that you cannot go away without a wife, why the d----l don't
you ask Emily Copland--a fine girl with some thousands of pounds, I
believe, and at all events dying for love of you, as I am sure you see
yourself? You can't care for one more than the other, and why the deuce
need you trouble your head about their gossip, if anyone wonders at the
change? And now, my lord, mark me, I have said all that is to be said
in the way of commentary or observation upon my proposal, and I must
add a word or two about the consequences of finally rejecting it. I
have spared your life twice, my lord, within these five minutes. If you
refuse the accommodation I have proposed, I will a third time give you
an opportunity of disembarrassing yourself of the whole affair by
running me through the body--in which, if you fail, so sure as you are
this moment alive and breathing before me, you shall, at the end of the
next five, be a corpse. So help me God!"
Major O'Leary paused, leaving Lord Aspenly in a state of confusion and
horror, scarcely short of distraction.
There was no mistaking the major's manner, and the old _beau garçon_
already felt in imagination the cold steel busy with his intestines.
"But, Major O'Leary," said he, despairingly, "will you engage--can you
pledge yourself that no mischief shall follow from my withdrawing as
you say? not that I would care to avoid a duel when occasion required;
but no one likes to unnecessarily risk himself. Will you indeed prevent
all unpleasantness?"
"Did I pledge my soul and honour that I would?" inquired the major
sternly.
"Well, I am satisfied. I do agree," replied his lordship. "But is there
any occasion for me to remove _to-night_?"
"Every occasion," replied the major, coolly. "You must come directly
with me, and write the letter--and this evening, before supper, you
must leave Morley Court. And, above all things, just remember this, let
there be no trickery or treachery in this matter. So sure as I see the
smallest symptom of anything of the kind, I will bring about such
another piece of work as has not been for many a long day. Am I fully
understood?"
"Perfectly--perfectly, my dear sir," replied the nobleman. "Clearly
understood. And believe me, Major, when I say that nothing but the fact
that I myself, for private reasons, am not unwilling to break the
matter off, could have induced me to co-operate with you in this
business. Believe me, sir, otherwise I should have fought until one or
other of us had fallen to rise no more."
"To be sure you would, my lord," rejoined the major, with edifying
gravity. "And in the meantime your lordship will much oblige me by
walking up to the house. There's pen and paper in Sir Richard's study;
and between us we can compose something worthy of the occasion. Now, my
lord, if you please."
Thus, side by side, walked the two elderly gentlemen, like the very
best friends, towards the old house. And shrewd indeed would have been
that observer who could have gathered from the manner of either
(whatever their flushed faces and somewhat ruffled exterior might have
told), as with formal courtesy they threaded the trim arbours together,
that but a few minutes before each had sought the other's life.