of his adversary, Dagobert could not help saying in the German language: “I know German. Speak in German—the rest will understand you.”      

       New spectators now arrived, and joined the first comers; the adventure had become exciting, and a ring was formed around the two persons most concerned.     

       The Prophet resumed in German: “I said that you were not civil, and I now say you are grossly rude. What do you answer to that?”      

       “Nothing!” said Dagobert, coldly, as he proceeded to rinse out another       piece of linen.     

       “Nothing!” returned Morok; “that is very little. I will be less brief, and tell you, that, when an honest man offers a glass of wine civilly to a stranger, that stranger has no right to answer with insolence, and deserves to be taught manners if he does so.”      

       Great drops of sweat ran down Dagobert’s forehead and cheeks; his large imperial was incessantly agitated by nervous trembling—but he restrained himself. Taking, by two of the corners, the handkerchief which he had just dipped in the water, he shook it, wrung it, and began to hum to himself the burden of the old camp ditty:     

      “Out of Tirlemont’s flea-haunted den, We ride forth next day of the sen, With sabre in hand, ah! Good-bye to Amanda,” etc. 

       The silence to which Dagobert had condemned himself, almost choked him; this song afforded him some relief.     

       Morok, turning towards the spectators, said to them, with an air of hypocritical restraint: “We knew that the soldiers of Napoleon were pagans, who stabled their horses in churches, and offended the Lord a hundred times a day, and who, for their sins, were justly drowned in the Beresino, like so many Pharaohs; but we did not know that the Lord, to punish these miscreants, had deprived them of courage—their single gift. Here is a man, who has insulted, in me, a creature favored by divine grace, and who affects not to understand that I require an apology; or else—”      

       “What?” said Dagobert, without looking at the Prophet.     

       “Or you must give me satisfaction!—I have already told you that I have seen service. We shall 

 Prev. P 46/1429 next