For some time after his duel with Captain Muller, it is probable that the little cornet was, after Marlborough himself, the most popular man in the British army in Flanders.

He, however, bore his honours quietly, shrinking from notice, and seldom going down into the town.

Any mention of the duel was painful to him; for although he considered that he was perfectly justified in taking up the quarrel forced upon his regiment, yet he sincerely regretted that he should have been obliged to kill a man, however dangerous and obnoxious, in cold blood.
Two days after the duel he received a letter from his grandfather.
It was only the second he had received.

In the previous letter Colonel Holliday alluded to something which he had said in a prior communication, and Rupert had written back to say that no such letter had come to hand.

The answer ran as follows: "My dear Grandson--Your letter has duly come to hand.