"If I kill you," continued De Wardes, "you will have secured two mortal enemies to Madame, who will do their very utmost to ruin her." "Oh! monsieur," exclaimed De Guiche, furiously, "do not reckon upon my death so easily.

Of the two enemies you speak of, I trust most heartily to dispose of one immediately, and the other at the earliest opportunity." The only reply De Wardes made was a burst of laughter, so diabolical in its sound, that a superstitious man would have been terrified.

But De Guiche was not so impressionable as that.

"I think," he said, "that everything is now settled, Monsieur de Wardes; so have the goodness to take your place first, unless you would prefer me to do so." "By no means," said De Wardes.

"I shall be delighted to save you the slightest trouble." And spurring his horse to a gallop, he crossed the wide open space, and took his stand at that point of the circumference of the cross-road immediately opposite to where De Guiche was stationed.
De Guiche remained motionless.