“Yes? but I doubt that your object was like theirs⁠—to rescue the Holy Sepulchre.”

“You are quite right, Beauchamp,” observed the young aristocrat. “It was only to fight as an amateur. I cannot bear duelling ever since two seconds, whom I had chosen to arrange an affair, forced me to break the arm of one of my best friends, one whom you all know⁠—poor Franz d’Épinay.”

“Ah, true,” said Debray, “you did fight some time ago; about what?”