"My dear Captain," he said, "at this moment you would particularly like to pass your good sword through my body, or to lodge a ball in my leg--for, in consideration of our old friendship, I presume you would spare my head. You shall have the opportunity, if you positively insist upon it. But if you kill me, who will arrange your marriage with Mademoiselle Nanteuil?" Pelletier stared at his adversary with an astonished look, which redoubled the Doctor's good humour. "Who is Mademoiselle Nanteuil?" he at last said, his voice involuntarily softening. "An amiable heiress whom I attend, although she is in perfect health; who has two hundred thousand francs in possession, as much more in perspective, and who, if an intelligent friend undertook the negotiation, would consent, I think, to bestow her hand and fortune upon a good-looking fellow like yourself." "Confound this Magnian!" said the Captain, taking the Doctor's arm, "it is impossible to be angry with him." FOOTNOTES: [8] It is pretty generally known--even to those to whom it has not been granted to stand in the imposing presence of our fast friend and ancient ally, Monsieur Alexandre Dumas--that there is a slight tinge of black in the blood of that greatest of French _romanciers_, past, present, or to come. In connexion with the fact, we will cite an anecdote:-- A person more remarkable for inquisitiveness than for correct breeding--one of those who, devoid of delicacy and reckless of rebuffs, pry into every thing--took the liberty to question M. Dumas rather closely concerning his genealogical tree. "You are a quadroon, M. Dumas?" he began. "I am, sir," quietly replied Dumas, who has sense enough not to be ashamed of a descent he cannot conceal. "And your father?" "Was a mulatto." "And your grandfather?" "A negro," hastily answered the dramatist, whose patience was waning fast. "And may I inquire what your great-grandfather was?" "An ape, sir," thundered Dumas, with a fierceness that made his impertinent interrogator shrink into the smallest possible compass. "An ape, sir--my pedigree commences where yours terminates." The father of Alexander Dumas, the republican general of the same name, was a mulatto, born in St Domingo, the son of a negress and of the white Marquis de la Pailleterie. By what legitimatizing process the bend sinister was erased, and the marquisate preserved, we have hitherto been unable to ascertain. BELISARIUS,--WAS HE BLIND? [Transcriber's Note: Greek sections in this article are unclear and have been transliterated to the best of my ability. The very unclear letters have been replaced by an asterisk]