Whether the emotion had been one for some time previous restrained, or that my last words had provoked it suddenly, I cannot tell, but the lady here burst out into a fit of laughter, but which was as suddenly checked by some sharp observation of the colonel, whose stern features grew sterner and darker every moment. ‘There we differ, sir,’ said he, ‘for I should not’ At the same instant he pushed his plate away, to make room on the table for a small portfolio, opening which, he prepared to write. ‘You will bring this paper,’ continued he, ‘to the provost-marshal. To-morrow morning you shall be tried by a regimental court-martial, and as your sentence may probably be the galleys and hard labour----’ ‘I ‘ll save them the trouble,’ said I, quietly drawing my sword; but scarcely was it clear of the scabbard when a shriek broke from the lady, who possibly knew not the object of my act; at the same instant the colonel bounded across the chamber, and striking me a severe blow upon the arm, dashed the weapon from my hand to the ground. ‘You want the fusillade--is that what you want?’ cried he, as, in a towering fit of passion, he dragged me forward to the light. I was now standing close to the table; the lady raised her eyes towards me, and at once broke out into a burst of laughter--such hearty, merry laughter, that, even with the fear of death before me, I could almost have joined in it. ‘What is it--what do you mean, Laure?’ cried the colonel angrily. ‘Don’t you see it?’ said she, still holding her kerchief to her face--‘can’t you perceive it yourself? He has only one moustache!’ I turned hastily towards the mirror beside me, and there was the fatal fact revealed--one gallant curl disported proudly over the left cheek, while the other was left bare. ‘Is the fellow mad--a mountebank?’ said the colonel, whose anger was now at its white heat. ‘Neither, sir,’ said I, tearing off my remaining moustache, in shame and passion together. ‘Among my other misfortunes I have that of being young; and what’s worse, I was ashamed of it; but I begin to see my error, and know that a man may be old without gaining either in dignity or temper.’ With a stroke of his closed fist upon the table, the colonel made every glass and decanter spring from their places, while he uttered an oath that was only current in the days of that army. ‘This is beyond belief,’ cried he. ‘Come, _gredin_, you have at least had one piece of good fortune: you’ve fallen precisely into the hands of one who can deal with you.--Your regiment?’ ‘The Ninth Hussars.’ ‘Your name?’ ‘Tiernay.’ ‘Tiernay; that’s not a French name?’ ‘Not originally; we were Irish once.’ ‘Irish,’ said he, in a different tone from what he had hitherto used. ‘Any relative of a certain Comte Maurice de Tiernay, who once served in the Royal Guard?’ ‘His son, sir.’ ‘What--his son! Art certain of this, lad? You remember your mother’s name then--what was it?’