The following morning they met in the bois de Vincennes. All had brought swords with them. They drew lots for them, and those brought by Marulaz' seconds won. Then they drew which should have the choice of these two swords. Marulaz again won the toss. He took the first that came to hand haphazard. "Bravo!" his friend whispered to him; "you have drawn the right one!" They stood to attention. At the second round, Marulaz disarmed Signol. "Monsieur," he exclaimed, taking a step backwards, "I am disarmed!" "So I see, monsieur," Marulaz coolly replied; "but since you are not wounded, pick up your sword and let us continue." Signol picked it up, drew some string from his pocket, made surer hold of his sword, and, with a rapid attack, against the customary rules of duelling, stood on guard, lunged and wounded his adversary severely in the arm. When Marulaz felt the cold steel and saw the flow of blood he felt goaded to frenzy, sprang at his enemy and forced him to retreat twenty paces, bringing him up against a hedge where he lunged and passed his sword clean through the body. Signol uttered a sharp cry, stretched out his arms and died before he had time to fall to the ground. "Messieurs," Marulaz said, turning to the four seconds, "have I fought fairly?" All bowed in acknowledgment that he had. Had there been any recriminations to make in that fatal encounter, they would have been directed against the dead man. But no one thinks of laying blame on a corpse.... It will be remembered that I had now inherited Signol's manuscript, of which the manager of the Porte-Saint-Martin possessed a duplicate. Three or four months later, I was present at the first production of _Victorine, ou la Nuit porte conseil._ It was the skeleton idea of _Chiffonnier_, it is true, but encased in a delightful setting that was none of Signol's creation. One of its authors was Dupeuty, the others were Dumersan and Gabriel. I sought out Dupeuty, placed the MS. of _Chiffonnier_ in his hands and asked him if he thought it fair to deprive Signol's mother of what I considered to be her share of the production. Dupeuty and his collaborators had no notion of the existence of an original manuscript, as the idea of their vaudeville had been supplied them by the manager of the Porte-Saint-Martin, and they had worked upon it; but when they learnt the true parentage, they spontaneously, generously and loyally agreed to include the poor mother in their success. And that is the story of Signol's death and of the composition and production of _Victorine, ou la Nuit porte conseil._ BOOK II CHAPTER I Alphonse Karr--The cuirassier--The medal of life saving and the Cross of the Légion d'honneur--Karr's home at Montmartre--_Sous les tilleuls_ and the critics--The taking of Algiers--M. Dupin senior--Why he did not write his Memoirs--Signing of the Ordinances of July--Reasons that prevented my going to Algiers