We took the forest road. Mixed with the sound of hoofs and wheels, I could hear the footsteps of the running torchmen: the flickering light shot in between the tree-boles, disturbing the wood creatures, and, as we went, all of a sudden, the jägers running with us broke out in a chorus of what seemed lamentation mixed with curses. Von der Goltz sprang up on the seat and looked ahead. "A white hare is running before us," said he. "That is bad for Count Carl von Lichtenberg." My father bowed slightly, as if to a half-heard remark. A white hare, it seems, was the sign of death in the house of Lichtenberg. Turning a bend in the road, the carriage drew up. We waited for a moment till the sound behind told us that the second carriage had also stopped. Then we alighted. "Joubert," said my father, handing him a packet, "you will stay here with the dog. Open this packet should anything befall me. Patrick, you will come with me." "Dieu vous garde!" said Joubert. And, following the others, we entered the forest. I felt sick and faint with fear, and the light of the dancing torch-flames made me reel. I held tight to my father's hand, and I remember thinking how big and strong and warm it was. What was about to happen I could not guess, but I knew that the shadow of death was with us, and the chill of him in my heart. We had not gone more than two hundred yards when we came to a clearing amidst the trees--a breezy, open space, that the moon lit over the waving pine-tops. Here the jägers divided themselves into two lines, five yards or so apart, and stood motionless as soldiers on parade. Baron von Lichtenberg with his arms folded, stood with his back to us, looking at the clouds running across the face of the moon; and the two army officers, drawing aside, began to undo the swords from the bundle. "Patrick," said my father, leading me under the shade of the trees, "I struck my kinsman in his own house to-night. The only excuse I can make for that action is to kill him, so let this be a lesson to you the length of your life." He stopped, stooped, hugged me in his arms, and then strode out into the torchlight, and took his sword from Von der Goltz. It was a curious little speech, or would have been from anyone but an Irishman. But I was not thinking of it. I was mesmerised by the sight before me. When the two men took their swords they returned them to the seconds. The swords were then bent to prove the steel, and measured, and then returned to the principals. Then the jägers moved together almost shoulder to shoulder, and in the space between the two lines of torches the duellists took their stand. There was dead silence for a moment. I could hear the wind in the pines, and the guttering and slobbering of the flambeaux, and a fox barking, away somewhere in the forest. Then came General Hahn's voice, and, instant upon it, the quarrelling of the rapiers.