M. Dubuis, who was puffing as much as the engine, said to the Englishmen: "Will you be my seconds?" They both answered together: "Ah! yes." And the train stopped. In a minute, the Prussian had found two comrades who carried pistols, and they made their way towards the ramparts. The Englishmen were continually looking at their watches, shuffling their feet, and hurrying on with the preparations, uneasy lest they should be too late for the train. M. Dubuis had never fired a pistol in his life. They made him stand twenty paces away from his enemy. He was asked: "Are you ready?" While he was answering: "Yes, monsieur," he noticed that one of the Englishmen had opened his umbrella in order to keep off the rays of the sun. A voice gave the word of command: "Fire!" M. Dubuis fired at random without minding what he was doing, and he was amazed to see the Prussian staggering in front of him, lifting up his arms, and immediately afterwards, falling straight on his face. He had killed the officer. One of the Englishmen ejaculated: "Ah!" quivering with delight, satisfied curiosity, and joyous impatience. The other, who still kept the watch in his hand, seized M. Dubuis's arm, and hurried him in double-quick time towards the station, his fellow-countryman counting their steps, with his arms pressed close to his sides--"One! two! one! two!" And all three marching abreast they rapidly made their way to the station like three grotesque figures in a comic newspaper. The train was on the point of starting. They sprang into their carriage. Then, the Englishmen, taking off their traveling-caps, waved them three times over their heads, exclaiming: "Hip! hip! hip! hurrah!" Then gravely, one after the other, they stretched out the right hand to M. Dubuis, and they went back and sat in their own corner. THE LOVE OF LONG AGO The old-fashioned chateau was built on a wooded height. Tall trees surrounded it with dark greenery; and the vast park extended its vistas here over a deep forest and there over an open plain. Some little distance from the front of the mansion stood a huge stone basin in which marble nymphs were bathing. Other basins arranged in order succeeded each other down as far as the foot of the slope, and a hidden fountain sent cascades dancing from one to the other. From the manor-house which preserved the grace of a superannuated coquette down to the grottos encrusted with shell-work, where slumbered the loves of a bygone age, everything in this antique demesne had retained the physiognomy of former days. Everything seemed to speak still of ancient customs, of the manners of long ago, of faded gallantries, and of the elegant trivialities so dear to our grandmothers.