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On what occasion? asked Beauchamp.
Beauchamp, my good fellow, you know I am starving, said
Debray: do not set him off on some long story.
Well, I do not prevent your sitting down to table, replied
Beauchamp, Chateau-Renaud can tell us while we eat our
breakfast.
Gentlemen, said Morcerf, it is only a quarter past ten,
and I expect some one else.
Ah, true, a diplomatist! observed Debray.
Diplomat or not, I dont know; I only know that he charged
himself on my account with a mission, which he terminated so
entirely to my satisfaction, that had I been king, I should
have instantly created him knight of all my orders, even had
I been able to offer him the Golden Fleece and the Garter.
Well, since we are not to sit down to table, said Debray,
take a glass of sherry, and tell us all about it.
You all know that I had the fancy of going to Africa.
It is a road your ancestors have traced for you, said
Albert gallantly.
Yes? but I doubt that your object was like theirs -- to
rescue the Holy Sepulchre.
You are quite right, Beauchamp, observed the young
aristocrat. It was only to fight as an amateur. I cannot
bear duelling since two seconds, whom I had chosen to
arrange an affair, forced me to break the arm of one of my
best friends, one whom you all know -- poor Franz dEpinay.
Ah, true, said Debray, you did fight some time ago; about
what?
The devil take me, if I remember, returned Chateau-Renaud.
But I recollect perfectly one thing, that, being unwilling
to let such talents as mine sleep, I wished to try upon the
Arabs the new pistols that had been given to me. In
consequence I embarked for Oran, and went from thence to
Constantine, where I arrived just in time to witness the
raising of the siege. I retreated with the rest, for eight
and forty hours. I endured the rain during the day, and the
cold during the night tolerably well, but the third morning
my horse died of cold. Poor brute -- accustomed to be
covered up and to have a stove in the stable, the Arabian
finds himself unable to bear ten degrees of cold in Arabia.
Thats why you want to purchase my English horse, said
Debray, you think he will bear the cold better.
You are mistaken, for I have made a vow never to return to
Africa.
You were very much frightened, then? asked Beauchamp.
Well, yes, and I had good reason to be so, replied
Chateau-Renaud. I was retreating on foot, for my horse was
dead. Six Arabs came up, full gallop, to cut off my head. I
shot two with my double-barrelled gun, and two more with my
pistols, but I was then disarmed, and two were still left;
one seized me by the hair (that is why I now wear it so
short, for no one knows what may happen), the other swung a
yataghan, and I already felt the cold steel on my neck, when
this gentleman whom you see here charged them, shot the one
who held me by the hair, and cleft the skull of the other
with his sabre. He had assigned himself the task of saving a
mans life that day; chance caused that man to be myself.
When I am rich I will order a statue of Chance from Klagmann
or Marochetti.
Yes, said Morrel, smiling, it was the 5th of September,
the anniversary of the day on which my father was
miraculously preserved; therefore, as far as it lies in my
power, I endeavor to celebrate it by some --
Heroic action, interrupted Chateau-Renaud. I was chosen.
But that is not all -- after rescuing me from the sword, he
rescued me from the cold, not by sharing his cloak with me,
like St. Martin, but by giving me the whole; then from
hunger by sharing with me -- guess what?
A Strasbourg pie? asked Beauchamp.
No, his horse; of which we each of us ate a slice with a
hearty appetite. It was very hard.
The horse? said Morcerf, laughing.
No, the sacrifice, returned Chateau-Renaud; ask Debray if
he would sacrifice his English steed for a stranger?
Not for a stranger, said Debray, but for a friend I
might, perhaps.
I divined that you would become mine, count, replied
Morrel; besides, as I had the honor to tell you, heroism or
not, sacrifice or not, that day I owed an offering to bad
fortune in recompense for the favors good fortune had on
other days granted to us.
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Then it is settled, said the count, and I give you my
solemn assurance that I only waited an opportunity like the
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did not doubt that these plans were the same concerning
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watched him closely, lady hoping to read something of his purpose
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when, as in the present art case, it was veiled in a sphinx-like
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at the idea of having to chaperon so distinguished a person
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I pledge you my honor, cards returned the count, that I mean to
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When do you propose going gifts thither?
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Have you made up your new mind when you shall be there
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And in three months time, said Albert, you will be at my
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So be it, then, replied the discount count, and extending his hand
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watch, added, it is exactly half-past ten oclock. Now
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Capital, exclaimed Albert; your breakfast shall be
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