as his representatives. They declared, with evident sincerity, that
Romayne had made a fatal mistake; had provoked the insult offered to
him; and had resented it by a brutal and cowardly outrage. As a man and
a soldier, the General was doubly bound to insist on a duel. No apology
would be accepted, even if an apology were offered.

In this emergency, as I understood it, there was but one course to
follow. I refused to receive the challenge.

Being asked for my reasons, I found it necessary to speak within certain
limits. Though we knew the General to be a cheat, it was a delicate
matter to dispute his right to claim satisfaction, when he had found
two officers to carry his message. I produced the seized cards (which
Romayne had brought away with him in his pocket), and offered them as a
formal proof that my friend had not been mistaken.

The seconds--evidently prepared for this circumstance by their
principal--declined to examine the cards. In the first place, they said,
not even the discovery of foul play (supposing the discovery to have
been really made) could justify Romayne's conduct. In the second
place, the General's high character made it impossible, under any
circumstances, that he could be responsible. Like ourselves, he had
rashly associated with bad company; and he had been the innocent victim
of an error or a fraud, committed by some other person present at the
table.

Driven to my last resource, I could now only base my refusal to receive
the challenge on the ground that we were Englishmen, and that the
practice of dueling had been abolished in England. Both the seconds at
once declined to accept this statement in justification of my conduct.