several officers, and, among them, the bragging Provencal.

M. de Bertolan, who was a witty man, smiled when he saw me; then, with a
very serious countenance, he said to me,

"Sir, as you have made a laughing-stock of this officer in a public
place, it is but right that you should give him publicly the satisfaction
which he claims, and as commander of this city I find myself bound in
duty to ask you for that satisfaction in order to settle the affair
amicably."

"Commander," I answered, "I do not see why a satisfaction should be
offered to this gentleman, for it is not true that I have insulted him by
turning him into ridicule. I told him that I had seen him at the battle
of Arbela, and I could not have any doubt about it when he said that he
had been present at that battle, and that he knew me again."

"Yes," interrupted the officer, "but I heard Rodela and not Arbela, and
everybody knows that I fought at Rodela. But you said Arbela, and
certainly with the intention of laughing at me, since that battle has
been fought more than two thousand years ago, while the battle of Rodela
in Africa took place in our time, and I was there under the orders of the
Duke de Mortemar."

"In the first place, sir, you have no right to judge of my intentions,
but I do not dispute your having been present at Rodela, since you say
so; but in that case the tables are turned, and now I demand a reparation
from you if you dare discredit my having been at Arbela. I certainly did
not serve under the Duke de Mortemar, because he was not there, at least
to my knowledge, but I was aid-de-camp of Parmenion, and I was wounded