"What has taken place between you and Branicki?"

"I will tell you the whole story, my lord, in private after supper."

The conversation became indifferent, and after the meal was over the
palatin took up his stand by the small door by which he was accustomed to
leave the room, and there I told him the whole story. He sighed, condoled
with me, and added,--

"You had good reasons for being absent-minded at cards."

"May I presume to ask your excellency's advice?"

"I never give advice in these affairs, in which you must do every-thing
or nothing."

The palatin shook me by the hand, and I went home and slept for six
hours. As soon as I awoke I sat up in bed, and my first thought was
everything or nothing. I soon rejected the latter alternative, and I saw
that I must demand a duel to the death. If Branicki refused to fight I
should be compelled to kill him, even if I were to lose my head for it.

Such was my determination; to write to him proposing a duel at four
leagues from Warsaw, this being the limit of the starostia, in which
duelling was forbidden on pain of death. I Wrote as follows, for I have
kept the rough draft of the letter to this day:

"WARSAW,