"Wake him," said the officer in a tone of a man used to command on a
large scale.
Dujardin heard, and did not choose a stranger should think he was
asleep in broad day. He came hastily out of the tent, therefore, with
Josephine's letter in his hand, and, in the very act of conveying it to
his bosom, found himself face to face with--her husband.
Did you ever see two duellists cross rapiers?
How unlike a theatrical duel! How smooth and quiet the bright blades
are! they glide into contact. They are polished and slippery, yet they
hold each other. So these two men's eyes met, and fastened: neither
spoke: each searched the other's face keenly. Raynal's countenance,
prepared as he was for this meeting, was like a stern statue's. The
other's face flushed, and his heart raged and sickened at sight of the
man, that, once his comrade and benefactor, was now possessor of the
woman he loved. But the figures of both stood alike haughty, erect, and
immovable, face to face.
Colonel Raynal saluted Colonel Dujardin ceremoniously. Colonel Dujardin
returned the salute in the same style.
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