The event had created a very unusual amount of
excitement, because, in the first place, the attempt to murder
Rupert at the mill of Dettinheim had created much talk. The
intention of Captain Muller to force a quarrel on the officers of
the 5th had also been a matter of public comment, while the manner
in which the young cornet of that regiment had taken up the gage,
added to the extraordinary inequality between the combatants, gave
a special character to the duel.
It was eight in the morning when Rupert Holliday rode up to the
place fixed upon, a quiet valley some three miles from the town. On
the slopes of hills on either side were gathered some two or three
hundred officers, English, Dutch, and German, the bottom of the
valley, which was some forty yards across, being left clear. There
was, however, none of the life and animation which generally
characterize a military gathering. The British officers looked
sombre and stern at what they deemed nothing short of the
approaching murder of their gallant young countryman; and the
Germans were grave and downcast, for they felt ashamed of the
inequality of the contest. Among both parties there was earnest
though quiet talk of arresting the duel, but such a step would have
been absolutely unprecedented.
The arrival of the officers of the 5th, who rode up in a body a few
minutes before Rupert arrived with Lord Fairholm and his friend
Dillon, somewhat changed the aspect of affairs, for their cheerful
faces showed that from some cause, at which the rest were unable to
guess, they by no means regarded the death of their comrade as a
foregone event.
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