They fired at
once; the Duke in the air, and the Baronet in his friend's side. When
Sir Lucius saw his Grace fall his hate vanished. He ran up with real
anxiety and unfeigned anguish.
'Have I hit you? by h-ll!'
His Grace was magnanimous, but the case was urgent. A surgeon gave a
favourable report, and extracted the ball on the spot. The Duke was
carried back to his chaise, and in an hour was in the state bed, not of
the Alhambra, but of his neglected mansion.
Arundel Dacre retired when he had seen his friend home, but gave urgent
commands that he should be kept quiet. No sooner was the second out
of sight than the principal ordered the room to be cleared, with the
exception of Spiridion, and then, rising in his bed, wrote this note,
which the page was secretly to deliver.
'----House, ----, 182-.
'Dear Miss Dacre,
'A very unimportant but somewhat disagreeable incident has occurred.
I have been obliged to meet Sir Lucius Grafton, and our meeting has
fortunately terminated without any serious consequences. Yet I wish that
you should hear of this first from me, lest you might imagine that I had
not redeemed my pledge of last night, and that I had placed for a moment
my own feelings in competition with yours.
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