"These things can never be settled too soon, when once they are determined upon," replied the young officer: "and we will not fail to be upon the ground, if you will name the spot."
"That is easily settled," replied Charles. "You see that hill," he continued, pointing to Harbury Hill, the summit of which just peeped over the trees of the park, and was visible at his windows. "It is a good landmark for all the country round, so you cannot miss it. On the top there is a flat piece of ground, it having been an old encampment. We will meet there, if you please, at six precisely. I may have some difficulty in finding a friend to accompany me upon the occasion, as this neighbourhood is somewhat thin of gentlemen; but nothing shall prevent my coming."
A few formal speeches of a courteous and civil character ended the matter, and Charles, ushering his visiter to the door, closed it, and remained alone, to think over the approaching event and the necessary preparations. To whom could he apply, he asked himself. Where could he find pistols, for he had none of his own. Everard Morrison, he doubted not, was by this time gone; and even if he were not, Charles had little doubt that, if he made known his circumstances to him, and asked him to buy him pistols and accompany him to the field, the young lawyer would positively refuse to do either, and would cause his footsteps to be dogged by officers rather than assist him in a breach of the peace.
The only two other young men in the neighbourhood with whom he was at all intimate, he knew to be absent, and he paused thoughtfully over a situation of some difficulty and discomfort. His mind then suddenly reverted to Mr. Driesen. He would, it is true, have chosen any other person upon the first impulse; but that gentleman, nevertheless, upon second thoughts, appeared to him much more eligible than anybody he could select.
Charles Tyrrell was going to do what he knew to be wrong; what, upon every principle of reason and good feeling, he disapproved of, as the most stupid and absurd, as well as the most barbarous and criminal of worldly customs; and he felt, in a religious point of view, that he not only required that mental preparation which every man must desire before death, but that he had to ask of the Almighty, not only pardon for sins past, but pardon for the very crime he was about to commit, and which was likely to hurry him into the presence of God.