"
"But what was the cause of the quarrel? Why should the Duc de
Chateaurouge fix a dispute, as you tell me he did, upon this officer of
yours?"
"I believe, sire, that it was a long standing quarrel. The duke's words
showed that he bore an enmity against the lad's father, and that it was
on this account that he insulted the son."
"Leslie!" the king exclaimed, with a sudden recollection. "Is that the
youth whom Marshal Saxe presented to me?"
"The same, sire; the lad who distinguished himself at Fontenoy, and whom
the Marshal afterwards appointed to a commission in my regiment, in which
he had served as a gentleman volunteer for nearly a year."
"These Leslies are always causing trouble," the king said angrily. "I
have already given orders that he shall be arrested wherever he is found,
and he shall be punished as he deserves."
"In punishing him," Colonel Hume said with grave deference, "I am sure
that your majesty will not forget that this quarrel was forced upon him,
and that, had he accepted the insults of the Duke of Chateaurouge, he
would have been unworthy to remain an officer of your majesty."
"Silence, sir!" the king said angrily. "You will return immediately to
Paris, under arrest, until my pleasure in your case is notified to you. I
shall at once give orders that your troops here are replaced by those of
a regiment whose officers will abstain from brawling and breaking the
edicts in our very palace.
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