From the moment that I left Sir Terence's luncheon-table on the Saturday I never set eyes on Count Samoval again until I discovered him dead or dying in the garden here at Monsanto on Sunday night.

I can call no witnesses to support me in this, because it is not a matter susceptible to proof by evidence.

Nor have I troubled to call the only witnesses I might have called--witnesses as to my character and my regard for discipline--who might have testified that any such encounter as that of which I am accused would be utterly foreign to my nature.

There are officers in plenty in his Majesty's service who could bear witness that the practice of duelling is one that I hold in the utmost abhorrence, since I have frequently avowed it, and since in all my life I have never fought a single duel.

My service in his Majesty's army has happily afforded me the means of dispensing with any such proof of courage as the duel is supposed to give.