Nevertheless, after the affray which I have just related, such reports
began to circulate that I felt it necessary to be on my guard. The death
of the gentlemen involved could not be hidden from their relatives. I
issued a stern order, declaring that duelling had attained unprecedented
licence (the Chancellor drew up the document for me, and very well he
did it), and forbidding it save in the gravest cases. I sent a public
and stately apology to Michael, and he returned a deferential and
courteous reply to me; for our one point of union was--and it underlay
all our differences and induced an unwilling harmony between our
actions--that we could neither of us afford to throw our cards on the
table. He, as well as I, was a "play-actor', and, hating one another, we
combined to dupe public opinion. Unfortunately, however, the necessity
for concealment involved the necessity of delay: the King might die
in his prison, or even be spirited off somewhere else; it could not be
helped. For a little while I was compelled to observe a truce, and
my only consolation was that Flavia most warmly approved of my edict
against duelling, and, when I expressed delight at having won her
favour, prayed me, if her favour were any motive to me, to prohibit the
practice altogether.
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