"That you never, never shall," said Ashton. "You shall die by my hand, or you shall complete the ruin of my family on taking my life. If you refuse me my open challenge, there is no advantage I will not take of you, no indignity with which I will not load you, until the very name of Ravenswood shall be the sign of every thing that is dishonourable, as it is already of all that is villainous."
"That it shall never be," said Ravenswood, fiercely; "if I am the last who shall bear it, I owe it to those who once owned it, that the name shall be extinguished without infamy. I accept your challenge, time, and place of meeting. We meet, I presume, alone?"
"Alone we meet," said Colonel Ashton, "and alone will the survivor of us return from that place of rendezvous."
"Then God have mercy on the soul of him who falls!" said Ravenswood.
"So be it!" said Colonel Ashton; "so far can my charity reach even for the man
