The Point Of Honor: A Military Tale

by Joseph Conrad

he tasted the torments of jealousy, too. She would marrysomebody else. His very soul writhed. The tenacity of that Feraud, theawful persistence of that imbecile brute came to him with the tremendousforce of a relentless fatality. General D'Hubert trembled as he put downthe empty water ewer. "He will have me," he thought. General D'Hubertwas tasting every emotion that life has to give. He had in his dry mouththe faint, sickly flavour of fear, not the honourable fear of ayoung girl's candid and amused glance, but the fear of death and thehonourable man's fear of cowardice.

  But if true courage consists in going out to meet an odious danger fromwhich our body, soul and heart recoil together General D'Hubert hadthe opportunity to practise it for the first time in his life. He hadcharged exultingly at batteries and infantry squares and ridden withmessages through a hail of bullets without thinking anything aboutit. His business now was to sneak out unheard, at break of day, toan obscure and revolting death. General D'Hubert never hesitated. Hecarried two pistols in a leather bag which he slung over his shoulder.Before he had crossed the garden his mouth was dry again. He picked twooranges. It was only after shutting the gate after him that he felt aslight faintness.

  He stepped out disregarding it, and after going a few yards regainedthe command of his legs. He sucked an orange as he walked. It was acolourless and pellucid dawn. The wood of pines detached its columns ofbrown trunks and its dark-green canopy very clearly against the rocksof the gray hillside behind. He kept his eyes fixed on it steadily. Thattemperamental, good-humoured coolness in the face of danger, which madehim an officer liked by his men and appreciated by his superiors, wasgradually asserting itself. It was like going into battle. Arriving atthe edge of the wood he sat down on a boulder, holding the other orangein his hand, and thought that he had come ridiculously early on theground. Before very long, however, he heard the swishing of bushes,footsteps on the hard ground, and the sounds of a disjointed loudconversation. A voice somewhere behind him said boastfully, "He's gamefor my bag."

  He thought to himself, "Here they are. What's this about game? Are theytalking of me?" And becoming aware of the orange in his hand he thoughtfurther, "These are very good oranges. Leonie's own tree. I may just aswell eat this orange instead of flinging it away."

  Emerging from a tangle of rocks and bushes, General Feraud and hisseconds discovered General D'Hubert engaged in peeling the orange. Theystood still waiting till he looked up. Then the seconds raised theirhats, and General Feraud, putting his hands behind his back, walkedaside a little way.

  "I am compelled to ask one of you, messieurs, to act for me. I havebrought no friends. Will you?"

  The one-eyed cuirassier said judicially:

  "That cannot be refused."

  The other veteran remarked:

  "It's awkward all the same."

  "Owing to the state of the people's minds in this part of the countrythere was no one I could trust with the object of your presence here,"explained General D'Hubert urbanely. They saluted, looked round, andremarked both together:

  "Poor ground."

  "It's unfit."

  "Why bother about ground, measurements, and so on. Let us simplifymatters. Load the two pairs of pistols. I will take those of GeneralFeraud and let him take mine. Or, better still, let us take a mixedpair. One of each pair. Then we will go into the wood while you remainoutside. We did not come here for ceremonies, but for war. War to thedeath. Any ground is good enough for that. If I fall you must leave mewhere I lie and clear out. It wouldn't be healthy for you to be foundhanging about here after that."

  It appeared after a short parley that General Feraud was willing toaccept these conditions. While the seconds were loading the pistols hecould be heard whistling, and was seen to rub his hands with an air ofperfect contentment. He flung off his coat briskly, and General D'Huberttook off his own and folded it carefully on a stone.

  "Suppose you take your principal to the other side of the wood and lethim enter exactly in ten minutes from now," suggested General D'Hubertcalmly, but feeling as if he were giving directions for his ownexecution. This, however, was his last moment of weakness.

  "Wait! Let us compare watches first."

  He pulled out his own. The officer with the chipped nose went over toborrow the watch of General Feraud. They bent their heads over them fora time.

  "That's it. At four minutes to five by yours. Seven to, by mine."

  It was the cuirassier who remained by the side of General D'Hubert,keeping his one eye fixed immovably on the white face of the watch heheld in the palm of his hand. He opened his mouth wide, waiting for thebeat of the last second, long before he snapped out the word:

  "_Avancez!_"

  General D'Hubert moved on, passing from the glaring sunshine of theProvencal morning into the cool and aromatic shade of the pines. Theground was clear between the reddish trunks, whose multitude, leaning atslightly different angles, confused his eye at first. It was like goinginto battle. The commanding quality of confidence in himself woke up inhis breast. He was all to his affair. The problem was how to kill hisadversary. Nothing short of that would free him from this imbecilenightmare. "It's no use wounding that brute," he thought. He was knownas a resourceful officer. His comrades, years ago, used to call him "thestrategist." And it was a fact that he could think in the presence ofthe enemy, whereas Feraud had been always a mere fighter. But a deadshot, unluckily.

  "I must draw his fire at the greatest possible range," said GeneralD'Hubert to himself.

  At that moment he saw something white moving far off between the trees.The shirt of his adversary. He stepped out at once between the trunksexposing himself freely, then quick as lightning leaped back. It hadbeen a risky move, but it succeeded in its object. Almost simultaneouslywith the pop of a shot a small piece of bark chipped off by the bulletstung his ear painfully.

  And now General Feraud, with one shot expended, was getting cautious.Peeping round his sheltering tree, General D'Hubert could not see himat all. This ignorance of his adversary's whereabouts carried with it asense of insecurity. General D'Hubert felt himself exposed on his flanksand rear. Again something white fluttered in his sight. Ha! The enemywas still on his front then. He had feared a turning movement. But,apparently, General Feraud was not thinking of it. General D'Hubert sawhim pass without special haste from one tree to another in the straightline of approach. With great firmness of mind General D'Hubert stayedhis hand. Too far yet. He knew he was no marksman. His must be a waitinggame--to kill.

  He sank down to the ground wishing to take advantage of the greaterthickness of the trunk. Extended at full length, head on to his enemy,he kept his person completely protected. Exposing himself would notdo now because the other was too near by this time. A conviction thatFeraud would presently do something rash was like balm to GeneralD'Hubert's soul. But to keep his chin raised off the ground was irksome,and not much use either. He peeped round, exposing a fraction of hishead, with dread but really with little risk. His enemy, as a matter offact, did not expect to see anything of him so low down as that. GeneralD'Hubert caught a fleeting view of General Feraud shifting trees againwith deliberate caution. "He despises my shooting," he thought, withthat insight into the mind of his antagonist which is of such great helpin winning battles. It confirmed him in his tactics of immobility. "Ah!if I only could watch my rear as well as my front!" he thought, longingfor the impossible.

  It required some fortitude to lay his pistols down. But on a suddenimpulse General D'Hubert did this very gently--one on each side. He hadbeen always looked upon as a bit of a dandy, because he used to shaveand put on a clean shirt on the days of battle. As a matter of fact hehad been always very careful of his personal appearance. In a man ofnearly forty, in love with a young and charming girl, this praiseworthyself-respect may run to such little weaknesses as, for instance, beingprovided with an elegant leather folding case containing a small ivorycomb and fitted with a piece of looking-glass on the outside. GeneralD'Hubert, his hands being free, felt in his breeches pockets f
or thatimplement of innocent vanity, excusable in the possessor of long silkymoustaches. He drew it out, and then, with the utmost coolness andpromptitude, turned himself over on his back. In this new attitude, hishead raised a little, holding the looking-glass in one hand just clearof his tree, he squinted into it with one eye while the other kept adirect watch on the rear of his position. Thus was proved Napoleon'ssaying, that for a French soldier the word impossible does not exist. Hehad the right tree nearly filling the field of his little mirror.

  "If he moves from there," he said to himself exultingly, "I am bound tosee his legs. And in any case he can't come upon me unawares."

  And sure enough he saw the boots of General