eight in the morning
At an early hour on the following morning a stranger would have supposed that some great military spectacle was about to take place , so large was the number of officers riding from Liege and the military stations around it towards the place fixed upon for the duel . The event had created a very unusual amount of excitement , because , in the first place , the attempt to murder Rupert at the mill of Dettinheim had created much talk . The intention of Captain Muller to force a quarrel on the officers of the 5th had also been a matter of public comment , while the manner in which the young cornet of that regiment had taken up the gage , added to the extraordinary inequality between the combatants , gave a special character to the duel . It was eight in the morning when Rupert Holliday rode up to the place fixed upon , a quiet valley some three miles from the town . On the slopes of hills on either side were gathered some two or three hundred officers , English , Dutch , and German , the bottom of the valley , which was some forty yards across , being left clear . There was , however , none of the life and animation which generally characterize a military gathering . The British officers looked sombre and stern at what they deemed nothing short of the approaching murder of their gallant young countryman ; and the Germans were grave and downcast , for they felt ashamed of the inequality of the contest .