The Bois de Boulogne is the setting for the planned confrontation between M. de Prévan and three aggrieved rivals. At one of its gates, a private series of grievances becomes a collective encounter: M. de Prévan has deliberately assigned all three challengers the same place and time, making the location central to his audacious handling of their claims.

The Appointed Meeting Place

After receiving three challenges, M. de Prévan accepts them and schedules each for the following morning. He gives all three men the same rendezvous, specifying one of the gates of the Bois de Boulogne. The men arrive there to face him, initially surprised to find that their separate appointments have brought them together.

The Confrontation

M. de Prévan approaches the three rivals affably and says he is ready to answer for himself. He has brought neither a second nor witnesses, explaining that he had taken none when giving the offense and asks for none in making reparation. The rivals, meanwhile, look at one another in silence; the narrative notes that they may be calculating the disadvantage of facing a triple combat. The evidence establishes the encounter and its imbalance, but does not give its outcome.

Narrative Significance

The gate is more than an address for the duel: it is where M. de Prévan’s separate entanglements converge in public action. By arranging the three appointments together, he makes the rivals confront not only him but also one another’s shared predicament. The setting therefore concentrates the episode’s movement from private humiliation and individual demands for revenge to a single, volatile meeting.