re on the same level,
and we can talk while we are fencing. Ah! captain, captain, and so we
sometimes try our hand a little at assassination in our spare moments,
do we?"

"I do for my cause what you do for yours," said Borromee, now brought
back to the seriousness of his position, and terrified, in spite of
himself, at the smothered fire which seemed gleaming in Chicot's eyes.

"So much for talking," said Chicot; "and yet, my friend, it is with no
little pleasure I find that I am a better hand than you are. Ah! that
was not bad."

Borromee had just made a lunge at Chicot, which had slightly touched his
breast.

"Not bad, but I know the thrust--it is the very same you showed little
Jacques. I was just saying, then, that I have the advantage of you, for
I did not begin this quarrel, however anxiously disposed I might have
been to do so. More than that, even, I have allowed you to carry out
your project by giving you every latitude you required, and yet at this
very moment even, I have only been acting on the defensive, and this,
because I have something to propose to you."

"Nothing," cried Borromee, exasperated at Chicot's imperturbability,
"nothing."

And he gave a thrust which would have run the Gascon completely through
the body, if the latter had not, with his long legs, sprung back a step,
which placed him out of his adversary's reach.

"I am going to tell you what this arrangement is, all the same, so that
I shall have nothing left to reproach myself for."

"Hold your tongue," said Borromee; "hold your tongue; it will be
useless."

"Listen," said Chicot; "it is to satisfy my own conscience. I have no
wish to shed your blood, you understand, and I don't want to kill you
until I am driven to extremes."

"Kill me, kill me, I say, if you can!" exclaimed Borromee, exasperated.

"No, no; I have already once in my life killed another such swordsman as
you are; I will even say a better swordsman than you. Pardieu! you know
him; he, too, was one of De Guise's retainers--a lawyer, too."

"Ah! Nicolas David!" said Borromee, terrified at the incident, and again
placing himself on the defensive.

"Exactly so."

"It was you who killed him?"

"Oh! yes, with a pretty little thrust which I will presently show you,
if you decline the arrangement I propose."

"Well, let me hear what the arrangement is."

"You will pass from the Duc de Guise's service to that of the king,
without, however, quitting that of the