case, and got his sword out. Thereupon Roxalanne would have stepped
between us, but with arm outstretched I restrained her.

"Have no fear, mademoiselle," said I very quietly; for if the wrist that
had overcome La Vertoile were not with a stick a match for a couple of
such swords as this coxcomb's, then was I forever shamed.

He bore down upon me furiously, his point coming straight for my throat.
I took the blade on the cane; then, as he disengaged and came at me
lower, I made counter-parry, and pursuing the circle after I had caught
his steel, I carried it out of his hand. It whirled an instant,
a shimmering wheel of light, then it clattered against the marble
balustrade half a dozen yards away. With his sword it seemed that his
courage, too, departed, and he stood at my mercy, a curious picture of
foolishness, surprise, and fear.

Now the Chevalier de Saint-Eustache was a young man, and in the young
we can forgive much. But to forgive such an act as he had been guilty
of--that of drawing his sword upon a man who carried no weapons--would
have been not only a ridiculous toleration, but an utter neglect of
duty. As an older man it behoved me to read the Chevalier a lesson in
manners and gentlemanly feeling. So, quite dispassionately, and purely
for his own future good, I went about the task, and administered him a
thrashing that for thoroughness it would be hard to better. I was not
discriminating. I brought my cane down with a rhythmical precision, and
whether it took him on the head, the back, or the shoulders, I held
to be more his affair than mine. I had a moral to inculcate, and the
injuries he might receive in the course of it were inconsiderable
details so that the lesson was borne in upon his soul. Two or three
times he sought to close with me, but I eluded him; I had no mind to
descend to a vulgar exchange of blows. My object was not to brawl,
but to administer chastisement, and this object I may claim to have
accomplished with a fair degree of success.

At last Roxalanne interfered; but only when one blow a little more
violent, perhaps, than its precursors resulted in the sudden snapping of
the cane and Monsieur de Eustache's utter collapse into a moaning heap.

"I deplore, mademoiselle, to have offended your sight with such a
spectacle, but unless these lessons are administered upon the instant
their effect is not half so salutary."

"He deserved it, monsieur," said she, with a note almost of fiercenes