laimed with an amused smile, as I complied with
his request. "I am afraid you have caught a chill, Vicomte. The night
air is little suited to health so delicate."

He answered me with a baleful glance, as silently he took my sword and
set it--point to hilt--with St. Auban's. He appeared to have found some
slight difference in the length, for he took two steps away from me,
holding the weapons well in the light, where for a moment he surveyed
them attentively. His hands shook so that the blades clattered one
against the other the while. But, of a sudden, taking both rapiers by
the hilt, he struck the blades together with a ringing clash, then
flung them both behind him as far as he could contrive, leaving me
thunderstruck with amazement, and marvelling whether fear had robbed him
of his wits.

Not until I perceived that the trees around me appeared to spring into
life did it occur to me that that clashing of blades was a signal, and
that I was trapped. With the realisation of it I was upon Vilmorin in a
bound, and with both hands I had caught the dog by the throat before he
thought of flight. The violence of my onslaught bore him to the ground,
and I, not to release my choking grip, went with him.

For a moment we lay together where we had fallen, his slender body
twisting and writhing under me, his swelling face upturned and his
protruding, horror-stricken eyes gazing into mine that were fierce and
pitiless. Voices rang above me; someone stooped and strove to pluck me
from my victim; then below the left shoulder I felt a sting of pain,
first cold then hot, and I knew that I had been stabbed.

Again I felt the blade thrust in, lower down and driven deeper; then, as
the knife was for the second time withdrawn, and my flesh sucked at the
steel,--the pain of it sending a shudder through me,--the instinct of
preservation overcame the sweet lust to strangle Vilmorin. I let him go
and, staggering to my feet, I turned to face those murderers who struck
a defenceless man behind.

Swords gleamed around me: one, two, three, four, five, six, I counted,
and stood weak and dazed from loss of blood, gazing stupidly at the
white blades. Had I but had my sword I should have laid about me, and
gone down beneath their blows as befits a soldier. But the absence of
that trusty friend left me limp and helpless--cowed for the first time
since I had borne arms.

Of a sudden I became aware that St. Auban stood opposite to me, hand on
hip