His behaviour in the
unfortunate affair we are discussing was of a particularly shameful
character. Oh, I know the details, messieurs, I can sure you. He
thought to impose his reputation upon Bardelys as he had imposed it
upon a hundred others, but Bardelys was over-tough for his teeth.
He sent that notorious young gentleman a challenge, and on the
following morning he left him dead in the horsemarket behind the
Hotel Vendome. But far from a murder, monsieur, it was an act of
justice, and the most richly earned punishment with which ever man
was visited."
"Even if so," cried the Vicomte in some surprise, "why all this heat
to defend a brawler?"
"A brawler?" I repeated after him. "Oh, no. That is a charge his
worst enemies cannot make against Bardelys. He is no brawler. The
duel in question was his first affair of the kind, and it has been
his last, for unto him has clung the reputation that had belonged
until then to La Vertoile, and there is none in France bold enough
to send a challenge to him." And, seeing what surprise I was
provoking, I thought it well to involve another with me in his
defence. So, turning to the Chevalier, "I am sure," said I, "that
Monsieur de Saint-Eustache will confirm my words."
Thereupon, his vanity being all aroused, the Chevalier set himself
to paraphrase all that I had said with a heat that cast mine into
a miserable insignificance.
"At least," laughed the Vicomte at length, "he lacks not for
champions.
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