"
Then, with the pleasantest manner in the world, I stepped aside, and
plucked the cane from the Chevalier's hand before he had so much as
guessed what I was about. I bowed before him with the utmost
politeness, as if craving his leave and tolerance for what I was
about to do, and then, before he had recovered from his astonishment,
I had laid that cane three times in quick succession across his
shoulders. With a cry at once of pain and of mortification, he
sprang back, and his hand dropped to his hilt.
"Monsieur," Roxalanne cried to him, "do you not see that he is
unarmed?"
But he saw nothing, or, if he saw, thanked Heaven that things were
in such 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.
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