“My only master was an old soldier, Pierre by name,” answered de Sigognac, more and more amused at the oddities of the accomplished swordsman he was engaged with.  “Stay, take that! it is one of his favourite strokes.”

“The devil!” cried Lampourde, falling back a step, “I was very nearly done for, do you know!  The point of your sword actually went through my sleeve and touched my arm—­I felt the cold steel; luckily for me it was not broad daylight—­I should have been winged; but you are not accustomed, like me, to this dim, uncertain light for such work.  All the same, it was admirably well done, and Jacquemin Lampourde congratulates you upon it, sir!  Now, pay attention, to me—­I will not take any mean advantage of such a glorious foe as you are, and I give you fair warning that I am going to try on you my own secret and special thrust Captain Fracasse—­the crowning glory of my art, the ‘ne plus ultra’ of my science—­the elixir of my life.  It is known only to myself, and up to this time has been infallible.  I have never failed to kill my man with it.  If you can parry it I will teach it to you.  It is my only possession, and I will leave it to you if you survive it; otherwise I will take my secret to the grave with me.  I have never yet found any one capable of executing it, unless indeed it be yourself—­admirable, incomparable swordsman that you are!  It is a joy to meet such an one.  But suppose we suspend hostilities a moment to take breath.”

So saying Jacquemin Lampourde lowered the point of his sword, and de Sigognac did the same.  They stood eyeing each other for a few moments with mutual admiration and curiosity, and then resumed the contest more fiercely than ever—­each man doing his best, as he had need to do, and enjoying it.  After a few passes, de Sigognac became aware that his adversary was preparing to give the decisive blow, and held himself on his guard against a surprise; when it came, delivered with terrible force, he parried it so successfully that Lampourde’s sword was broken short off in the encounter with his own trusty weapon, leaving only the hilt and a few inches of the blade in his hand.

“If you have not got the rest of my sword in your body,” cried Lampourde, excitedly, “you are a great man!—­a hero!—­a god!”

“No,” de Sigognac replied calmly, “it did not touch me; and now, if I chose, I could pin you to the wall like a bat; but that would be repugnant to me, though you did waylay me to take my life, and besides, you have really amused me with your droll sayings.

“Baron,” said Jacquemin Lampourde, calmly, “permit me, I humbly pray you, to be henceforth, so long as I live, your devoted admirer, your slave, your dog!  I was to be paid for killing you—­I even received a portion of the money in advance, which I have spent.  But never mind that; I will pay it back, every penny of it, though I must rob some one else to do it.”

With these words he picked up de Sigognac’s cloak, and having put it carefully, even reverentially, over his shoulders, made him a profound obeisance, and departed.