"I am going to tell you what this arrangement is, all the same, so that I shall have nothing left to reproach myself for."
"Hold your tongue," said Borromée; "hold your tongue; it will be useless."
"Listen," said Chicot; "it is to satisfy my own conscience. I have no wish to shed your blood, you understand, and I don't want to kill you until I am driven to extremes."
"Kill me, kill me, I say, if you can!" exclaimed Borromée, exasperated.
"No, no; I have already once in my life killed another such swordsman as you are; I will even say a better swordsman than you. Pardieu! you know him; he, too, was one of De Guise's retainers—a lawyer, too."
"Ah! Nicolas David!" said Borromée, terrified at the incident, and again placing himself on the defensive.
"Exactly so."
"It was you who killed him?"
"Oh! yes, with a pretty little thrust which I will presently show you, if you decline the arrangement I propose."
"Well, let me hear what the arrangement is."