“You lie! You came here to insult me and make lying charges against me. You shall pay for it!”
Again Defarge gave a mighty twist and tried to fling Hodge off. They reeled against a chair, which was overturned. Then Bart’s feet struck against the chair, and he fell backward to the floor, his grip on Defarge’s wrist being broken as he went down.
Down upon Hodge came his antagonist, but he tore himself away from the fingers that tried to clutch and hold him. With a quick spring, Bertrand rose to his feet and stood over Hodge with the rapier uplifted.
“Now!” he hissed, with a savage laugh—“now you get it for fair!”
Then he lunged as if meaning to pin Hodge to the floor.
With a squirming movement to one side, Bart barely avoided being run through by the blade.
“A miss is as good as a mile!” he thought, and at the same time he again cast the chair at Defarge.
Bertrand’s legs were struck and he was confused and disconcerted for a moment, and that was enough to give Bart time to spring up.
As he rose, Hodge had the other rapier gripped in his hand. At last he realized that there was no way to avoid such an encounter, and so he hurled himself into it with the furious energy of a creature at bay.
Clash! clash! rang out the meeting blades.