“Two against two is fair fighting,” he cried. “Come on, you noble sons of Batistelli, or I will cry Rimbecco so that all can hear it.”
Stung to the quick by this, to them, insulting bravado, they rushed forward. Despite the injury to his arm, Victor, encouraged by the presence of Cromillian, repeated the trick, and once more sent Pascal’s sword flying through the air. But Julien’s fate was more serious. He was a better swordsman than his brother, but he could not withstand the furious onslaught of Cromillian, who battered down his guard time after time, and finally gave him a mortal wound.
Vivienne had watched the fight in every detail. She saw her brother Pascal disarmed and at Victor’s mercy—but she had no feeling of sorrow at his impending fate. Then she saw her brother Julien fall and, still, there was no pang of regret. Her thoughts were of Victor, and of him alone.
The Death Brothers were cowed, for the muzzles of the bandits’ rifles covered them. Vivienne grasped Victor’s arm.
“Come with me,” she whispered, “and I will lead you to a place of safety.”
He obeyed without a word. She pulled aside some tapestry, opened a door which had been concealed by it, and a moment later he was following her down a long passageway, so dark that he was unable to discern the outlines of her form.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE HALL OF MIRRORS.
Cromillian’s keen eye had seen Vivienne approach Victor. She could not have said much to him, for, an instant later, she disappeared from the room. Cromillian looked at Pascal, but the latter did not seem inclined to measure swords with him, so he glanced once more at the spot where Vivienne had stood, and found that Victor, too, was gone.
The object of his visit to the Batistelli castle had been attained—in fact, he had done more than he had intended, for the killing of either Pascal or Julien had not been premeditated.
One of his objects had been to punish treachery—and Paoli was dead; another had been to protect Victor from the vendetta—and that, too, had doubtless been accomplished, and Victor was probably now on his way to his ship, beyond the reach of his enemies.