“Engage!” exclaimed the count.
With ill-concealed eagerness, Mauville began a vigorous, although guarded attack, as if asserting his supremacy, and at the same time testing his man. The buzzing switch of the steel became angrier; the weapons glinted and gleamed, intertwining silently and separating with a swish. The patroon’s features glowed; his movements became quicker, and, executing a rapid parry, he lunged with a thrust so stealthy his blade was beaten down only as it touched the soldier’s breast.
Mauville smiled, but Barnes groaned inwardly, feeling his courage and confidence fast oozing from him. Neither he nor the other spectators doubted the result. Strength would count but little against such agility; the land baron was an incomparable swordsman.
“Gad!” muttered the count to himself. “It promises to be short and sweet.”
As if to demonstrate the verity of this assertion, Mauville suddenly followed his momentary advantage with a dangerous lunge from below. Involuntarily Barnes looked away, but his wandering attention was immediately recalled. From the lips of the land baron burst an exclamation of mingled pain and anger. Saint-Prosper had not only parried the thrust, but his own blade, by a rapid riposte, had grazed the shoulder of his foe.
Nor was the manager’s surprise greater than that of the count. The latter, amazed this unusual strategem should have failed when directed by a wrist as trained and an eye as quick as Mauville’s, now interposed.
“Enough!” he exclaimed, separating the contestants. “Demme! it was superb. Honor has been satisfied.”
“It is nothing!” cried the land baron, fiercely. “His blade hardly touched me.” In his exasperation and disappointment over his failure, Mauville was scarcely conscious of his wound. “I tell you it is nothing,” he repeated.
“What do you say, Mr. Saint-Prosper?” asked the count.