On finding himself engaged in a contest with the premier Paul felt some mortification at being pitted against one so aged; but a few moments' play convinced him that Radzivil's arm had lost little of its youthful strength, or of its suppleness and dexterity. Paul, however, was decidedly the superior; and, within the space of five minutes he succeeded in disarming the count, whose blade flying through the air would have struck Katina, had she not adroitly warded it off with her own fencing-foil.
Zabern, who had watched Paul with eyes that had hardly winked once, seemed pleased with the result.
"An accident!" commented Dorislas, really believing the premier to have been the superior of the two.
He himself was the next to engage, and again Zabern watched every motion of Paul with unwinking eyes.
As a swordsman Dorislas excelled Radzivil; but, heated with a desire to vindicate the honor of Czernova, which he conceived had suffered at the hands of the premier, he became rash, was more disposed to attack than to guard, and the second contest terminated in less time than the first by the button of Paul's sabre coming full tilt against the breast of the Finance Minister.
"Fairly pinked!" said Zabern, evidently more pleased than before. "No accident this time."
The expression of surprise and bewilderment on the face of Dorislas at a result so little anticipated by himself was so comically pathetic that the spectators could not refrain from laughter.
"You were a dead man, Dorislas, had that been a real duel," they cried.
Paul was beginning to rise in their esteem.
Miroslav next ventured to try his hand, and once more Zabern became so attentive that one might almost have fancied his own life hung upon the issue.