“It were a thousand pities to kill so rare a personage,” thought he, “and yet—and yet—'tis a villainous early morning.”
They passed along the river-bank; they came upon the sea-beach; the Chamberlain put his instrument into his pocket and still led the way upon the sand that lay exposed far out by the low tide. He stopped at a spot clear of weed, flat and dry and firm almost as a table. It was the ideal floor for an engagement, but from the uncomfortable sense of espionage from the neighbourhood of a town that looked with all its windows upon the place as it were upon a scene in a play-house. The whole front of the town was not two hundred yards away.
“We shall be disturbed here, monsieur,” said Count Victor, hesitating as the other put off his plaid and coat.
“No!” said Sim MacTaggart shortly, tugging at a belt, and yet Count Victor had his doubts. He made his preparations, it is true, but always with an apprehensive look at that long line of sleeping houses, whose shutters—with a hole in the centre of each—seemed to stare down upon the sand. No smoke, no flames, no sign of human occupance was there: the sea-gull and the pigeon pecked together upon the door-steps or the window-sills, or perched upon the ridges of the high-pitched roofs, and a heron stalked at the outlet of a gutter that ran down the street. The sea, quiet and dull, the east turned from crimson to grey; the mountains streaming with mist——
“Cammercy after all!” said Count Victor to himself; “I shall wake in a moment, but yet for a nightmare 'tis the most extraordinary I have ever experienced.”
“I hope you are a good Christian,” said the Chamberlain, ready first and waiting, bending his borrowed weapon in malignant arcs above his head.
“Three-fourths of one at least,” said Montaiglon; “for I try my best to be a decent man,” and he daintily and deliberately turned up his sleeve upon an arm as white as milk.
“I'm waiting,” said the Chamberlain.
“So! en garde!” said his antagonist, throwing off his hat and putting up his weapon.
There was a tinkle of steel like the sound of ice afloat in a glass.