"My pardon!" exclaimed La Renaudie; "I hope to be more concerned with granting than receiving pardons!"
"Oh, La Renaudie! La Renaudie! Surely you do not wish to compel me to draw my sword against you,—Godefroy, my old comrade, my play-fellow?"
"We must be prepared even for that, Pardaillan; for you know me too well to believe that I am inclined to yield the field to you."
"Monsieur de la Renaudie," cried Gabriel, "once more I tell you that you are wrong."
But he was rudely interrupted.
The horsemen on both sides, Remaining apart, but in full view of one another, could not understand the meaning of all this parleying between their chiefs, and were burning with eagerness to come to closer quarters.
"In God's name, what do they find to talk about at such length?" muttered the troopers of Pardaillan.
"Ah!" said the Huguenots, "do they think that we came here to watch them while they talk over their private business?"
"Wait a moment! wait!" said one of La Renaudie's band, in which every soldier was a leader, "I know a way to cut short their conversation;" and just as Gabriel began to speak, he fired a pistol-shot at the king's troops.
"You see," cried Pardaillan, sorrowfully, "your people have struck the first blow!"