He would rarely touch the foils, but "Mon Dieu, Schmidt," said de Malerive, "he has with the pistol skill."
Du Vallon admitted it. But: "Mon ami, it is no weapon for gentlemen. The Jacobins like it. There is no tierce or quarte against a bullet."
"Do they practise with the pistol here?"
"No. Carteaux, thy lucky friend, ah, very good,—of the best with the foil,—but no shot." René smiled, and Schmidt understood.
"Can you hit that, René?" he said, taking from his pocket the ace of clubs, for playing-cards were often used as visiting-cards, the backs being white, and other material not always to be had.
René hit the edge of the ace with a ball, and then the center. The gay crowd applauded, and Du Vallon pleased to make a little jest in English, wished it were a Jacobin club, and, again merry, they liked the jest.
XIX
The only man known to me who remembered Schmidt is said to have heard Alexander Hamilton remark that all the German lacked of being great was interest in the noble game of politics. It was true of Schmidt. The war of parties merely amused him, with their honest dread of a monarchy, their terror of a bonded debt, their disgust at the abominable imposition of a tax on freemen, and, above all, an excise tax on whisky. Jefferson, with keen intellect, was trying to keep the name Republican for the would-be Democrats, and while in office had rebuked Genêt and kept Fauchet in order, so that, save for the smaller side of him and the blinding mind fog of personal and party prejudice, he would have been still more valuable in the distracted cabinet he had left.