Such epithets came thick and fast with the strokes of de Léry, and were answered by "Slanderer! reptile! traitor! liar!" from the set lips of Lecour.
At last, with a fiery spring, de Léry, having lost all self-control, threw himself upon his enemy, and received a terrible slash up the sword-arm, which finished the battle and threw him sidelong on the ground, while bright red blood spouted all over his breast, and the surgeon and seconds ran to attend to him. He lost consciousness and fell back, limp and ghastly.
No sooner had he fallen than a figure in black sprang out of the wood, brandishing his sword, and shouting—
"Well done, our champion! I will finish your work"; and rushing at the prostrate man, over whom the seconds were bending, he pushed them aside, and was on the point of driving the weapon into his body.
Lecour threw himself forward and struck up the steel with his own.
"Coward!" he shouted, preparing for further defence of his late antagonist, while the astonishment of Grancey and his fellow-second at the apparition held them momentarily helpless.
"I am no coward, but the Instrument of Vengeance. His blood has slain mine. The scales of heaven are nice to a hair. Let me kill him!" and the stranger's sword glittered again in a sudden movement. But this time Grancey seized him, and his colleague assisted in overcoming the man's struggles.
"It is a madman," said the surgeon, his hands occupied with his bandages; "keep him safe till I can finish this work."
"A madman, yes!" shouted Philibert; "and who made me mad? It was one of this man's race of murderers and traitors. Justice will only sleep when he too dies by the sword, like my father, whom they slew. Let me strike! let me kill him! or, if you will not let me kill him, I will depart, for the hour of Justice it seems is not yet."
"Depart quickly then," sternly said the surgeon, taking advantage of the turn in his mood, and at the words the seconds released the maniac.