"But not good enough for us," said Beauvallet. "Yet I will engage to worst you in an encounter with your sword-and-buckler, Gerard. I believe I have not altogether lost the trick of it. But for delicacy, for finesse, let me have the rapier!" He made an imaginary pass in the air. "What, you say I learned no good upon my travels? Did I not sit at the feet of Carranza, and after find out Marozzo himself in Venice? Ay, he was old, I grant you, but he had some tricks still to show. Alack, ye have no Italian! Ye should else read his _Opera Nova_, in the which book he carefully explains the uses of the _falso_ and the _dritto filo_. No good, ye say? Produce me the man who can worst me with the rapier and the dagger!" My lord maintained an unyielding front. "Do you count such foreign tricks a gain? What else have you to show for these years of junketting abroad?" "A rare Toledo blade, brother," returned Nicholas, unabashed. "A blade tempered in the waters of the Tagus, and inscribed with the name of Andrea Ferrara between eight crowns. Yet another such blade, from the hand of Sahagom. What, more? Why, then, a suit of Jacobi armour you yourself did not despise; an acquaintance with our cousins in France; an intimate knowledge of the French, the Spanish, and the Italian tongues--which I think ye lack----" "The English of my forefathers sufficeth me," said my lord grimly. "You've no ambition, Gerard," mourned Beauvallet. "I've no vagrant spirit," said my lord tartly. "Will you never be still? I pass over the Grand Tour; I may pass over even that mad emprise ye set forth on with Drake----" "A thousand thanks!" Beauvallet's eyes were alight. "I grant you it was worth the doing," said my lord grudgingly. "Ay, a rare feat, and all honour to you for compassing it." "Give honour to Drake, where it is due," said Beauvallet, and lifted his glass. "We drink his health! To Drake, the master-mariner!" My lord drank the toast, but without enthusiasm. "It's very well, but why ye must needs cleave so fast to this same Sir Francis passeth my comprehension." "Does it so?" Beauvallet said. "But then, brother, you have not sailed the world round in his company, nor learned seacraft of him, nor faced sack, battle and wreck at his side." "Ye have imbibed unfit notions from him. A voyage round the world! Very well, very well, a feat indeed, and duly we honoured it. Ye brought home a store of riches, moreover, enough for any man. Then was the time to call an end to this wandering fever. But did ye? Nay, ye built your fine ship, and must needs be off again. A madness! A most damnable folly, Nick, give me leave to say!" Sir Nicholas bowed his raven head in mock contrition. "I cry your pardon, good my lord!"