"The only way that it could end," replied Villequier, "when all parties were determined to evade his demand. The King, you may easily suppose, was not inclined to give the young heiress of Clairvaut to any of the partisans of an enemy. Epernon knew well that if the hand of a Guise were upon her shoulder, the ring of a La Valette would never pass upon her finger; and I, when last we met, had half given my promise to you, and was, at all events, determined that the question of wardship should be settled before I parted with her. The King, therefore, evaded the demands of the young Count, though he was not a little inclined to yield to them at one time, in order to pacify the Duke of Guise. However, I took the brunt of the business upon myself, and underwent the hot indignation of your brother, who thought to find in me an Epernon, or a Montsoreau, who would measure swords with him for an angry word." "They had better be skilful as well as brave," said the young Marquis thoughtfully, "who measure swords with my brother Charles." "Indeed!" said Villequier, "is he then so much a master of his weapon?" "The most perfect I ever beheld--ay, more skilful now, than even our friend the Abbé de Boisguerin; though I have heard that, some years ago, when the Abbé was studying at Padua, he challenged the famous Spanish sword-player, Bobéz, to display his skill with him in the schools, in single combat, and hit him three times upon the heart without Bobéz touching him once." "I remember, I remember!" cried Villequier. "The master broke the buttons from the swords in anger, and the student ran him through the body at the first pass, whereof he died within five minutes after in the Deacon's chamber." "I never heard that he died," replied the Marquis with some surprise. "He did indeed, though," replied Villequier with a meditative air. "And so this was the Abbé de Boisguerin. One would have thought the army, rather than the church, would have called such a spirit to itself." "I know not," replied the young Marquis, "but in all things he is equally skilful; and, doubtless, you know he has taken but the first step towards entering the church, pausing as it were even on the threshold." "Do you think," said Villequier, "that he is as skilful in conveying intelligence as in other things?" "What do you mean, my Lord?" exclaimed his young companion. "Nay, I mean nothing," replied the politician, satisfied with having sown the first seed of suspicion in the young nobleman's mind, without, perhaps, any definite design, but simply for the universal purpose of making men doubt and distrust each other, with a view of ruling them more easily. "Nothing, except a mere question concerning his skill. I have no latent meaning, I assure you."