"So much for talking," said Chicot; "and yet, my friend, it is with no little pleasure I find that I am a better hand than you are. Ah! that was not bad." Borromée had just made a lunge at Chicot, which had slightly touched his breast. "Not bad, but I know the thrust--it is the very same you showed little Jacques. I was just saying, then, that I have the advantage of you, for I did not begin this quarrel, however anxiously disposed I might have been to do so. More than that, even, I have allowed you to carry out your project by giving you every latitude you required, and yet at this very moment even, I have only been acting on the defensive, and this, because I have something to propose to you." "Nothing," cried Borromée, exasperated at Chicot's imperturbability, "nothing." And he gave a thrust which would have run the Gascon completely through the body, if the latter had not, with his long legs, sprung back a step, which placed him out of his adversary's reach. "I am going to tell you what this arrangement is, all the same, so that I shall have nothing left to reproach myself for." "Hold your tongue," said Borromée; "hold your tongue; it will be useless." "Listen," said Chicot; "it is to satisfy my own conscience. I have no wish to shed your blood, you understand, and I don't want to kill you until I am driven to extremes." "Kill me, kill me, I say, if you can!" exclaimed Borromée, exasperated. "No, no; I have already once in my life killed another such swordsman as you are; I will even say a better swordsman than you. Pardieu! you know him; he, too, was one of De Guise's retainers--a lawyer, too." "Ah! Nicolas David!" said Borromée, terrified at the incident, and again placing himself on the defensive. "Exactly so." "It was you who killed him?" "Oh! yes, with a pretty little thrust which I will presently show you, if you decline the arrangement I propose." "Well, let me hear what the arrangement is." "You will pass from the Duc de Guise's service to that of the king, without, however, quitting that of the duc." "In other words, that I should become a spy like yourself?" "No, for there will be a difference; I am not paid, but you will be. You will begin by showing me the Duc de Guise's letter to Madame la Duchesse de Montpensier; you will let me take a copy of it, and I will leave you quiet until another occasion. Well, am I not considerate?"--"Here," said Borromée, "is my answer." Borromée's reply was "un coupé sur les armes," so rapidly dealt that the point of his sword slightly touched Chicot's shoulder. "Well, well," said Chicot, "I see I must positively show you Nicolas David's thrust. It is very simple and pretty." And Chicot, who had up to that moment been acting on the defensive, made one step forward and attacked in his turn. "This is the thrust," said Chicot; "I make a feint in quartrebasse."