th my colleague Torelli, the best
fencing-master in the city. I'll say nothing of the meals he set
before me. To-day macaroni, to-morrow macaroni with a couple of chicken
drumsticks to boot, and so on. I've often drawn my belt tighter after
dinner. As for the art of fencing, Torelli is certainly no bungler, but
he too has the skipping fashion in his method. You must keep your eyes
open in a passado with him, but if I can once get to my quarte, tierce,
and side-thrust, I have him."

"An excellent series," said Junker von Warmond. "It has been useful to
me."

"I know, I know," replied the captain eagerly. "You silenced the
French brawler with it at Namur. There's the catch in my throat again.
Something will happen to-day, gentlemen, something will surely happen."

The fencing-master grasped the front of his ruff with his left hand and
set the glass on the table with his right. He had often done so far more
carelessly, but to-day the glass shattered into many fragments.

"That's nothing," cried the young nobleman. "Waiter, another glass for
Captain Allertssohn."

The fencing-master pushed his chair back from the table, and looking
at the broken pieces of greenish glass, said in an altered tone, as if
speaking to himself rather than his companions:

"Yes, yes, something serious will happen to-day. Shattered into a
thousand pieces. As God wills! I know where my place is."

Von Warmond filled a fresh glass, saying with a slight shade of reproof
in his tone: "Why, Captain, Captain, what whims are these? Before the
battle of Brill I fell in jumping out of the boat and broke my sword.
I soon found another, but the idea came into my head: 'you'll meet your
death to-day.' Yet here I sit, and hope to empty many a beaker with
you."

"It has passed already," said the fencing-master, raising his hat and
wiping the perspiration from his forehead with the back of his hand.
"Every one must meet his death-hour, and if mine is approaching
to-day--be it as God wills! My family won't starve. The house on the new
Rhine is free from mortgage, and though they don't inherit much else, I
shall leave my children an honest name and trustworthy friends. I know
you won't lose sight of my second boy, the musician, Wilhelm. Nobody is
indispensable, and if Heaven wishes to call me from this command, Junker
von Nordwyk, Jan Van der Does, can fill my place. You, Herr von Warmond,
are in just the right spot, and the good cause will reach a success