tapestry was lightly brushed
aside and a rather short, keen-looking, grizzled-bearded man appeared,
in square black velvet cap and long gown, which half hid a closely
fitting black velvet doublet and silken hose. He was armed, according
to the custom of the time, with a long rapier balanced by a stiletto at
his girdle, and as he dropped the curtain, his hands moved as if
involuntarily to these occupants of his belt and rested there. It was
not a pleasant face that watched the sword-play, for the wrinkles
therein were not those of age, but deeply marked all the same.

They showed, fan-like, in two sets of rays at the corners of his eyes,
and curiously about the corners of his mouth and beside his nose, as if
he were about to laugh, the sort of laugh that one would give who
enjoyed seeing a fellow-creature in pain; while his dark right eye
seemed to glow beneath the grey shaggy brow, at one moment in a strange
fiery way, while the next, as its owner made some slight movement, it
literally flashed as if sending forth scintillations of light, giving to
his countenance a weird, strange aspect, emphasised by the peculiar
fixed stare of his left optic, which suggested that it was doing the
fixed, quiet, patient work of its master, while the other searched and
flashed and sought for fresh subjects upon which its fellow might gaze.
Whatever value such a pair of eyes might be to their possessor, they had
one great drawback, and that was that they caused distrust in a stranger
who met him for the first time, making him involuntarily feel that this
man must be having him at a disadvantage, for it was as if one eye held
him in play and took up his attention, while that other with its strange
fixed stare searched him through and through.

His was not a pleasant smile, and there were people about the Court who
said sinister things about Master Leoni, the King's physician, and who
would not have taken a dose of his medicine even to save their lives,
for he had acquired a bad name, and Saint Simon had once half laughingly
said:

"He knows too much about poisons to please me."

It was no wonder, then, that taking into consideration his quiet and
unexpected approach, and the grim aspect of his face, the fencing lad
should, when he became aware of his presence, give a violent start and
slightly change colour, his exercise-flushed face turning for the moment
pale. It was just after one of his most vigorous attacks upon the
supporter