nt changed colour at my words. As the son of a
fisherman he could have pleaded his nobility as an excuse for not
meeting me, and had me punished by the law, but he had forgotten that
my betrothal to Anna carried with it a dignity equal to his own, or I
doubt he had been so ready with his tongue.

A hasty consultation was held among those who were with him, from which
it appeared I was judged to be in the right, for presently the count
turned and said to me, with a surly frown, "At dawn, then, in the
courtyard," and quitted the hall.

Such scenes were not uncommon at this time, and beyond a question or
two in our immediate vicinity, but little notice was taken of what had
occurred. But Hugh Bergin, a friend who offered to second me in my
affair with the count, advised some rest before the hour of meeting,
which was now almost at hand, for it was said the count was a skilful
swordsman, who had never yet failed to kill or maim his adversary in a
duel.

Hugh Bergin and I were first in the courtyard at break of day, and here
we were presently joined by the count and his seconds.

Count Hendrick Luitken and I now stepped forward, and, the rapiers
living been handed to us, we fell to the task of I trying to kill one
another according to the rules of the duello.

At first I parried the count's attack, in order that I might learn the
extent of his boasted skill, but I soon found myself to be his equal,
if not his superior, in sword play, for I had spent much of my spare
time in the gymnasium at Amsterdam, where I had become the favourite
pupil of the instructor.

The count, I thought, seemed surprised at my cunning in fence, and lost
the confident smile with which he had first, regarded me. Presently I
felt the point of my rapier touch his tunic upon the breast, and, in my
sensitive grasp, I knew that my blade had encountered steel. The look
which I gave him must have conveyed to him the knowledge that I had
discovered his treachery, for he set his lips and attacked me with even
greater fury than before, but my blood was up, and I beat his guard
down with such force that I was presently enabled, by a trick I had
learnt, known as binding the blade, to wrest the weapon from his hand.
The seconds would now have interfered, but my temper was not to be
restrained, and, to the astonishment of those present, I seized the
count by the throat, and, tearing open his tunic, laid bare a
breastplate which he wore next his skin. No blo