The Rafael Sabatini Megapack. Rafael Sabatini

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СКАЧАТЬ a thing of leather with a wire grating to protect the eyes. His keen glance played over Andre-Louis from head to foot.

      “Monsieur?” he inquired, politely.

      It was clear that he mistook Andre-Louis’ quality, which is not surprising, for despite his sadly reduced fortunes, his exterior was irreproachable, and M. des Amis was not to guess that he carried upon his back the whole of his possessions.

      “You have a notice below, monsieur,” he said, and from the swift lighting of the fencing-master’s eyes he saw that he had been correct in his assumption that applicants for the position had not been jostling one another on his threshold. And then that flash of satisfaction was followed by a look of surprise.

      “You are come in regard to that?”

      Andre-Louis shrugged and half smiled. “One must live,” said he.

      “But come in. Sit down there. I shall be at your.… I shall be free to attend to you in a moment.”

      Andre-Louis took a seat on the bench ranged against one of the whitewashed walls. The room was long and low, its floor entirely bare. Plain wooden forms such as that which he occupied were placed here and there against the wall. These last were plastered with fencing trophies, masks, crossed foils, stuffed plastrons, and a variety of swords, daggers, and targets, belonging to a variety of ages and countries. There was also a portrait of an obese, big-nosed gentleman in an elaborately curled wig, wearing the blue ribbon of the Saint Esprit, in whom Andre-Louis recognized the King. And there was a framed parchment—M. des Amis’ certificate from the King’s Academy. A bookcase occupied one corner, and near this, facing the last of the four windows that abundantly lighted the long room, there was a small writing-table and an armchair. A plump and beautifully dressed young gentleman stood by this table in the act of resuming coat and wig. M. des Amis sauntered over to him—moving, thought Andre-Louis, with extraordinary grace and elasticity—and stood in talk with him whilst also assisting him to complete his toilet.

      At last the young gentleman took his departure, mopping himself with a fine kerchief that left a trail of perfume on the air. M. des Amis closed the door, and turned to the applicant, who rose at once.

      “Where have you studied?” quoth the fencing-master abruptly.

      “Studied?” Andre-Louis was taken aback by the question. “Oh, at Louis Le Grand.”

      M. des Amis frowned, looking up sharply as if to see whether his applicant was taking the liberty of amusing himself.

      “In Heaven’s name! I am not asking you where you did your humanities, but in what academy you studied fencing.”

      “Oh—fencing!” It had hardly ever occurred to Andre-Louis that the sword ranked seriously as a study. “I never studied it very much. I had some lessons in…in the country once.”

      The master’s eyebrows went up. “But then?” he cried. “Why trouble to come up two flights of stairs?” He was impatient.

      “The notice does not demand a high degree of proficiency. If I am not proficient enough, yet knowing the rudiments I can easily improve. I learn most things readily,” Andre-Louis commended himself. “For the rest: I possess the other qualifications. I am young, as you observe: and I leave you to judge whether I am wrong in assuming that my address is good. I am by profession a man of the robe, though I realize that the motto here is cedat toga armis.”

      M. des Amis smiled approvingly. Undoubtedly the young man had a good address, and a certain readiness of wit, it would appear. He ran a critical eye over his physical points. “What is your name?” he asked.

      Andre-Louis hesitated a moment. “Andre-Louis,” he said.

      The dark, keen eyes conned him more searchingly.

      “Well? Andre-Louis what?”

      “Just Andre-Louis. Louis is my surname.”

      “Oh! An odd surname. You come from Brittany by your accent. Why did you leave it?”

      “To save my skin,” he answered, without reflecting. And then made haste to cover the blunder. “I have an enemy,” he explained.

      M. des Amis frowned, stroking his square chin. “You ran away?”

      “You may say so.

      “A coward, eh?”

      “I don’t think so.” And then he lied romantically. Surely a man who lived by the sword should have a weakness for the romantic. “You see, my enemy is a swordsman of great strength—the best blade in the province, if not the best blade in France. That is his repute. I thought I would come to Paris to learn something of the art, and then go back and kill him. That, to be frank, is why your notice attracted me. You see, I have not the means to take lessons otherwise. I thought to find work here in the law. But I have failed. There are too many lawyers in Paris as it is, and whilst waiting I have consumed the little money that I had, so that…so that, enfin, your notice seemed to me something to which a special providence had directed me.”

      M. des Amis gripped him by the shoulders, and looked into his face.

      “Is this true, my friend?” he asked.

      “Not a word of it,” said Andre-Louis, wrecking his chances on an irresistible impulse to say the unexpected. But he didn’t wreck them. M. des Amis burst into laughter; and having laughed his fill, confessed himself charmed by his applicant’s fundamental honesty.

      “Take off your coat,” he said, “and let us see what you can do. Nature, at least, designed you for a swordsman. You are light, active, and supple, with a good length of arm, and you seem intelligent. I may make something of you, teach you enough for my purpose, which is that you should give the elements of the art to new pupils before I take them in hand to finish them. Let us try. Take that mask and foil, and come over here.”

      He led him to the end of the room, where the bare floor was scored with lines of chalk to guide the beginner in the management of his feet.

      At the end of a ten minutes’ bout, M. des Amis offered him the situation, and explained it. In addition to imparting the rudiments of the art to beginners, he was to brush out the fencing-room every morning, keep the foils furbished, assist the gentlemen who came for lessons to dress and undress, and make himself generally useful. His wages for the present were to be forty livres a month, and he might sleep in an alcove behind the fencing-room if he had no other lodging.

      The position, you see, had its humiliations. But, if Andre-Louis would hope to dine, he must begin by eating his pride as an hors d’oeuvre.

      “And so,” he said, controlling a grimace, “the robe yields not only to the sword, but to the broom as well. Be it so. I stay.”

      It is characteristic of him that, having made that choice, he should have thrown himself into the work with enthusiasm. It was ever his way to do whatever he did with all the resources of his mind and energies of his body. When he was not instructing very young gentlemen in the elements of the art, showing them the elaborate and intricate salute—which with a few days’ hard practice he had mastered to perfection—and the eight guards, he was himself hard at work on those same guards, exercising eye, wrist, and knees.

      Perceiving his enthusiasm, and seeing the obvious possibilities it opened out of turning him into a really СКАЧАТЬ