He shrugged his shoulders, and there was an essence of pity in the movement.

Meanwhile the count gazed with idle curiosity at the partitions.

He saw the Chevalier's court rapier with its jeweled hilt.

The Chevalier's grandsire had flaunted the slender blade under the great Constable's nose in the days of Henri II.

There had been a time when he himself had worn a rapier even more valuable; but the Jews had swallowed it even as the gaming tables had swallowed his patrimony.