Some had died struggling in the gloomy corridors, in the grand salon, on the staircase leading to the upper stories.

In the Valois's time it had witnessed many a violent night; for men had held life in a careless hand, and the master of fence had been the law-giver.

Three of the House of Perigny had closed their accounts thus roughly.

The grandsire and granduncle of the present marquis, both being masters of fence, had succumbed in an attempt to give law to each other.

And the apple of discord, some say, had been the Duchesse de Valentinois.