But I have had good teachers, both English and French; and our games and exercises, at school, naturally bring us forward, in point of strength and stature, in comparison with your countrymen of the same age.

Still, doubtless, it was as much due to good fortune as to skill that I gained my success.
"I assuredly had no desire to kill him; the less so because, to a certain extent, the duel was of my making.

There was, as it seemed to me, no choice between fighting him, and being denounced by him as a spy.

Therefore when he accosted me roughly, I took the matter up hotly, and there was nothing for it but an encounter.

As I have said, I meant only to wound him; but his skill and his impetuosity were so great that I was forced, in self defence, to run him through.
"After all, I gained nothing by the duel; for the governor, with a troop of horse, came up just as it concluded, and as I could give no satisfactory account of myself, I was hauled off a prisoner to the castle." "And how did you escape thence ?" Gaston asked.
Philip gave an account of the manner in which his servant had rescued him.
"Parbleu! You are fortunate in your servant! Would that so shrewd a knave-- "But there, the trumpets are sounding.