He has confided to me his name and position, which I think it as well not to divulge.
"Now, Louis, we may as well stand aside.

We have done our best to stop this quarrel, and to prevent what I cannot but consider a most unequal contest from taking place." The last words were galling, in the extreme, to Raoul de Fontaine.
Monsieur D'Estanges stood high at court, was a gentleman of unblemished reputation, and often appealed to on questions of honour; and this declaration that he considered the combat to be an unequal one was the more irritating, since he was himself conscious of the fact.

However, he could not recoil now but, with an angry expression of face, drew his sword and stood on guard.
Philip was no less ready.

The easy attitude he assumed, with his weight for the most part on his left leg, differed so widely from the forward attitude then in fashion among French duellists, that Monsieur D'Estanges, convinced that he knew nothing of swordplay, shrugged his shoulders pityingly.

The moment, however, that the swords grated against each other; and Philip put aside, with a sharp turn of the wrist, a lunge with which his opponent intended at once to finish the combat, the expression of his face changed.
"The lad did not speak boastfully, when he said he was a fair swordsman," he muttered to himself.