And then his reputation! Though we knew little of the world's wickedness, all we did know had come to us linked with his name.

We had heard of him as a duellist, as a bully, an employer of bravos.

At Jarnac he had been the last to turn from the shambles.

Men called him cruel and vengeful even for those days--gone by now, thank God!--and whispered his name when they spoke of assassinations; saying commonly of him that he would not blench before a Guise, nor blush before the Virgin.
Such was our visitor and neighbour, Raoul de Mar, Vidame de Bezers.

As he sat on the terrace, now eyeing us askance, and now paying Catherine a compliment, I likened him to a great cat before which a butterfly has all unwittingly flirted her prettiness.