15/16 A moment he stood so, eyeing me. Then, coming a step nearer-- "You do not think that you can fight me, eh? You imagine your courage above dispute because by a lucky accident you killed La Vertoile some years ago and the fame of it has attached to you." In the intensity of his anger he was breathing heavily, like a man overburdened. "You have been living ever since by the reputation which that accident gave you. Let us see if you can die by it, Monsieur de Bardelys." And, leaning forward, he struck me on the breast, so suddenly and so powerfully--for he was a man of abnormal strength--that I must have fallen but that La Fosse caught me in his arms. |