Then his voice floated across to me as he addressed La Fosse.
"You will do me the favour, monsieur, to inform your friend that this was no first blood combat, but one a outrance.

I fence as well with my left arm as with my right, and if Monsieur de Bardelys will do me the honour to engage again, I shall esteem it." La Fosse bowed and came over with the message that already we had heard.
"I fought," said I in answer, "in a spirit very different from that by which Monsieur de Chatellerault appears to have been actuated.

He made it incumbent upon me to afford proof of my courage.

That proof I have afforded; I decline to do more.

Moreover, as Monsieur de Chatellerault himself must perceive, the light is failing us, and in a few minutes it will be too dark for sword-play." "In a few minutes there will be need for none, monsieur," shouted Chatellerault, to save time.