But neither anger nor danger ever deprived him of his presence of mind; he was an incomparable swordsman; and he had a peculiar way of disarming opponents which moved the envy of all the duellists of his time.

His friends said that he had never given a challenge, that he had never refused one, that he had never taken a life, and yet that he had never fought without having his antagonist's life at his mercy.

[481] The four men who have been described resembled each other so little that it may be thought strange that they should ever have been able to act in concert.

They did, however, act in the closest concert during many years.

They more than once rose and more than once fell together.