"You silenced the French brawler with it at Namur.

There's the catch in my throat again.
Something will happen to-day, gentlemen, something will surely happen." The fencing-master grasped the front of his ruff with his left hand and set the glass on the table with his right.

He had often done so far more carelessly, but to-day the glass shattered into many fragments.
"That's nothing," cried the young nobleman.

"Waiter, another glass for Captain Allertssohn." The fencing-master pushed his chair back from the table, and looking at the broken pieces of greenish glass, said in an altered tone, as if speaking to himself rather than his companions: "Yes, yes, something serious will happen to-day.

Shattered into a thousand pieces.