However, there had to be an end of it, and I thought I was sure of despatching him at last by means of a secret I possess--an infallible and very difficult thrust, taught and bequeathed to me by the great Girolamo of Naples, my beloved master--no man living has a knowledge of it but myself--there is no one else left capable of executing it to perfection, and upon that depends its success.

Well, my lord duke, Girolamo himself could not have done it better than I did to-night.

I was thunderstruck when my opponent did not go down before it as if he had been shot.

I expected to see him lying dead at my feet.

But not at all, by Jove! That devil of a Captain Fracasse parried my blow with dazzling swiftness, and with such force that my blade was broken short off, and I left completely at his mercy, with nothing but the stump in my hand.