'
At the same moment Eustace saw that the victim, who had begun to
raise himself, was actually Clement Darpent. He knew, too, the voice
from the mask, and, in hot wrath, exclaimed:
'Solivet, you make me regret that you are my brother, and that I
cannot punish such a cowardly outrage.'
'But I am no brother of yours!' cried d'Aubepine, flying at him.
'Thus I treat all who dare term me coward.'
Eustace, far taller and more expert in fence, as well as with
strength of arm that all his ill-health had not destroyed, parried
the thrust so as to strike the sword out of d'Aubepine's hand, and
then said:
'Go home, Monsieur. Thank your relationship to my sister that I
punish you no further, and learn that to use other men's arms to
strike the defenceless is a stain upon nobility.'
And as the wretched little Count slunk away he added
'Solivet, I had though better things of you.'
To which Solivet responded, with the pretension derived from his few
years of seniority:
'Bah! brother, you do not understand, half a foreigner as you are.
This was the only way left to me to protect my sister from the
insults your English folly had brought on her.'
Eustace made no answer. He could not speak, for the exertion and
shock had been too much for him. His mouth was filled with blood.
They were all about him in an instant then, Solivet and Darpent both
in horror, each feeling that he might in a manner have been the cause
of that bleeding, which might in a moment be fatal.
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