Part 40 (1/2)

Those two letters, both written in April of that year 1789, had for only immediate effect to increase the activity hich Andre-Louis Moreau was being sought

Le Chapelier would have found hiain that he should take up a political career The electors of Nantes would have found him--at least, they would have found Omnes Onorance--on each of the several occasions when a vacancy occurred in their body And the Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr and M de Lesdiguieres would have found hiallows

With a purpose no less vindictive was he being sought by M Binet, now unhappily recovered from his wound to face co his illness, and reconstituted under the direction of Polichinelle it was now striving with tolerable success to continue upon the lines which Andre-Louis had laid down M le Marquis, prevented by the riot fro an end of their relations, had been constrained to write to her to that effect fro in discharge of all liabilities a bill on the Caisse d'Escompte for a hundred louis Nevertheless it almost crushed the unfortunate and it enabled her father when he recovered to enrage her by pointing out that she owed this turn of events to the premature surrender she had hter alike were left to assign the Marquis' desertion, naturally enough, to the riot at the Feydau They laid that with the rest to the account of Scaramouche, and were forced in bitterness to ade Climene may even have come to consider that it would have paid her better to have run a straight course with Scara him to have trusted to his undoubted talents to place her on the sued her, and to which it was now futile for her to aspire If so, that reflection must have been her sufficient punishment For, as Andre-Louis so truly says, there is no worse hell than that provided by the regrets for wasted opportunities

Meanwhile the fiercely sought Andre-Louis Moreau had gone to earth coed on by the King's Lieutenant froht have been found in a house in the Rue du Hasard within a stone's throw of the Palais Royal, whither purest chance had conducted him

That which in his letter to Le Chapelier he represents as a contingency of the near future was, in fact, the case in which already he found hi that procured by the sale of such articles of adornment as were not of absolute necessity

So desperate was his case that strolling one gusty Aprildown the Rue du Hasard with his nose in the wind looking for what ht be picked up, he stopped to read a notice outside the door of a house on the left side of the street as you approach the Rue de Richelieu There was no reason why he should have gone down the Rue du Hasard Perhaps its name attracted him, as appropriate to his case

The notice written in a big round hand announced that a young e of swordsmanshi+p was required by M

Bertrand des A board, and on this a shi+eld, which in vulgar tered with tords crossed and four fleurs de lys, one in each angle of the saltire Under the shi+eld, in letters of gold, ran the legend:

BERTRAND DES AMIS

Maitre en fait d'Ar He could claiht, to possess the qualifications de and he believed of tolerable address, whilst the fencing-lessons he had received in Nantes had given hie of swordsmanshi+p The notice looked as if it had been pinned there so that applicants for the post were not very numerous In that case perhaps M Bertrand des Aent And anyway, Andre-Louis had not eaten for four-and-twenty hours, and whilst the employment here offered--the precise nature of which he was yet to ascertain--did not appear to be such as Andre-Louis would deliberately have chosen, he was in no case now to be fastidious

Then, too, he liked the naestions of chivalry and friendliness Also theof a kind that is flavoured with romance it was possible that M Bertrand des Amis would not ask too many questions

In the end he cli he paused outside a door, on which ritten ”Academy of M Bertrand des Amis” He pushed this open, and found himself in a sparsely furnished, untenanted antechamber From a roo of feet, the click and slither of steel upon steel, and douage that was certainly French; but such French as is never heard outside a fencing-school

”Coulez! Mais, coulez donc! So! Now the flanconnade--en carte And here is the riposte Let us begin again Come! The ward of fierce

Make the coupe, and then the quinte par dessus les arez! Allez au fond!” the voice cried in expostulation

”Come, that was better” The blades ceased

”Remember: the hand in pronation, the elbow not too far out That will do for to-day On Wednesday we shall see you tirer au mur It is more deliberate Speed will follohen the mechanism of the movements is more assured”

Another voice murmured in answer The steps moved aside The lesson was at an end Andre-Louis tapped on the door

It was opened by a tall, slender, gracefully proportionedin light shoes clothed him from the waist down Above he was encased to the chin in a closely fitting plastron of leather, His face was aquiline and swarthy, his eyes full and dark, his mouth firm and his clubbed hair was of a lustrous black with here and there a thread of silver showing

In the crook of his left arrating to protect the eyes His keen glance played over Andre-Louis from head to foot

”Monsieur?” he inquired, politely

It was clear that he , for despite his sadly reduced fortunes, his exterior was irreproachable, and M des Auess that he carried upon his back the whole of his possessions