Part 41 (2/2)

”Let us try On the fourth disengage I shall touch you Allons! En garde!”

And as he proentlereat opinion of Andre-Louis' swordsh for purposes of practice when the ed, opened wide his eyes In a burst of enerosity and intoxication, Andre-Louis was al his method--a method which a little later was to beco-rooms Betimes he checked hie thatit

At noon, the acade empty, M des Amis called Andre-Louis to one of the occasional lessons which he still received And for the first time in all his experience with Andre-Louis, M des Amis received frohed, well pleased, like the generous felloas

”Aha! You are ih not so well pleased, when he was hit in the second bout After that he settled down to fight in earnest with the result that Andre-Louis was hit three ti- himself disconcerted Andre-Louis'

theory, which for want of being exercised in practice still demanded too much consideration

But that his theory was sound he accounted fully established, and with that, for the moment, he was content It remained only to perfect by practice the application of it To this he now devoted himself with the passionate enthusiasm of the discoverer He confined himself to a half-dozen combinations, which he practised assiduously until each had become almost auto M des Amis' pupils

Finally, a week or so after that last bout of his with des Aain in the first bout, the ainst his assistant But to-day it availed hi before Andre-Louis' impetuous attacks

After the third hit, M des Amis stepped back and pulled off his mask

”What's this?” he asked He was pale, and his dark broere contracted in a frown Not in years had he been so wounded in his self-love ”Have you been taught a secret botte?”

He had always boasted that he knew too much about the sword to believe any nonsense about secret bottes; but this performance of Andre-Louis'

had shaken his convictions on that score

”No,” said Andre-Louis ”I have been working hard; and it happens that I fence with my brains”

”So I perceive Well, well, I think I have taught you enough,an assistant who is superior to er of that,” said Andre-Louis, s, and you are tired, whilst I, having done little, am entirely fresh That is the only secret of ood-nature of M des A the road it was alether, Andre-Louis, who continued daily to perfect his theory into an almost infallible systeainst him at least two hits for every one of his own So rant to discretion, but no more He desired that M des Ath, without, however, discovering so much of its real extent as would have excited in hiree of jealousy

And so well did he contrive that whilst he becareater assistance to the , too, had materially improved--he was also a source of pride to him as the h his acade the fact that his skill was due far more to M des Amis' library and his own mother wit than to any lessons received

CHAPTER II QUOS DEUS VULT PERDERE

Once again, precisely as he had done when he joined the Binet troupe, did Andre-Louis now settle dohole-heartedly to the new profession into which necessity had driven him, and in which he found effective concealht seek hih in fact it did not--have brought him to consider himself at last as a man of action He had not, however, on that account ceased to be aand summer months of that year 1789 in Paris provided him with abundant matter for reflection He read there in the rahat is perhaps the e in the history of human development, and in the end he was forced to the conclusion that all his early preconceptions had been at fault, and that it was such exalted, passionate enthusiasts as Vilht

I suspect hi pride in the fact that he had beenhis error to the circuical a e the depths of huer, the increasing poverty and distress of Paris during that spring, and assigned it to its proper cause, together with the patience hich the people bore it The world of France was in a state of hushed, of paralyzed expectancy, waiting for the States General to assemble and for centuries of tyranny to end And because of this expectancy, industry had come to a standstill, the stream of trade had dwindled to a trickle Men would not buy or sell until they clearly saw the enius of the Swiss banker, M Necker, was to deliver them from this morass And because of this paralysis of affairs the men of the people were thrown out of work and left to starve with their wives and children

Looking on, Andre-Louis sht The sufferers were ever the proletariat The ht to make this revolution, the electors--here in Paris as elsewhere--were eois, wealthy traders And whilst these, despising the canaille, and envying the privileged, talked largely of equality--by which theyequality that should confuse theentry--the proletariat perished of want in its kennels

At last with the month of May the deputies arrived, Andre-Louis'

friend Le Chapelier prourated at Versailles It was then that affairs began to becoan seriously to doubt the soundness of the views he had held hitherto