"
The French girls opened their eyes in astonishment, but they were
not quite sure whether the marquis was not making fun of them.
"Parbleu!" the two officers exclaimed. "You are not in earnest
surely, marquis?"
"I am, indeed, gentlemen; and I can claim some share of the merit,
for I taught him myself; and before he was sixteen he was a better
swordsman than I was; and as he loved the art, he will have gone on
improving, and must be miraculous.
"By the way," he said, suddenly, "there was a story went through
Flanders near four years back of the best swordsman in the German
army being killed by a mere boy in an English regiment, and I said
then, I think that this must be my pupil. Was it so?"
"It was," Rupert said. "It was a painful affair; but I was forced
into it."
"Make no excuse, I beg," the marquis said, laughing.
"Now, young ladies, let us to supper; but beware of this prisoner
of war, for if he is only half as formidable with his eyes as with
his wrist, it is all up with your poor hearts."
Then, with much merriment, the four officers sat down to table,
their host and hostess joining for company, and the young ladies
acting as attendants.
No one would have guessed that three of the party had formed part
of an army which that day had been utterly routed, or that the
other was their prisoner; but the temperament of the French enables
them to recover speedily from misfortune; and although they had
been dull and gloomy enough until Rupert so suddenly fell into
their hands, the happy accident of his being known to their
colonel, and the pleasure and excitement caused by the meeting,
sufficed to put them in high spirits again, especially as their own
corps had suffered but slightly in the action, having been in
reserve on the left, and never engaged except in a few charges to
cover the retreat.
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