Page:Stanley Weyman--Count Hannibal.djvu/182

170 his open trembling hands. “A sword! A sword! ’Tis easy taunting an unarmed man, but”

“You wish to fight?”

“I ask no more! No more! Give me a sword,” he urged, his voice quivering with eagerness. “It is you who are the coward!”

Count Hannibal stared at him. “And what am I to get by fighting you?” he reasoned slowly. “You are in my power. I can do with you as I please. I can call from this window and denounce you, or I can summon my men”

“Coward! Coward!”

“Ay? Well, I will tell you what I will do,” with a subtle smile. “I will give you a sword, M. de Tignonville, and I will meet you foot to foot here, in this room, on a condition.”

“What is it? What is it?” the young man cried with incredible eagerness. “Name your condition!”

“That if I get the better of you, you find me a minister.”

“I find you a”

“A minister. Yes, that is it. Or tell me where I can find one.”

The young man recoiled. “Never!” he said.

“You know where to find one.”

“Never! Never!”

“You can lay your hand on one in five minutes, you know.”

“I will not.”

“Then I shall not fight you!” Count Hannibal answered coolly; and he turned from him, and back again. “You will pardon me if I say, M. de Tignonville, that you are in as many minds about fighting as about dying! I do not think that you would have made your fortune at Court. Moreover, there is a thing which I fancy you have not considered. If we fight you may kill me, in which case