All passed
through my mind in a moment.
And now I feared for mademoiselle as I had not feared before. I never
feared a man, or two men at a time, who came with sword in hand; but how
is one to meet or even to perceive the blows aimed by men of thought and
power? Such as Montignac, inscrutable, patient, ingenious, strong enough
to conceal their own passions, which themselves are more intense and far
more lasting than the passions of a mere man of fighting, are not easily
turned aside from the quest of any object on which they have put their
desires. One against whom they have set themselves is never safe from
them while they live. Years do not make them either give up or forget.
Montignac, by reason of his influence over the governor, had vast
resources to employ. He could turn the machinery of government to his own
ends, and the trustful governor not suspect. In that slim youth,
smooth-faced, pale, repressed, grave, not always taking the trouble to
erase from his features the signs of his scorn for ordinary minds, a
scorn mingled with a sense of his own power and with a kind of derisive
mirth,--in this quiet student I beheld an antagonist more formidable than
any against whom I had ever been pitted. In thinking of him, I came at
once to regard De Berquin, who still stood facing me with ready sword,
and on his face the intention of killing me plainly written, as a very
inconsiderable opponent, even when backed by his four ruffians with
their varied collection of weapons.
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