Presently I
felt the point of my rapier touch his tunic upon the breast, and, in my
sensitive grasp, I knew that my blade had encountered steel. The look
which I gave him must have conveyed to him the knowledge that I had
discovered his treachery, for he set his lips and attacked me with even
greater fury than before, but my blood was up, and I beat his guard
down with such force that I was presently enabled, by a trick I had
learnt, known as binding the blade, to wrest the weapon from his hand.
The seconds would now have interfered, but my temper was not to be
restrained, and, to the astonishment of those present, I seized the
count by the throat, and, tearing open his tunic, laid bare a
breastplate which he wore next his skin. No blow that I could have
struck this cowardly noble would have hurt him so much as this
exposure. With shamefaced looks his seconds led him away. This was the
last I saw of him, for he soon after left Holland, and took service
with the Spaniards, with whom he had long been in league. Some years
later he was condemned as a heretic, and suffered death by torture at
the hands of the Inquisition.
Nothing now stood between me and my marriage with Anna, which was duly
celebrated with much pomp at the Count of Holstein's town palace, after
which Anna and I retired to my country estate, there to live, as I
thought, the rest of our days in peace.
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