"In so small a community," went on my lord, "sure you must all know one another. There can be no masks worn, no false colors displayed. Everything must be as open as daylight. But we all have a past as well as a present. Now, for instance"-I interrupted him. "In Virginia, my lord, we live in the present. At present, my lord, I like not the color of your lordship's cloak."
He stared at me, with his black brows drawn together. "It is not of your choosing nor for your wearing, sir," he rejoined haughtily.
"And your sword knot is villainously tied," I continued. "And I like not such a fire-new, bejeweled scabbard. Mine, you see, is out at heel."
"I see," he said dryly.
"The pinking of your doublet suits me not, either," I declared. "I could make it more to my liking," and I touched his Genoa three-pile with the point of my rapier.
A loud murmur arose from the crowd, and the Governor started forward, crying out, "Captain Percy! Are you mad?"
"I was never saner in my life, sir," I answered. "French fashions like me not,--that is all,--nor Englishmen that wear them. To my thinking such are scarcely true-born."
That thrust went home. All the world knew the story of my late Lord Carnal and the waiting woman in the service of the French ambassador's wife. A gasp of admiration went up from the crowd. My lord's rapier was out, the hand that held it shaking with passion. I had my blade in my hand, but the point was upon the ground. "I'll lesson you, you madman!" he said thickly. Suddenly, without any warning, he thrust at me; had he been less blind with rage, the long score which each was to run up against the other might have ended where it began. I swerved, and the next instant with my own point sent his rapier whirling. It fell at the Governor's feet.
"Your lordship may pick it up," I remarked. "Your grasp is as firm as your honor, my lord."
He glared at me, foam upon his lips. Men were between us now,--the Governor, Francis West, Master Pory, Hamor, Wynne,--and a babel of excited voices arose. The diversion I had aimed to make had been made with a vengeance. West had me by the arm. "What a murrain is all this coil about, Ralph Percy? If you hurt hair of his head, you are lost!"
The favorite broke from the Governor's detaining hand and conciliatory speech.
"You'll fight, sir?" he cried hoarsely.
"You know that I need not now, my lord," I answered.