The Fencing Bout A fencing bout between men of honor, under the direction of a teacher inspired by the same feelings, is a diversion proper to good taste and fine breeding. Much later, when Jaime Astarloa wanted to piece together the scattered fragments of the tragedy and tried to remember how it all began, the first image that came to his mind was of the marquis and of the gallery in the palace overlooking the Retire Gardens, with the first heat of summer streaming in through the windows, accompanied by such brilliant sunlight that they had to squint against the dazzle on the polished guards of their foils. The marquis was not in form; he was wheezing like a broken bellows, and beneath his plastron his shirt was drenched with sweat. He was doubtless paying for the excesses of the previous night, but, as was his custom, Don Jaime refrained from making any uncalled-for remarks. His client's private life was none of his business. He merely parried in tierce a feeble thrust that would have made even an apprentice blush, then lunged.
