The men face each other, rapiers in hand.
It is barely light out; the sun is just touching the Champ de Mars, the exercise ground of the military school, to their southeast. There is no boat traffic on the river. Downstream, the city has yet begun to wake. Further south, in the near distance, looms the École Militaire, with its clean white pavilion dome and eight Corinthian columns already visible in the half-light.
The men are silent. They say nothing to each other because they are beyond words. The dispute that has brought them here to this intense moment can only be settled in one way.
It is not a formal duel. There are no seconds present, nor a doctor in waiting, as there would be for an engagement between gentlemen in the Bois de Boulogne. There is an air of the impromptu, the ad hoc, to the proceedings. The site, a clearing by the river, is only partially screened by a copse of trees.
The taller of the two men salutes his adversary with his sword. The other man follows suit and, after a pause, their irregular encounter commences. The smaller man, who is dressed in a dark shirt and gray breeches and hasn’t removed his waistcoat, waits for his taller opponent to move first.
He does not have long to wait.
The taller man advances, his rapier held in front of him, his body turned to present the smallest target possible. With a quick flick of his wrist, he launches a beat attack, slapping his adversary’s blade with his own, and then, lunging forward, he directs a quick thrust at his opponent’s chest. Startled, the smaller man parries the thrust as he backs away.
The smaller man pauses. “Ne touche pas,” he says out loud, a touch of bravado that seems out of place.
His opponent shakes his head, not responding. He moves slowly to the right, looking for an opening, feinting with his blade to the outside, then to the inside. He thrusts again, and this time the smaller man parries with a circular motion and ripostes, counterattacking, but falling short as the larger man steps back, anticipating the move.
The Republic of Virtue Description:
Revolutionary France, 1793. When Calvin Tarkington, a young Boston merchant-trader, arrives in Paris on July 4th, he finds a city in turmoil, riven by quarrels between revolutionary factions and threatened by advancing Coalition armies. Calvin’s brother Alexander, the family firm’s representative in France, has disappeared, suspected by a powerful Jacobin official of spying for the British.
As Calvin seeks to clear his brother’s name, his quest for the truth takes him from elegant townhouses to squalid gambling dens to the secret chambers of the Masonic Lodge of the Seven Sisters. Drawn into a shadowy world of intrigue and betrayal, Calvin becomes the hunted as France lurches toward the Reign of Terror.
Rich in historical detail and suspense, The Republic of Virtue tells a compelling story of love, courage, and loyalty set in a dangerous place at a dangerous time—the darkest days of the French Revolution.
