The Fairly Honest Lawyer
Andre-Louis Moreau lives for vengeance on the master swordsman who killed his friend.
set in 1789-92
King George III 1760-1820
Andre-Louis Moreau lives for vengeance on the master swordsman who killed his friend.
set in 1789-92
King George III 1760-1820
André-Louis Moreau, a lawyer by training, is broke and a wanted man in Paris. Passing by the fencing school of M. Bertrand des Amis, André reads a notice inviting applications for the post of fencing instructor. Unfortunately, as he is compelled to acknowledge, he can’t fence.
abridged
The master’s eyebrows went up. “But then,” he cried, “why trouble to come up two flights of stairs?” He was impatient.
“The notice does not demand a high degree of proficiency. If I am not proficient enough, yet, knowing the rudiments, I can easily improve. I learn most things readily,” André-Louis commended himself. “For the rest, I possess the other qualifications. I am young, as you observe, and I leave you to judge whether I am wrong in assuming that my address is good. I am by profession a man of the robe, though I realise that the motto here is cedat toga armis.”*
M des Amis smiled approvingly. Undoubtedly the young man had a good address, and a certain readiness of wit, it would appear. He ran a critical eye over his physical points.
“What is your name?” he asked. André-Louis hesitated a moment.
“André-Louis,” he said.
The dark eyes conned him more searchingly.
“Well? André-Louis what?”
“Just André-Louis. Louis is my surname.”
“Oh! An odd surname. You come from Brittany by your accent. Why did you leave it?”
“To save my skin,” he answered, without reflecting. And then made haste to cover the blunder. “I have an enemy” he explained.
* Literally, ‘let the gown yield to arms’. André has reversed a well-known Latin proverb cedant arma togae, ‘let arms yield to the [judge’s] gown’, i.e. military power must obey the law. André’s version recognises that he must now give up being a lawyer, and learn to fence instead. The original proverb comes from Cicero’s De Officiis, written in 44 BC. In legal English (IPA) it is pronounced ˈsidænt ˈɑːrmə ˈtoudʒi. It was the motto of the US Territory of Wyoming, before it became the State of Wyoming on July 10th, 1890.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why did Andre-Louis need to become an expert in fencing?
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Andre-Louis had a friend called Phillipe. The Marquis de La Tour d’Azyr killed him in a duel. Andre-Louis swore to avenge his death.