I believe I first read it in 1968-1969. It was published in a textbook I used in seventh grade.
The story opens with the narrator, as a grown man, perhaps middle-aged or older, reading a newspaper item about a military dictator in an unnamed Central or South American country having been assassinated in a coup d’etat. The narrator then reminisces about having been to a preparatory academy in Western Europe (I can’t recall whether it was France or Germany, but one of the school rules was that all students were only permitted to speak either French or German) with the teenaged version of the dictator.
The future dictator makes his character pretty apparent during the first fencing class (he’s an arrogant douche and a bully). He has had some training in fencing, and he shows off and rudely disarms the fencing master, who has been instructing the class in the proper way to grip the épée.
The narrator becomes friendly with the fencing master, who shares quarters at the academy with his teenaged daughter. The teenaged daughter becomes friendly with the princeling-cum-douche. This displeases the fencing master, who eventually engages the douche in a serious fencing match, in which, IIRC, he roundly defeats him (that is, the fencing master defeats the bully).
I don’t recall much else about the story, except that, if the bully learned anything about humility and respect from his thrashing, the lesson didn’t stick, hence his assassination years later.
Does anyone recall reading this story, and can you help me find it again? TIA.
