As he
went I heard him grumble to himself about COT'S ENGLISH and the
KING'S COAT, so that I might have supposed him to be seriously
offended. But his manner at the beginning of our interview was
there to belie him. It was manifest he had come prepared to fasten
a quarrel on me, right or wrong; manifest that I was taken in a
fresh contrivance of my enemies; and to me (conscious as I was of
my deficiencies) manifest enough that I should be the one to fall
in our encounter.
As we came into that rough rocky desert of the King's Park I was
tempted half-a-dozen times to take to my heels and run for it, so
loath was I to show my ignorance in fencing, and so much averse to
die or even to be wounded. But I considered if their malice went
as far as this, it would likely stick at nothing; and that to fall
by the sword, however ungracefully, was still an improvement on the
gallows. I considered besides that by the unguarded pertness of my
words and the quickness of my blow I had put myself quite out of
court; and that even if I ran, my adversary would probably pursue
and catch me, which would add disgrace to my misfortune.
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