"Ah! you are longing for it?"
"Yes."
"Ah! really?"
"Yes."
"Well, then, come on!"
I had now goaded myself to action; I put my books on the ground, I threw off my jacket, and I hurled myself upon my antagonist, shouting:
"Ah! you want to fight!... ah! you want to fight!... take that! and that! and that!"
Marshal de Saxe, that great military philosopher, said very truly that the whole art of war consists in pretending not to be afraid and in inspiring fear in the enemy.
I appeared quite fearless, and Bligny was beaten.