"I would accept the partie instantly," said the Frenchman, "were it not so unequal. But six to one! ... is not this too hard?"
"No! ... not the least in the world, if we take it in the quizzing vein," replied the other; "for it is well known that a Frenchman can out-quiz six Englishmen at any time."
"Eh bien!" ... said the complaisant Parisian with a sigh, "I will do my best. Begin, ladies, if you please."
"No! no! no!" exclaimed several female voices in a breath; "we will have nothing to do with it; fight it out between yourselves: we will be the judges, and award the honours of the field to him who hits the hardest."
"This is worse and worse," cried our laughing enemy: "if this be the arrangement of the combat, the judgment, à coup sûr, will be given against me. How can you expect such blind confidence from me?"
We protested against this attack upon our justice, promised to be as impartial as Jove, and desired the champions to enter the lists.
"So then," said the Englishman, "I am to enact the part of St. George ... and God defend the right!"
"And I, that of St. Denis," replied the Frenchman, his right hand upon his breast and his left gracefully sawing the air. "Mon bras ... non ...
'Ma langue à ma patrie,
Mon cœur à mon amie,