"Tell me what you know of him, and what it was he said of Madge," he entreated. "You can't deny me now, Jack."
"I can and shall. It matters not to you or to any what he is or has been."
"Why?"
"Because, as God gives me strength and skill, I shall presently run him through, and so his account will be squared once for all with all men—and all women, as well."
"God speed you," quoth my loyal ally. "I knew not your quarrel with him was so bitter."
"It is to the death."
"So it seems. In that case, if by any accident he—"
I divined what he would say and broke in upon him.
"Nay, Dick; if he thrusts me out, you must not take up my quarrel. I know not where you learned to twirl the steel, or how, but you may be sure he would spit you like a trussed fowl in the first bout. I have seen him kill a man who was reckoned the best short sword in my old regiment of the Blues."
"Content yourself," said my young Hotspur, grandly. "If you spare him he shall answer to me for that thing he said of Madge Stair; this though I know not what it was he said."