This being agreed to, he hied to Sheffield, and had a suit of armour, covered with spikes five or six inches long, made, which, when he donned it, caused the people to take him for "an Egyptian porcupig," and the cattle for "some strange, outlandish hedgehog." When he rose in the morning,
"To make him strong and mighty
He drank, by the tale, six pots of ale
And a quart of aqua vitæ."
Thus equipped and with his valour braced up, he went to Wantley, concealing himself in the well, and when the dragon came to drink, he shouted "Boh," and struck the monster a blow on the mouth. The knight then came out of the well, and they commenced fighting, for some time without advantage on either side—without either receiving a wound. At length, however, after fighting two days and a night, the dragon gave him a blow which made him reel and the earth to quake. "But More of More Hall, like a valiant son of Mars," returned the compliment with such vigour that—
"Oh! quoth the dragon, with a deep sigh,
And turned six times together;
Sobbing and tearing, cursing and swearing
Out of his throat of leather;
More of More Hall! O, thou rascal!
Would I had seen thee never;
With the thing on thy foot, thou has pricked my gut
And I'm quite undone for ever.
"Murder! murder! the dragon cry'd.
Alack! alack! for grief;
Had you but mist that place, you could
Have done me no mischief.
Then his head he shaked, trembled and quaked,
And down he laid and cry'd,
First on one knee, then on back tumbled he:
So groan'd, kick't, and dy'd."
Henry Carey, in 1738, brought out an opera on the subject, entitled "The Dragon of Wantley," abounding in humour, and a fine burlesque on the Italian operas of the period, then the rage of fashion. And in 1873, Poynter exhibited at the Royal Academy a picture of "More of More Hall and the Dragon."