I replied by quoting from Byron's "Mazeppa" the lines:
"'Ill betide
The school wherein I learned to ride.'
Quoth Charles: 'Old Hetman, wherefore so,
Since thou hast learned the art so well?'"
Instantly he responded by continuing the quotation:
"''Twere long to tell,
And we have many a league to go
With every now and then a blow;'