Bidding Chestnut stand still, I placed myself on guard while Benet drew his sword.
"I like not fighting before women," he cried; "they faint at the sight of blood, but, by Cormoran, I love you, Trevanion! We'll fight for the maid, and the best man shall have her."
"Stop a minute," I said. "This is Mistress Nancy Molesworth, is it not?"
"Yes,"—it was the maid herself who spoke.
"And you do not wish to go with this man Benet Killigrew?"
"No, no. I will go no further with him now. I only came here thus at your bidding!"
"Did you?" growled Benet, "but you will go further with me. Trevanion, you are over confident, my man. Because you threw me by a trick I had not practised, you ventured on this scheme? I love you for it, but you are a dead man, Trevanion"; and he gave a laugh of wild joy.
For the moment I repented I had not wounded him unawares and taken away the maid without his knowing who had done it, but only for a moment. It is but a coward's device to hurt an unprepared man. Besides, although Benet Killigrew was a wild rake, and ill-fitted to be the husband of such a maid as Nancy Molesworth, he was a brave man, and loved a fight, and as such I respected him.
Without waiting he attacked me hotly; all the same I saw he was wary, and was not weakened by over-confidence, as he was when we wrestled. His eyes continued to gleam with a fierce joy, and he laughed like a man well pleased.
"You thought to beat Benet Killigrew," he cried, "you thought to use him as a tool, eh?"