and when we had stripped to our smocks, we drew and fell to work. He was
very quick and light in his movements, bounding nimbly to this side or
that, but I, using a hanging guard, in our common Scots manner, did
somewhat perplex him, to whom the fashion was new. One or two scratches
we dealt each other, but, for all that, I could see we were well matched,
and neither closed, as men rarely do in such a combat, till they are
wroth with hurts and their blood warm. Now I gashed his thigh, but not
deeply, and with that, as I deemed, his temper fired, for he made a full
sweep at my leg above the knee. This I have always reckoned a fool's
stroke, as leaving the upper part of the body unguarded, and avoiding
with my right leg, I drove down with all my force at his head. But, even
as I struck, came a flash and the sudden deadness of a deep wound, for he
had but feinted, and then, avoiding me so that I touched him not, he
drove his point into my breast. Between the force of my own blow and
this stab I fell forward on my face, and thence rolled over on my back,
catching at my breast with my hands, as though to stop the blood, but, in
sooth, not well knowing what I did.

He had thrown down his sword, and now was kneeling by my side.

"I take you to witness," he said, "that this has befallen to my great
sorrow, and had I been where this gentleman was yesterday, and heard my
cousin blaspheme, I would myself have drawn on him, but--" And here, as
I later heard, he fainted from loss of blood, my sword having cut a great
vein; and I likewise lost sense and knowledge. Nor did I know more till
they lifted me and laid me on a litter of poplar boughs, having stanched
my wound as best they might. In the boat, as they ferried us across the
river, I believe that I fainted again; and so, "between home and hell,"
as the saying is, I lay on my litter and was carried along the street
beside the water. Folk gathered around us as we went. I heard their