'Then I did him no wrong,' rejoined the youth, and once more would
have gone his way.

But Richard, angrier than ever at finding he had given him such an
easy advantage, moved with his movement, and kept rudely in front of
him, provoking a quarrel--in clownish fashion, it must be confessed.

'By heaven,' said Scudamore, 'if Dorothy had not begged me not to
fight with you--,' and as he spoke he slipped suddenly past his
antagonist, and walked swiftly away. Richard plunged after him, and
seized him roughly by the shoulder. Instantaneously he wheeled on
the very foot whence he was taking the next stride, and as he turned
his rapier gleamed in the moonlight. The same moment it left his
hand, he scarce knew how, and flew across the hedge. Richard, who
was unarmed, had seized the blade, and, almost by one and the same
movement of his wrist, wrenched the hilt from the grasp of his
adversary, and flung the thing from him. Then closing with the
cavalier, slighter and less skilled in such encounters, the
roundhead almost instantly threw him upon the turf that bordered the
road.

'Take that for drawing on an unarmed man,' he said.

No reply came. The youth lay stunned.

Then compassion woke in the heart of the angry Richard, and he
hastened to his help. Ere he reached him, however, he made an
attempt to rise, but only to stagger and fall again.