fashion, breast to breast, each resting his chin on the other's shoulder.
They grasped each other round the body, each setting his left hand above
the other's right. Each tried to force the other to touch the ground with
both shoulders and one hip, or with both hips and one shoulder; or else to
compel the other to relinquish his hold for an instant--either of these
successes giving the victory. Often as Arthur had tried the art, he never
had been so matched before. The competitors swayed this way and that,
writhed, struggled, half lost their footing and regained it, yet neither
yielded. All the boatmen gathered breathlessly around, King Arthur's men
refusing to believe their eyes, even when they knew their king was in
danger. A stranger group was that of the sullen farm-laborers, who left
their ploughs and spades, and, congregating on a rising ground, watched
without any expression of sympathy the contest that was going on. An old
wrestler from Cornwall, whom Arthur had brought with him, was the judge;
and according to the habit of the time, the contest was for the best two
bouts in three. By the utmost skill and strength, Arthur compelled Hanner
Dyn to lose his hold for one instant in the first trial, and the King was
pronounced the victor.

The second test was far more difficult; the boy, now grown to a man, and
seeming to grow older and stronger before their very eyes, twice forced
Arthur to the ground either with hip or shoulder, but never with both,
while the crowd closed in breathlessly around; and the half-blind old
Druid, who had himself been a wrestler in his youth, and who had been
brought ashore to witness the contest, called warningly aloud, "Save
thyself, O king!" At this Arthur roused his failing strength to one final
effort, and, griping his rival round the waist with a mighty grasp, raised
him bodily from the ground and threw him backward till he fell flat, like
a log, on both shoulders and both hips; while Arthur himself fell fainting
a moment later. Nor did he recover until he found himself in the boat, his