He made a couple of savage passes at me, but in a twinkling his
sword flew across the room.

'VOILA!' I shouted, lurching forward, as if I had luck and not
skill to thank for my victory. 'Now, the next! Come on, come
on--you white-livered knaves!' And, pretending a drunken frenzy,
I flung my weapon bodily amongst them, and seizing the nearest,
began to wrestle with him.

In a moment they all threw themselves upon me, and, swearing
copiously, bore me back to the door. The wine merchant cried
breathlessly to the woman to open it, and in a twinkling they had
me through it, and half-way across the road. The one thing I
feared was a knife-thrust in the MELEE; but I had to run that
risk, and the men were honest, and, thinking me drunk, indulgent.
In a trice I found myself on my back in the dirt, with my head
humming; and heard the bars of the door fall noisily into their
places.

I got up and went to the door, and, to play out my part, hammered
on it frantically; crying out to them to let me in. But the
three travellers only jeered at me, and the landlord, coming to
the window, with his head bleeding, shook his fist at me, and
cursed me for a mischief-maker.

Baffled in this, I retired to a log which lay in the road a few
paces from the house, and sat down on it to await events. With
torn clothes and bleeding face, hatless and covered with dirt, I
was in little better case than my opponent. It was raining, too,
and the dripping branches swayed over my head. The wind was in