Maitland Club > Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart

222 EK2KYBAAAYPON.
Marcellus in triumph ; which, the never too much to be admired Crichtoun perceiving,
to wipe off the imputation of cowardise lying upon the court of Mantua, to which he
had but even then arrived, although formerly he had been a domestick thereof, he
could neither eat nor drink till he had first sent a challenge to the conqueror, appelling
him to repair with his best sword in his hand, by nine of the clock in the morning of
the next day, in presence of the whole court, and in the same place where he had
killed the other three, to fight with him upon this quarrel, that in the court of Mantua
there were as valiant men as he ; and, for his better encouragement to the desired un-
dertaking, he assured him, that, to the aforesaid five hundred pistols, he would adjoyn
a thousand more, wishing him to do the like, that the victor, upon the point of his
sword, might carry away the richer booty. The challenge, with all its conditions, is
no sooner accepted of, the time and place mutually condescended upon kept according-
ly, and the fifteen hundred pistols June inde deposited, but of the two rapiers of equal
weight, length, and goodness, each taking one, in presence of the Duke, Duchess, with
all the noblemen, ladies, magnificos, and all the choicest of men, women, and maids of
that citie, as soon as the signal for the duel was given, by the shot of a great piece of
ordnance of threescore and four pound ball, the combatants, with a lion like animosity,
made their approach to one another, and, being within distance, the valiant Crichtoun,
to make his adversary spend his fury the sooner, betook himself to the defensive part ;
wherein, for a long time, he shewed such excellent dexterity in warding the other's
blows, slighting his falsifyings, in breaking measure, and often, by the agility of his
body, avoiding his thrust, that he seemed but to play, while the other was in earnest.
The sweetness of Crichtoun's countenance, in the hotest of the assault, like a glance
of lightning on the hearts of the spectators, brought all the Italian ladies on a sudden
to be enamoured of him ; whilst the sternness of the other's aspect, he looking like an
enraged bear, would have struck terrour into wolves, and affrighted an English mastiff.
Though they were both in their linens, to wit, shirts and drawers, without any other
apparel, and in all out ward conveniences equally adjusted, the Italian, with redoubling
hisstroaks, foamed at the mouth with a cholerick heart, and fetched a pantling breath ;
the Scot, in sustaining his charge, kept himself in a pleasant temper, without passion,
and made void his designes ; he alters his wards from tierce to quart ; he primes and
seconds it, now high, now lowe, and casts his body, like another Prothee, into all the
shapes he can, to spie an open on his adversary, and lay hold of an advantage, but all
in vain ; for the invincible Crichtoun, whom no cunning was able to surprise, contre-
postures his respective wards, and, with an incredible nimbleness of both hand and
foot, evades the intent and frustrates the invasion. Now is it, that the never before
conquered Italian, finding himself a little faint, enters into a consideration that he may
be over matched ; whereupon a sad apprehension of danger seizing upon all his spirits,
he would gladly have his life bestowed on him as a gift, but that, having never been
accustomed to yeeld, he knows not how to beg it. Matchless Crichtoun, seeing it