ed that he had promoted the
quarrel in Brussels, where he could have hired the armour of Charles the
Fifth, and the valiant Duke of Parma, for their accommodation; but as
there was no possibility of furnishing them cap-a-pie at Antwerp, he
persuaded him to conform to the modern use of the sword, and meet the
painter on his own terms; and suspecting that his fear would supply him
with other excuses for declining the combat, he comforted him with some
distant insinuations, to the prejudice of his adversary's courage, which
would, in all probability, evaporate before any mischief could happen.

Notwithstanding this encouragement, he could not suppress the reluctance
with which he went to the field, and cast many a wishful look over his
left shoulder, to see whether or not his adversary was at his heels.
When, by the advice of his second, he took possession of the ground, and
turned about with his face to the enemy, it was not so dark, but that
Peregrine could perceive the unusual paleness of his countenance, and
the sweat standing in large drops upon his forehead; nay, there was a
manifest disorder in his speech, when he regretted his want of the pila
and parma, with which he would have made a rattling noise, to astonish
his foe, in springing forward, and singing the hymn to battle, in the
manner of the ancients.

In the meantime, observing the hesitation of his antagonist, who, far
from advancing, seemed to recoil, and even struggle with his second, he
guessed the situation of the painter's thoughts, and, collecting all the
manhood that he possessed, seized the opportunity of profiting by
his enemy's consternation. Striking his sword and pistol together, he
advanced in a sort of trot, raising a loud howl, in which he repeated,
in lieu of the Spartan song, part of the strophe from one of Pindar's
Pythia, beginning with ek theon gar makanoi pasai Broteais aretais,
etc. This imitation of the Greeks had all the desired effect upon the
painter, who seeing the physician running towards him like a fury, with
a pistol in his right hand, which was extended, and hearing the dreadful
yell he uttered, and the outlandish words he pronounced, was seized
with a universal palsy of his limbs. He would have dropped down upon
the ground, had not Pipes supported and encouraged him to stand upon his
defence. The doctor, contrary to his expectation, finding that he had
not flinched from the spot, though he had now performed one half of his
ca