sing
the company, "can't you see the fellow's gulling you before your eyes?
Can't you see that he has changed the point upon me? I say he's a French
prisoner, and he answers that he can box! What has that to do with it? I
would not wonder but what he can dance too--they're all dancing-masters
over there. I say, and I stick to it, that he's a Frenchy. He says he
isn't. Well then, let him out with his papers, if he has them! If he
had, would he not show them? If he had, would he not jump at the idea of
going to Squire Merton, a man you all know? Now, you are all plain,
straightforward Bedfordshire men, and I wouldn't ask a better lot to
appeal to. You're not the kind to be talked over with any French gammon,
and he's plenty of that. But let me tell him, he can take his pigs to
another market; they'll never do here; they'll never go down in
Bedfordshire. Why! look at the man! Look at his feet! Has anybody got a
foot in the room like that? See how he stands! do any of you fellows
stand like that? Does the landlord, there? Why, he has Frenchman wrote
all over him as big as a sign-post!"

This was all very well; and in a different scene I might even have been
gratified by his remarks; but I saw clearly, if I were to allow him to
talk, he might turn the tables on me altogether. He might not be much of
a hand at boxing; but I was much mistaken, or he had studied forensic
eloquence in a good school. In this predicament I could think of nothing
more ingenious than to burst out of the house, under the pretext of an
ungovernable rage. It was certainly not very ingenious--it was
elementary, but I had no choice.

"You white-livered dog!" I broke out. "Do you dare to tell me you're an
Englishman, and won't fight? But I'll stand no more of this! I leave
this place, where I've been insulted! Here! what's to pay? Pay
yourself!" I went on, offering the landlord a handful of silver, "and
give me back my bank-note!"

The landlord, following his usual policy of obliging everybody, offered
no opposition to my design. The position of my adversary was now
thoroughly bad. He had lost my two companions. He was on the point of
losing me also. There was plainly no hope of arousing the company to
help; and, watching him with a corner of my eye, I saw him hesitate for
a moment. The next, he had taken down his hat and his wig, which was of
black horsehair; and I saw him draw from behind the settle a vast hooded
greatcoat and a small valise. "The de