and as the iron-shod stick hit the ground after missing its aim,
the officer felt the Bravo's blade run through the muscles of his upper
arm, like a stream of icy water, followed instantly by burning heat.
With a hearty curse he backed out of the way of another thrust and bade
his men draw their broadswords and finish the matter.

But this was more easily said than done. The half-dozen men obeyed,
indeed, so far as drawing and brandishing their clumsy weapons was
concerned, but the street was narrow, the lantern dazzled them, and the
two long rapiers with their needle points and solid blades pointed out
at them in the circle of light, ready to run in under the awkward
broadsword guard with deadly effect.

The corporal swore till Cucurullo, who was looking out of another upper
window, expected to see him struck by lightning, and all the people who
were now at the windows of the low houses opposite the palace crossed
themselves devoutly; but it was of no use, as long as those two gleaming
points kept making little circles slowly in the light. There was not a
man in the corporal's guard who would have gone within an arm's length
of them.

Seeing that they already had the best of it, the Bravi began to advance
by regular short steps, moving the right foot forward first and then the
left, as if they were on the fencing ground, their rapiers steadily in
guard; and the watchmen fell back, fearing to face them. But that was
not enough; for though the two might drive the little band in that way
from street to street, if they but lowered their points a moment their
adversaries would spring in upon them, even at some risk.

'We are mild-tempered men,' said Trombin at last, 'but we are both
fencing-masters, and it will not be prudent to irritate us, or, as I may
say, to drive us to extremities. You had better go your way quietly and
let us go ours.'

'If you do not,' said Gambardella, who was excessively bored, 'we will
skewer every mother's son of you in five minutes, by the holy
marrow-bones of Beelzebub!'

This singular invocation arrested the attention and disturbed the
equanimity of the watchmen; they could stand being sworn at by every
saint in the calendar, by every article of the Nicene Creed, and,
generally, by everything sacred of which their corporal had ever heard,
but they did not like men who invoked relics of such horrible import as
those which Gambardella had named. Nor were their fears misplaced, for
as the