ach to
tell them that they each had the _la_ on their side, and "Take that!"
was roared by Timothy, planting a well-directed blow with his dexter and
dexterous hand upon the sinister and sinisterous eye of his opponent.
"Take that!" continued he, as his adversary reeled back; "take that, and
be damned to you, for running against a _gentleman_."

He of the rubicund hair had retreated, because so violent was the blow
he could not help so doing, and we all must yield to fate. But it was
not from fear. Seizing a vile potation that was labelled "To be taken
immediately," and hurling it with demoniacal force right on the chops of
the courageous Timothy, "Take that!" cried he with a rancorous yell.
This missile, well-directed as the spears of Homer's heroes, came full
upon the bridge of Timothy's nose, and the fragile glass shivering,
inflicted divers wounds upon his physiognomy, and at the same time
poured forth a dark burnt-sienna-coloured balsam, to heal them, giving
pain unutterable. Timothy, disdaining to lament the agony of his
wounds, followed the example of his antagonist, and hastily seizing a
similar bottle of much larger dimensions, threw it with such force that
it split between the eyes of his opponent. Thus with these dreadful
weapons did they commence the mortal strife.

The lovers of _good order_, or at least of fair play, gathered round the
combatants, forming an almost impregnable ring, yet of sufficient
dimensions to avoid the missiles. "_Go it, red-head_!" "_Bravo!
white-apron_!" resounded on every side. Draughts now met draughts in
their passage through the circumambient air, and exploded like shells
over a besieged town. Bolusses were fired with the precision of cannon
shot, pill-boxes were thrown with such force that they burst like grape
and cannister, while acids and alkalies hissed, as they neutralised each
other's power, with all the venom of expiring snakes. "Bravo!
white-apron!" "Red-head for ever!" resounded on every side as the
conflict continued with unabated vigour. The ammunition was fast
expending on both sides, when Mr Ebenezer Pleggit, hearing the noise,
and perhaps smelling his own drugs, was so unfortunately rash and so
unwisely foolhardy as to break through the sacred ring, advancing from
behind with uplifted cane to fell the redoubtable Timothy, when a
mixture of his own, hurled by his own red-haired champion, caught him in
his open mouth, breaking against his only two remaini