s mouth, while the swords clattered on the cobbles like hail
on the copper roof of a cathedral. It was the most beautiful and
complete thing I ever saw. I then swept the unarmed men back a pace or
two with a flirt of my weapon, and walked up the pavement, kicking the
swords together till they lay in a heap at my feet. The chief ruffian
stood there dazed, with his sword still in his hand, for he had
stepped outside the circle, he acting as captain, and depending on the
men to do the work.

"Drop that," I shouted, turning on him, and he flung his sword in the
street as if it was red hot.

"Sir," said I to him, "a sword in your hand is merely an
inconvenience to you; see if you don't look better with an armful of
them. Pick up these nine blades in a bundle and walk on before me to
the 'Pig and Turnip.' When we come into the courtyard of that tavern,
you are to turn round and make me the lowest bow you can without
rubbing your nose against the pavement. Then you will say, as
gracefully as the words can be uttered:

"'Mr. O'Ruddy,' you say, 'these swords are yours by right of conquest.
You have defeated nine armed men to-night in less than as many
minutes, so I present you with the spoil.' Then you will bow to the
people assembled in the courtyard,--for there is aways a mob of them
there, late and early,--and you will make another low obeisance to me.
If you do all this acceptably to my sense of politeness, I will let
you go unmolested; but if you do otherwise, I will split your gullet
for you."

"Sir," said the captain, "I accept your terms."

With that he stooped and picked up the bundle of weapons, marching on
stolidly before me till he came to the "Pig and Turnip." All the rest
had disappeared in the darkness, and had gone to their dens, very
likely to nurse sore knuckles and regret the loss of good stout
blades.

Our coming to the tavern caused a commotion, as you may well imagine;
and although I don't make too much of the encounter, yet it is my
belief that such an incident never happened in London before. The
captain carried out his part of the presentation with an air of
deference and a choice of good language that charmed me; then he
backed out under the archway to the street, bowing six or seven times
as he went. I had never any fault to find with the man's manner. Paddy
and Jem, now seemingly quite recovered from their misusage of Sunday,
stood back of the group with eyes and mouths open, gazing upon me wi