two inches deep in the oaken floor. 'It is but a trick,' I explained. 'I
have practised it in the winter evenings at home.'

'It is not a trick that I should care to have played upon me,' said Lord
Grey, amid a general murmur of applause and surprise. 'Od's bud, man,
you have lived two centuries too late. What would not your thews have
been worth before gunpowder put all men upon a level!'

'Wunderbar!' growled Buyse, 'wunderbar! I am past my prime, young sir,
and may well resign the palm of strength to you. It was a right noble
stroke. It hath cost me a runlet or two of canary, and a good old
helmet; but I grudge it not, for it was fairly done. I am thankful
that my head was not darin. Saxon, here, used to show us some brave
schwertspielerei, but he hath not the weight for such smashing blows as
this.'

'My eye is still true and my hand firm, though both are perhaps a trifle
the worse for want of use,' said Saxon, only too glad at the chance
of drawing the eyes of the chiefs upon him. 'At backsword, sword and
dagger, sword and buckler, single falchion and case of falchions, mine
old challenge still holds good against any comer, save only my brother
Quartus, who plays as well as I do, but hath an extra half-inch in reach
which gives him the vantage.'

'I studied sword-play under Signor Contarini of Paris,' said Lord Grey.
'Who was your master?'

'I have studied, my lord, under Signer Stern Necessity of Europe,' quoth
Saxon. 'For five-and-thirty years my life has depended from day to day
upon being able to cover myself with this slip of steel. Here is a
small trick which showeth some nicety of eye: to throw this ring to the
ceiling and catch it upon a rapier point. It seems simple, perchance,
and yet is only to be attained by some practice.'

'Simple!' cried Wade the lawyer, a square-faced, bold-eyed man. 'Why,
the ring is but the girth of your little finger. A man might do it once
by good luck, but none could ensure it.'

'I will lay a guinea a thrust on it,' said Saxon; and tossing the little
gold circlet up into the air, he flashed out his rapier and made a pass
at it. The ring rasped down the steel blade and tinkled against the
hilt, fairly impaled. By a sharp motion of the wrist he shot it up
to the ceiling again, where it struck a carved rafter and altered its
course; but again, with a quick step forward, he got beneath it and
received it on his sword-point. 'Surely there is some cavalier present
who is as