icitation was, a declaration of a resolution
_Never to love any woman_.

No sooner had Viola left the lady than a claim was made upon her
valour. A gentleman, a rejected suitor of Olivia, who had learned how
that lady had favoured the duke's messenger, challenged him to fight
a duel. What should poor Viola do, who, though she carried a manlike
outside, had a true woman's heart, and feared to look on her own
sword!

When she saw her formidable rival advancing towards her with his sword
drawn, she began to think of confessing that she was a woman; but
she was relieved at once from her terror, and the shame of such a
discovery, by a stranger that was passing by, who made up to them, and
as if he had been long known to her, and were her dearest friend, said
to her opponent, "If this young gentleman has done offence, I will
take the fault on me; and if you offend him, I will for his sake defy
you." Before Viola had time to thank him for his protection, or to
enquire the reason of his kind interference, her new friend met with
an enemy where his bravery was of no use to him; for the officers of
justice coming up in that instant, apprehended the stranger in the
duke's name to answer for an offence he had committed some years
before; and he said to Viola, "This comes with seeking you:" and then
he asked her for a purse, saying, "Now my necessity makes me ask for
my purse, and it grieves me much more for what I cannot do for you,
than for what befalls myself. You stand amazed, but be of comfort."
His words did indeed amaze Viola, and she protested she knew him not,
nor had ever received a purse from him; but for the kindness he had
just shewn her, she offered him a small sum of money, being nearly
the whole she possessed. And now the stranger spoke severe things,
charging her with ingratitude and unkindness. He said, "This youth,
whom you see here, I snatched from the jaws of death, and for his
sake alone I came to Illyria, and have fallen into this danger." But
the officers cared little for hearkening to the complaints of their
prisoner, and they hurried him off, saying, "What is that to us?" And
as he was carried away, he called Viola by the name of Sebastian,
reproaching the supposed Sebastian for disowning his friend, as long
as he was within hearing. When Viola heard herself called Sebastian,
though the stranger was taken away too hastily for her to ask an
explanation, she conjectured that this seeming mystery might arise