as truly the death-grapple of the lion and
the serpent. The noble and generous Colonna, pursuing his just
revenge, and trusting, like the kingly animal, to native strength
and courage, sought no unfair advantage; while the crafty Barozzo,
huge in body, tortuous in mind, and scaled with impenetrable steel,
well personified the reptile of Colonna's vision. Although a
practised and wary swordsman, he did not wield his weapon like
Colonna, who, with equal skill in stratagem and feint, was unrivalled
in that lightning-quickness and ready sympathy of eye and hand, for
which the Italians are pre-eminent amongst the swordsmen of Europe;
but the courage and self-possession of the governor had been exercised
in frequent conflicts with the Moslem; his sinews were strung with
martial toil and daily exercise; and his well-mailed person presented
so little vulnerable surface as greatly to protract and facilitate his
defence. He soon learned, however, to respect the formidable skill and
untiring arm of his young opponent, whose weapon played with a motion
so rapid and incessant, that he seemed to parry and thrust at the same
instant; and had not the large and powerful hand of Barozzo retained
a firm grasp of his hilt, he would have been disarmed at the first
onset. After a few passes, Colonna's point struck the centre of the
governor's corselet with a force which made the scales sink deep
beneath the pressure, but the tempered steel resisted this and many
other well-directed hits. The conflict proceeded with unabated
fierceness, and for a period which would have utterly exhausted men
of ordinary lungs and sinews, when Barozzo, finding all his lunges
ineffective, and fearing premature exhaustion, endeavoured to sustain
and collect his powers by remaining on the defensive; but it was now
too late. His sword was irrecoverably entangled in the whirlwind
involutions of Colonna's weapon--his hold began to relax--and he saw
the moment rapidly approaching when he should be disarmed, and at the
mercy of an unappeasable foe.[A] Despairing of success, thirsting for
revenge, and regardless of the laws of fair and open combat, he
suddenly drew his long dagger, dropped on one knee, and made a thrust
which would have proved fatal to a less vigilant adversary. But
Colonna had anticipated the possibility of this base attempt from one
so destitute of all chivalrous feeling, and his quick eye observed and
met the movement. Stepping lightly back, he whirl