ing skillfully to get a slip-knot on my
legs, before I could{187} draw up my feet. As soon as I found what he
was up to, I gave a sudden spring (my two day's rest had been of much
service to me,) and by that means, no doubt, he was able to bring me
to the floor so heavily. He was defeated in his plan of tying me. While
down, he seemed to think he had me very securely in his power. He little
thought he was--as the rowdies say--"in" for a "rough and tumble"
fight; but such was the fact. Whence came the daring spirit necessary
to grapple with a man who, eight-and-forty hours before, could, with
his slightest word have made me tremble like a leaf in a storm, I do
not know; at any rate, _I was resolved to fight_, and, what was better
still, I was actually hard at it. The fighting madness had come upon
me, and I found my strong fingers firmly attached to the throat of
my cowardly tormentor; as heedless of consequences, at the moment, as
though we stood as equals before the law. The very color of the man
was forgotten. I felt as supple as a cat, and was ready for the snakish
creature at every turn. Every blow of his was parried, though I dealt
no blows in turn. I was strictly on the _defensive_, preventing him from
injuring me, rather than trying to injure him. I flung him on the ground
several times, when he meant to have hurled me there. I held him so
firmly by the throat, that his blood followed my nails. He held me, and
I held him.

All was fair, thus far, and the contest was about equal. My resistance
was entirely unexpected, and Covey was taken all aback by it, for he
trembled in every limb. _"Are you going to resist_, you scoundrel?"
said he. To which, I returned a polite _"Yes sir;"_ steadily gazing my
interrogator in the eye, to meet the first approach or dawning of the
blow, which I expected my answer would call forth. But, the conflict did
not long remain thus equal. Covey soon cried out lustily for help; not
that I was obtaining any marked advantage over him, or was injuring
him, but because he was gaining none over me, and was not able, single
handed, to conquer me. He called for his cousin Hughs, to come to his
assistance, and now the scene was changed. I was compelled to{188}
give blows, as well as to parry them; and, since I was, in any case, to
suffer for resistance, I felt (as the musty proverb goes) that "I might
as well be hanged for an old sheep as a lamb." I was still _defensive_
toward Covey, but _aggres