own.'

'Your weapon on such occasions was, I suppose, the sword?' my father
asked, shifting uneasily in his seat, as he would do when his old
instincts were waking up.

'Broadsword, rapier, Toledo, spontoon, battle-axe, pike or half-pike,
morgenstiern, and halbert. I speak with all due modesty, but with
backsword, sword and dagger, sword and buckler, single falchion, case of
falchions, or any other such exercise, I will hold mine own against any
man that ever wore neat's leather, save only my elder brother Quartus.'

'By my faith,' said my father with his eyes shining, 'were I twenty
years younger I should have at you! My backsword play hath been thought
well of by stout men of war. God forgive me that my heart should still
turn to such vanities.'

'I have heard godly men speak well of it,' remarked Saxon. 'Master
Richard Rumbold himself spake of your deeds of arms to the Duke of
Argyle. Was there not a Scotsman, one Storr or Stour?'

'Ay, ay! Storr of Drumlithie. I cut him nigh to the saddle-bow in a
skirmish on the eve of Dunbar. So Dicky Rumbold had not forgotten it,
eh? He was a hard one both at praying and at fighting. We have ridden
knee to knee in the field, and we have sought truth together in the
chamber. So, Dick will be in harness once again! He could not be still
if a blow were to be struck for the trampled faith. If the tide of war
set in this direction, I too--who knows? who knows?'

'And here is a stout man-at-arms,' said Saxon, passing his hand down my
arm.' He hath thew and sinew, and can use proud words too upon occasion,
as I have good cause to know, even in our short acquaintance. Might it
not be that he too should strike in this quarrel?'

'We shall discuss it,' my father answered, looking thoughtfully at me
from under his heavy brows. 'But I pray you, friend Saxon, to give us
some further account upon these matters. My son Micah, as I understand,
hath picked you out of the waves. How came you there?'

Decimus Saxon puffed at his pipe for a minute or more in silence, as one
who is marshalling facts each in its due order.

'It came about in this wise,' he said at last. 'When John of Poland
chased the Turk from the gates of Vienna, peace broke out in the
Principalities, and many a wandering cavaliero like myself found his
occupation gone. There was no war waging save only some petty Italian
skirmish, in which a soldier could scarce expect to reap either dollars
or repute, so I wandered acros