Sir John he be over long i' th' tongue." Lionel stood amazed at the man's easy confidence and supreme assurance of how his master must acquit himself.
"You...

you have no fear, Nicholas...." He did not add of what.

But the servant understood, and his grin grew broader still.
"Fear?
Lackaday! I bain't afeeard for Sir Oliver, and doan't ee be afeeard.

Sir Oliver'll be home to sup with a sharp-set appetite--'tis the only difference fighting ever made to he." The servant was justified of his confidence by the events, though through a slight error of judgment Sir Oliver did not quite accomplish all that promised and intended.

In anger, and when he deemed that he had been affronted, he was--as his chronicler never wearies of insisting, and as you shall judge before the end of this tale is reached--of a tigerish ruthlessness.