Right through his training, up to that hour, the rascal was devout; the majority's money rattled all on the snug safe side.

And how did he get at the bottle?
His trainers never could say.
But what made him turn himself into a headlong ass, when he had only to wait a night to sit among friends and worshippers drinking off his tumbler upon tumbler with the honours?
It was past his wits to explain.
Endurance of his privation had snapped in him; or else, which is more likely, this Genius of the Ring was tempted by his genius on the summit of his perfected powers to believe the battle his own, and celebrate it, as became a victor despising the drubbed antagonist.
In any case, he drank, and a minor man gave him the dog's licking..
'Went into it puffy, came out of it bunged,' the chronicle resounding over England ran.

Old England read of an 'eyeless carcase' heroically stepping up to time for three rounds of mashing punishment.

If he had won the day after all, the country would have been electrified.

It sympathized on the side of his backers too much to do more than nod a short approval of his fortitude.