I was thinking--" "Of those mastiffs, quarrelling for a bone.

Avow it." "By our Lady, I saw them not, but now I look, they are brave dogs.

Ha! seest thou how gallantly each fronts the other, the hair bristling, the eyes fixed, the tail on end, the fangs glistening?
Now the lesser one moves slowly round and round the bigger, who, mind you, Mistress Sibyll, is no dullard, but moves, too, quick as thought, not to be taken unawares.

Ha! that is a brave spring! Heigh, dogs, Neigh! a good sight!--it makes the blood warm! The little one hath him by the throat!" "Alack," said Sibyll, turning away her eyes, "can you find pleasure in seeing two poor brutes mangle each other for a bone ?" "By Saint Dunstan! doth it matter what may be the cause of quarrel, so long as dog or man bears himself bravely, with a due sense of honour and derring-do?
See! the big one is up again.

Ah, foul fall the butcher, who drives them away! Those seely mechanics know not the joyaunce of fair fighting to gentle and to hound.