"Summon them to surrender, and pass under the yoke.

Tell them we will be masters in Ajaccio." The big boy challengers obeyed the little leader's command; and as they departed on their mission Napoleon ordered his soldiers to quietly drop the stones they carried in their pockets, in a line where they stood.
Then he planted a stick in the ground as a guide-post.
The challengers came rushing back, followed by the jeers and sticks of the hill boys.
"So! they will not yield?
Then will we conquer them," Napoleon cried.
"In order! Charge!" And up the slope, brandishing their sticks, charged the town boys.
The hill boys were ready for them.

They were bigger and stronger than the town boys, and they expected to conquer by force.
The two parties met.

There was a brief rattle of stick against stick.
But the hill boys were the stronger, and Napoleon gave the order to retreat.
Down the hill rushed the town boys.

After them, pell-mell, came the hill boys, flushed with victory and careless of consequences.