'I thought that the villain had stabbed you.' 'As well stab a Warsash crab with a bodkin,' said he.

'Thanks to good Sir Jacob Clancing, once of Snellaby Hall and now of Salisbury Plain, their rapiers did no more than scratch my plate of proof.

But how is it with the maid ?' 'The maid ?' said I.
'Aye, it was to save her that I drew.

She was beset by these night walkers.

See, she rises! They threw her down when I set upon them.' 'How is it with you, Mistress ?' I asked; for the prostrate figure had arisen and taken the form of a woman, young and graceful to all appearance, with her face muffled in a mantle.