Have at it, Junker, and let us see if you can leave your mark upon it!' 'Do you strike first, sir,' said I, 'since the challenge is yours.' 'I must bruise my own headpiece to regain my soldierly credit,' he grumbled.

'Well, well, it has stood a cut or two in its day.' Drawing his broadsword, he waved back the crowd who had gathered around us, while he swung the great weapon with tremendous force round his head, and brought it down with a full, clean sweep on to the smooth cap of steel.

The headpiece sprang high into the air and then clattered down upon the oaken floor with a long, deep line bitten into the solid metal.
'Well struck!' 'A brave stroke!' cried the spectators.

'It is proof steel thrice welded, and warranted to turn a sword-blade,' one remarked, raising up the helmet to examine it, and then replacing it upon the stool.
'I have seen my father cut through proof steel with this very sword,' said I, drawing the fifty-year-old weapon.

'He put rather more of his weight into it than you have done.