'Nay, nay, gentlemen,' he continued pleasantly, as we uncovered and bowed with some little embarrassment; 'how could my faithful followers be better employed than by breathing themselves in a little sword-play?
I prythee lend me your rapier, Colonel.' He drew a diamond ring from his finger, and spinning it up into the air, he transfixed it as deftly as Saxon had done.

'I practised the trick at The Hague, where, by my faith, I had only too many hours to devote to such trifles.

But how come these steel links and splinters of wood to be littered over the floor ?' 'A son of Anak hath appaired amang us,' said Ferguson, turning his face, all scarred and reddened with the king's evil, in my direction.

'A Goliath o' Gath, wha hath a stroke like untae a weaver's beam.

Hath he no the smooth face o' a bairn and the thews' o' Behemoth ?' 'A shrewd blow indeed,' King Monmouth remarked, picking up half the stool.