"There were four of you! do you mean to tell me that, among you, you could not succeed in thrashing this miserable play-actor ?" "That miserable play-actor, my lord," Merindol replied, plucking up a little courage, "far exceeds in vigour and bravery the great Hercules they tell us of.

He fell upon us with such fury that in one instant he had knocked Azolan and Basque down into the gutter.

They fell under his blows like pasteboard puppets--yet they are both strong men, and used to hard knocks.

Labriche was tripped up and cleverly thrown by another actor, and fell with such force that he was completely stunned; the back of his head has found out that the stones of Poitiers pavements are harder than it is, poor fellow! As for me, my thick club was broken short off by an immense stick in the hands of that giant they call Herode, and my shoulder so badly hurt that I sha'n't have the use of my arm here for a fortnight." "You are no better than so many calves, you pitiful, cowardly knaves!" cried the Duke of Vallombreuse, in a perfect frenzy of rage.

"Why, any old woman could put you to rout with her distaff, and not half try.
I made a horrid mistake when I rescued you from the galleys and the gallows, and took you into my service, believing that you were brave rascals, and not afraid of anything or anybody on the face of the globe.
And now, answer me this: When you found that clubs would not do, why didn't you whip out your swords and have at him ?" "My lord had given us orders for a beating, not an assassination, and we would not have dared to go beyond his commands." "Behold," cried Vidalinc, laughing contemptuously, "behold a faithful, exact and conscientious scoundrel whose obedience does not deviate so much as a hair's breadth from his lord's commands.