He had drawn his rapier and stood pricking the ground impatiently.

I marked his strong and nervous frame and his sanguine air: and twenty years earlier the sight might have damped me.

But no thought of the kind entered my head now, and though I felt with each moment greater reluctance to engage, doubt of the issue had no place in my calculations.
I made ready slowly, and would gladly, to gain time, have found some fault with the place.

But the sun was sufficiently high to give no advantage to either.

The ground was good, the spot well chosen.