Of this recklessness I suddenly availed myself to make an attempt at disarming him.

I turned aside a vicious thrust by a close--a dangerously close--parry, and whilst in the act of encircling his blade I sought by pressure to carry it out of his hand.

I was within an ace of succeeding, yet he avoided me, and doubled back.
He realized then, perhaps, that I was not quite so contemptible an antagonist as he had been imagining, and he went back to his earlier and more cautious tactics.

Then I changed my plans.

I simulated an attack, and drove him hard for some moments.