I said, name the day, and I would take fifty assistants and stand up _against the massed chivalry of the whole earth and destroy it_.
I was not bluffing this time.

I meant what I said; I could do what I promised.

There wasn't any way to misunderstand the language of that challenge.

Even the dullest of the chivalry perceived that this was a plain case of "put up, or shut up." They were wise and did the latter.

In all the next three years they gave me no trouble worth mentioning.
Consider the three years sped.