At fourteen years of age was I made knight, When twenty thousand Spaniards were in field, What time a daring rutter[389] made a challenge, To change a bullet with our swift-flight shot; And I with single heed and level hit The haughty challenger, and struck him dead: The golden fleece is that we cry upon, And Jaques, Jaques! is the Spaniard's choice. CYPRUS. Next, welcome unto thee, renowned Turk, Not for thy lay, but for thy worth in arms: Upon the first brave of thine enemy, What is thy noted word of charge, brave Turk? BRUSOR. Against the Sophy in three pitched fields, Under the conduct of great Soliman, Have I been chief commander of an host, And put the flint-heart Persians to the sword; The desert plains of Afric have I stain'd With blood of Moors, and there in three set battles fought, March'd conqueror through Asia, Along the coasts held by the Portuguese;[390] Ev'n to the verge of gold, aboarding[391] Spain, Hath Brusor led a valiant troop of Turks, And made some Christians kneel to Mahomet: Him we adore, and in his name I cry, Mahomet for me and Soliman! CYPRUS. Now, Signior Basilisco, you we know, And therefore give not you a stranger's welcome; You are a rutter born in Germany: Upon the first encounter of your foe, What is your brave upon the enemy? BASILISCO. I fight not with my tongue; this is my oratrix. [_Laying his hand upon his sword._ CYPRUS. Why, Signior Basilisco, is it a she-sword? BASILISCO. Ay, and so are all blades with me: behold my instance; Perdè, each female is the weaker vessel, And the vigour of this arm infringeth The temper of any blade, quoth my assertion, And thereby gather that this blade, Being approved weaker than this limb, May very well bear a feminine epitheton. CYPRUS. 'Tis well prov'd; but what's the word that glories your country? BASILISCO.