With an oath Jackson dropped his sword and fell in a heap on the floor. The pocked being cut away, a packet of letters, held against the lining by a few threads of silk, became visible, and in another moment Nicolo had spitted them on his sword, and laid them on the table in a single flash. Goldsmith knew by the look that Jackson cast at them that they were the batch of letters which he had received in the course of his traffic with the American rebels. “Come, Sandrino,” said Baretti, affecting to yawn. “Finish the rascal off, and let us go to that excellent bottle of Madeira which awaits us. Come, sir, the carrion is not worth more than you have given him; he has kept us from our wine too long already.” With a curiously tricky turn of the wrist, the master cut off the right sleeve of the man's coat close to his shoulder, and drew it in a flash over his sword. The disclosing of the man's naked arm and the hiding of the greater part of his weapon were comical in the extreme; and with an oath Jackson dropped his sword and fell in a heap upon the floor, thoroughly exhausted. [Illustration: 0349] Baretti picked up the sword, broke the blade across his knee, and flung the pieces into a corner, the tattered sleeve still entangled in the guard. “John,” shouted Goldsmith to his servant, who was not far off. (He had witnessed the duel through the keyhole of the door until it became too exciting, and then he had put his head into the room.) “John, give that man your oldest coat. It shall never be said that I turned a man naked out of my house.” When John Eyles had left the room, Oliver turned to the half-naked panting man. “You are possibly the most contemptible bully and coward alive,” said he. “You did not hesitate to try and accomplish the ruin of the sweetest girl in the world, and you came here with intent to murder me because I succeeded in saving her from your clutches. If I let you go now, it is because I know that in these letters, which I mean to keep, I have such evidence against you as will hang you whenever I see fit to use it, and I promise you to use it if you are in this country at the end of two days. Now, leave this house, and thank my servant for giving you his coat, and this gentleman”--he pointed to Nicolo--“for such a lesson in fencing as, I suppose, you never before received.” The man rose, painfully and laboriously, and took the coat with which John Eyles returned. He looked at Goldsmith from head to foot. “You contemptible cur!” he said, “I have not yet done with you. You have now stolen the second packet of letters; but, by the Lord, if one of them passes out of your hands it will be avenged. I have friends in pretty high places, let me tell you.” “I do not doubt it,” said Baretti. “The gallows is a high enough place for you and your friends.” The ruffian turned upon him in a fury.