What with his reining back for space to whirl the steel I had the time to parry the descending blow. But at the balancing instant the brother-hating devil had the upper hand, whispering me that here was the death I coveted; that Margery might have her lover, if so she would, with her husband's blood upon his head. So I sat motionless while the broadsword cut its circle in air and came down; and then I knew no more till I came to with a bees' hive buzzing in my ears, to find myself lying in the dank grass at the path side. My head was on Richard's knee, and he was dabbling it with water in his soaked kerchief. XLI HOW I PLAYED THE HOST AT MY OWN FIRESIDE You may be sure that by now the anger gale had blown itself out, that the madness had passed for both of us; and when I stirred, Richard broke out in a tremulous babblement of thanksgiving for that he had not slain me outright. "I was mad, Jack; as mad as any Bedlamite," he would say. "The devil whispered me that you would fight; that you wanted but a decent excuse to thrust me out of the way. And when I saw you would not stir, 'twas too late to do aught but turn the flat of the blade. Oh, God help me! I'll never let a second thought of that little Tory prat-a-pace send me to hell again." "Nay," said I; "no such rash promises, I pray you, Richard. We are but two poor fools, with the love of a woman set fair between us. But you need not fight me for it. The love is yours--not mine." "Don't say that, Jack; I'm selfish enough to wish it were true; as it is not. I know whereof I speak." "No," I denied, struggling to my feet; "it has been yours from the first, Dick. I am but a sorry interloper." For a moment he was all solicitude to know if my head would let me stand; but when I showed him I was no more than clumsily dizzy from the effects of the blow, he went on. "I say I know, and I do, Jack. She has refused me again." I groaned in spirit. I knew it must have come to that. Yet I would ask when and where. "'Twas on our last day's riding," he went on; "after we had had your note saying you would undertake a mission for Colonel Davie." I took two steps and groped for the horse's bridle rein. "Did she tell you why she must refuse you?" He helped me find the rein for my hand and the stirrup for my foot. "There was no 'why' but the one--she does not love me." "But I say she does, Dick; and I, too, know whereof I speak." He flung me into the saddle as a strong man might toss a boy, and I understood how that saying of mine had gone into his blood. "Then there must be some barrier that I know not of," he said. Whereupon he put hand to head as one who tries to remember. "Stay; did you not say there was a barrier, Jack?--when we were wrestling with death in the Indian fires? Or did I dream it?" "You did not dream it. But you were telling me what she said."