“I have said it, and I'll stand to it;”--continued Ned; “and when you got up, as you did, with my help, you went over to Ralph, patted him on the back, and, said you,--'Well done, cousin,--I didn't think it was in thee!' You added, with an oath, it was the best and fairest fall you had seen for years past;--that it nearly drove the breath out of your body; and then you patted him on the back again. After this, you both sat down, talked, sung, and,--by-and-bye,--began to broach something about back-sword.” “Likely enough, an't it, Harry?” said Ralph. “I don't believe a word o' the story,” replied Harry;--“but I'll hear it out.” “I did not ask you to believe it,” said Creese; “but there's special evidence on your head, as well as on your cousin's, that you played at it, long and lustily.” “And which won?” enquired Ralph. “Both of you lost blood, as well as temper, at last,” replied Creese; “but, I remember, Harry gave you the first broken head.” “Never!” replied Ralph, “it never lay in his shoes: he may be as good a wrestler, or better; but scores of men, that my cousin Harry have often and often given his head to, never could touch me.” “Well! be that as it may,” said the landlord, “he certainly had you last night, Ralph, or I'm out of my senses. Why, I remember it as well as if it was but a minute ago:--you broke open the glass buffet, in which the two sticks my uncle and father won the grand match with--Wilts against Somerset--was stuck up, among the china, with silver mountings, and decorated with green ribbons, cut out like laurel-leaves;--and you said they were the best sticks you ever broke a head with: and when Harry cut your ear, and I cried out 'A bout, a bout!' and put the poker between you, you shook Harry's hand, and said you admired him, for he had done what no man ever had attempted--namely--hit you under your best guard.” “Ha! ha! ha!” shouted Harry. “Odds buttons! Ralph, but there seems to be some truth in this though, for your ear is cut up, sure enough then, clean as a whistle; it must ha; been done as Creese says.” Ralph put his hand up to his ear, and, like Lord Burleigh, in The Critic, shook his head and said nothing.