One had but to look at the stern, set faces of our followers, and the gleam of exultation and expectancy which shone from their eyes, to see that they were not the men to quail, either from superior numbers or equipment.
'By the Mass!' whispered Sir Gervas, 'it is magnificent! An hour of this is worth a year in the Mall.

The old Puritan bull is fairly at bay.

Let us see what sort of sport the bull-pups make in the baiting of him! I'll lay five pieces to four on the chaw-bacons!' 'Nay, it's no matter for idle betting,' said I shortly, for his light-hearted chatter annoyed me at so solemn a moment.
'Five to four on the soldiers, then!' he persisted.

'It is too good a match not to have a stake on it one way or the other.' 'Our lives are the stake,' said I.
'Faith, I had forgot it!' he replied, still mumbling his toothpick.

'"To be or not to be ?" as Will of Stratford says.