"I was nine-and-twenty in December." And it was this even more than his talk which made us understand what an extraordinary life it must have been that he had led.

He saw our astonishment, and laughed at it.
"I have lived! I have lived!" he cried.

"I have spent my days and my nights.

I led a company in a battle where five nations were engaged when I was but fourteen.

I made a king turn pale at the words I whispered in his ear when I was twenty.