But I'll be hanged before I beat you!" and he put on his belt again.

"Beat you I will not," he continued; "but forgive you ?--never.

I knew ye not; ye were my master's enemy; I lent you my horse; my dinner ye have eaten; y' 'ave called me a man o' wood, a coward, and a bully.

Nay, by the mass! the measure is filled, and runneth over.

'Tis a great thing to be weak, I trow: ye can do your worst, yet shall none punish you; ye may steal a man's weapons in the hour of need, yet may the man not take his own again;--y' are weak, forsooth! Nay, then, if one cometh charging at you with a lance, and crieth he is weak, ye must let him pierce your body through! Tut! fool words!" "And yet ye beat me not," returned Matcham.
"Let be," said Dick--"let be.