It might be a sudden sense of anarchy in the brain of the assaulter, or a stupefaction and stunned serenity in that of the object of the assault.

He might write, "Wainwood's 'Men vary in veracity,' brought the baronet's arm up.

He felt the doors of his brain burst, and Wainwood a swift rushing of himself through air accompanied with a clarity as of the annihilated." Meredith, in other words, would speak queerly because he was describing queer mental experiences.

But Browning might simply be describing the material incident of the man being knocked downstairs, and his description would run:-- "What then?
'You lie' and doormat below stairs Takes bump from back." This is not subtlety, but merely a kind of insane swiftness.

Browning is not like Meredith, anxious to pause and examine the sensations of the combatants, nor does he become obscure through this anxiety.