Twice he stepped upon the King's toes--accidentally--and the King, as became his royalty, was contemptuously unconscious of it and indifferent to it; but the third time Hugo entertained himself in that way, the King felled him to the ground with a cudgel, to the prodigious delight of the tribe.

Hugo, consumed with anger and shame, sprang up, seized a cudgel, and came at his small adversary in a fury.

Instantly a ring was formed around the gladiators, and the betting and cheering began.

But poor Hugo stood no chance whatever.

His frantic and lubberly 'prentice-work found but a poor market for itself when pitted against an arm which had been trained by the first masters of Europe in single-stick, quarter-staff, and every art and trick of swordsmanship.