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A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court | Mark Twain | |
The Yankee's Fight With The Knights |
Page 6 of 7 |
"Fly, fly! Save thyself! This is murther!" I never budged so much as an inch till that thundering apparition had got within fifteen paces of me; then I snatched a dragoon revolver out of my holster, there was a flash and a roar, and the revolver was back in the holster before anybody could tell what had happened. Here was a riderless horse plunging by, and yonder lay Sir Sagramor, stone dead. The people that ran to him were stricken dumb to find that the life was actually gone out of the man and no reason for it visible, no hurt upon his body, nothing like a wound. There was a hole through the breast of his chain-mail, but they attached no importance to a little thing like that; and as a bullet wound there produces but little blood, none came in sight because of the clothing and swaddlings under the armor. The body was dragged over to let the king and the swells look down upon it. They were stupefied with astonishment naturally. I was requested to come and explain the miracle. But I remained in my tracks, like a statue, and said: "If it is a command, I will come, but my lord the king knows that I am where the laws of combat require me to remain while any desire to come against me." I waited. Nobody challenged. Then I said: "If there are any who doubt that this field is well and fairly won, I do not wait for them to challenge me, I challenge them." "It is a gallant offer," said the king, "and well be-seems you. Whom will you name first?" "I name none, I challenge all! Here I stand, and dare the chivalry of England to come against me -- not by individuals, but in mass!" "What!" shouted a score of knights. |
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A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court Mark Twain |
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