"Gogs!" he said, first rubbing his head and then looking at his reddened palm. "Gogs! That was a swinging snip. I am as dizzy as a winged pigeon."
"Let me help you to rise," Evander said, courteously. Blaise shook his aching head.
"I am none too fluttered to find my feet," he asserted, ignoring the fact that his rising from the ground to an erect posture was entirely due to the combined efforts of Halfman and Evander, one on each side, and then, when he did get to his feet, he was only able to retain the perpendicular by leaning heavily upon Halfman as a steady prop. From under his bandaged forehead his pale-blue eyes regarded Evander with no trace of enmity.
"Your hand, Puritan--your hand!" he cried. "'Tis just that we clasp hands after a scuffle."
Puritan and Cavalier clasped hands in a hearty grip. "I am at your service," Evander said, gravely. "Shall we continue?" Sir Blaise shook his head again.
"I have had my bellyful," he grunted. "There was breakfast, dinner, supper in your stroke. I must to the house to find vinegar and brown paper to patch my poll."
"Can I aid you?" Evander offered. "I have some slight skill in surgery."
"Leave him to me," Halfman interposed. "I have botched as many heads as I have broken."
Sir Blaise, leaning heavily on Halfman's arm, replied to Evander's offer in his own way.
"I will not have you mend ill what you have marred well. Come, crutch, let us be jogging. We will meet again another time, my fighting Puritan."
Evander made him a bow. "At your pleasure," he replied, and stood till Sir Blaise, leaning on Halfman, had hobbled out of the pleasaunce and limped out of sight. Then he drew on his jerkin again with a smile and a sigh.
"Truly," he thought, "for a man who has but three days to live, I cannot be said to be wasting much idle time." With that he took up again the book he had laid down and was soon deep in its study.
So deep was Evander in his book that he did not hear a lady's footfalls on the grass. When the discomfited Sir Blaise had quitted the arena Brilliana held herself unseen and then swiftly sped back to the pleasaunce. She stood for some seconds on the threshold of a yew arch watching the reading man and wondering why it had pleased Providence to make a Puritan so personable and skilful, wondering why she of all women should take any interest either in his person or in his skill, wondering how long he would remain buried in his tiresome book unconscious of her presence. She decided that she would slip away and leave him ignorant of her coming, and having decided that, she coughed loudly, at which sound, of course, he turned round, saw her, and rose respectfully to his feet.