Maurice Hewlett

“ And in the grey of dawn came the convoy down the sea-road, a round dozen of men-at-arms, with the treasure on mules' backs; and at the word of command: 'Leap, ye thousand devils!' out we did leap, and put those men to the sword; and the muleteers fled, believing that hairy man's word that we were a thousand—though we were but eight Christians and one devil."
Captain Brazenhead cheered the speaker: "O brave! It was bravely done, my brother!"
"Not so brave as you might suppose," said the Italian, with grief thickening his voice. ”

“ But, said that deceiver, I was the best-nourished man he had ever set eyes on, and therefore——"
"'Therefore' will be thy ruin, Demetrio," said Captain Brazenhead. "I gave you four, which is enough for any man not a leader of a company. But now, look you, I spare your life for the sake of our old friendship. You shall go alive into that sack, and drink my health this night in a flagon or two of right liquor—you, man, who, but for my clemency, might have been paddling upon red-hot bricks, mingling fires for your new prince, Beelzebub. ”

“ The irons came swinging out, there was a ding-dong passage of arms of one hundred and thirty seconds, and Captain Brazenhead had run his foe through and established his reputation in Pavia. Admirers crowded about him, to pledge and be pledged in cups, and he learned that the dead man in life had been Lisciasangue, assassin to the Duke of Milan, one of "a Mystery of Three Murderers." ”