ey ala Ono Cadlog: y= | Waa re 2s Copyright, 1884, by Beadle & Adams, Entered at Post Office, New York, N.Y,, as second class matter. July 16, 1899, M. J. IVERS & CO., Publishers, at No 28 Published (James Sullivan.’ Prop\tetor,) rite 5 Cents. Vol lll Every Week, 379 Pearl Street, New York. $2.50 a Year. 5 Copyright, 1884, by Beadle & Adams. Entered at Post Office, New York, N.Y., as second class matter. July 16, 1899. M. J. IVERS & CO., Publishers, Published j Price 5 Cents, y (James Sullivan, Proprietor,) : No. 28. Every Week. 379 Pearl Street, New York, $2.50 a Year. ol. Hl. THE SWORD PRINCE, Tie Romantic life of Col. Monster BY CAPTAIN FREDERICK WHITTAKER, h ES 7 Ps Bly L x ANOTHER SHORT RALLY, AS THE OLD DUELIST MADE HIS LAST EFFORT, AND THEN OF A SUDDEN - CAME A DULL ‘‘ THUMP!” | i 7 ana i _ stances made him a swordmaster. . mined to be the best in the world, and he ~ attained his object. an officer in the Danis _ pronounce it, now stands, ‘ Monstery. _ of Denmark pardoned his father, and he wen in a Government position, to the Danish island B Z The Sword Prineée. Aatbaretl The Sword Piidce, The Rom: ntie Life of Colonel Monstery, aimerétcan Champion-at-arms. BY CAPT. FRED. WHITTAKER, AUTHOR OF ‘‘ WOODS AND WATERS,” ‘' RIFLE AND REVOLVER,” ‘‘ THE DASHING DRAGOON,” ETC., ETC. INTRODUCTION. TuE following pages will be found to contain pome!passages in the life of a very wonderful man, who has probably fought more duels than any one now living, except Paul De Cassagnac, and has been known as the best man of his weight in America for many years. The story of some of these duels and fights for life in wild countries will be found interesting, and a few o/' our hero’s secret tricks of fencing and boxing areshown. They are not written to encourage fighting, for Colonel Monstery never fough’ in his life, unless he was forced to do so by others, z Two points in his character are believed worthy of imitation by all. First, his determination to be nothing less than the jirsi, in his chosen walk of life; second, his generosity to the vanquished. Circum- He deter- His moral has always been, ‘‘Don’t fight, if he can help it without dishonor. If you do ight, try to win, and bear no malice, whatever the result, as long as it is fair.” 5 ek Tue Epiror. CHAPTER I. FATHERLESS. On the 21st of April, 1824, in Baltimore, Maryland, was born, of Danish parentage, a boy, with blue eyes and the whitest of white hair. He was slender and delicate in frame, and looked like anything in the world rather than a fighter. Yet he was a born fighter for all that, and came of a fehting race. His father was even then in exile for‘having fought a duel, when army, and was dying with consumption from a sword wound in tle ngs, : ‘ His family on one side were all fighters, for three generations back, and as many before that as they can be traced, They had come from Trelani with the unfortunate James II. of _ England, after the battle of the Boyne, being : a of the family of the Earls of Munster. hey had settled in Norway and_ Denmark, ‘Monster, by which our hero was known in his "youth, till the Spanish Americans, unable to ton a ‘‘y,” and made it, as it A few years after our hero’s birth the King where their name had changed to Miinster or — of St. Croix in the West Indies, where he died — when our hero was seven years old. Hi His mother also came of fighting stock. Her eer maiden name was Bergitha Christina Nillson, ae and her mother was Meta Ankerstrom (in Eng- lish, Anchorstream). : The Ankerstroms were a fierce family in their day. One of them—cousin to Meta—had a a very beautiful wife, who was stolen from him é by the reigning King of Sweden. Her husband — went up to the king in the midst of his guards . and shot him dead. He was executed for trea- son after a fearful series cf tortures, but the — lesson then taught the kings of Sweden has never been forgotten. No king of Sweden has led other than a moral and virtuous life ever — since. ‘ \ eu The boy’s mother idolized him, and he re- - turned her affection, as he does to this day; for that little Danish mother still lives in Califor- - nia, and calls the grizzled veteran of nearly six- ty years ‘her boy ” as fondly as ever. a Ho grew up a fair, delicate-looking boy, but — so fond of adventure that if was clear the ola — fighting blood of the Munsters was not run out in bim. The spirit was there, if the body was unequal to sustain it at alltimes. 5 At twelve his family procured him a place as _ a cadet in the Danish navy, and here bis fight- gr ing life may be said to have commenced, in a mavner that showed the future man, fy When he joined his ship to go on a three years’ cruise he was one of the smallest boys in the vessel, and his feliow cadets were all Danes, That means they were a rough set, —_— CHAPTER IT. eis THE FIRST FIGHT. eae A CADET on a Danish man-of-war, forty years ago, was a very different being from — what wecallacadetbin America, = Our cadets are spruce young gentlemen, from | seventeen to twenty years of age, with‘pretty uniforms, plenty of girls to flirt with, passing their time between barrack life, drill, study ashore, and playing sailor round Newport in tke training-ship on their “practice cruises.” A- Danish cadet of the old times, like the old-fash- ioned midshipman, began his sea life early, and had a rough time of it. Theoreticallyhe wasa grade above the sailors, and a sort of officer; practically, he had no companions save his own | class. The officers looked down cn him, the sailors did not look up to him. a ata He was learning seamanship in a rough-and- — ready way; but he got a great many more — kicks and cuffs than favors, Coa Being only a boy he was treated as a boy, and the other boys bullied him. if ; Our hero, with his slender frame and pale a face, had never had a fight in his life, but his. comrades would not leave him alone. _ They ordered him about, and sneered at bim for doing as he was asked. They had fights — among themselves, till they had settled the uestion of superiority, and when they for that he could not be coaxed into a fight, e one took delight in teasing and insulting bim. He bore it as well as he could at sea, where there was plenty of work, and his enemies had The Sword Prince. 3 bad full swing and used the time well. fe At last one day, a boy named Anders went a less opportunity to tormenthim, but in port they “ As hard as you can. Farewell, young sir. No one will try it again.” The old quartermaster rolled away, hitching little too far, and the result was our hero’s first | up his ee and left the boy sitting on the a he Bellona was lying in port at the time and the young cadet was preparing to go ashore in bis t uniform, when Anders who had been | had thrown water over bim had just | gun-carriage, thinking. He could not go ashore that day, and he knew that the rest were going. The very boy = m wash- washing his hands by the main hatch, without | ing himself, preparatory to going ashore in his it. § a word of warning threw the slops over his . comrade and laughed derisively at the boy’s { look of dismay, saying: ' “You haven’t had your new jacket wet yet, : milksop, You can’t go ashore. That’s only for # dads of spirit.” a Then he turned away with another laugh and i went down to his comrades who greeted him with a roar as he told what he had done to the ~ milksop.” _ And poor boy Munster, his uniform ruined, a = down on a gun-carriage all alone, and broke down. : Phi He was roused from his sorrowful reverie as he sat on the gun, by the gruff voice of an old quartermaster, w “What's the matter, young sir? Men should not cry like children, and least of all a Dane. What’s happened?” : : Hastily brushing away his tears, the boy told | what had happened, adding: 2: “TY don’t know why they persecute me so. I never harmed them.” _ The old sailor grinned. : ee just the reason they do it. You iM should take your own part, young sir, and give “es them a good blow. Tecoma: ? ee And he touched his hat, for, after all, he was speaking to an officer, and habits of discipline are strong in a sailor. But the boy shook his head. “T don’t want to hit them. It might hurt _ them and make them die. That would be cruel. I don’t want to hurt them.” _ The old sailor stared at him a moment, and ei ae ; a _‘‘ ixcuse me, young sir, but which would you rather be called, a fool or a coward?” z _ The cadet flushed up. itt ei not ae I a ier not —— m storms, and I’ve gone u the rigging when the fest dared not follow.) Be , young sir, they’ll say ‘He must bea _ fool, or hel never let all the other boys do as i" to him, and treat him as if he were You were crying just now, because you had been insulted without cause, when you _ Should have given that other boy a sound pac a ing. Do you like to be treated like a - “No, noyindeed I don’t.” ‘ “Then fight, every time you are insulted without cause, and they’ll soon let you alone. Take an old man’s word for it.” f “But I never fought in my life,” objected the boy, ‘ - “Very well. I'll give a lesson. The _ néxt oue that strikes Santa _ the shoulders, and give him the skal.” \ The old sailor laid his hand on the boy’s and made a-peculiar motion of his you, catch him thus by Presently, as he sat there, absorbed in his | bitter thoughts, the other cadets came upon | deck, laughing and joking, full of spirits. “There's mamma’s baby,” cried his torment- |.or, jeeringly, pointing at poor Munster as he sat on the gun-carriage. ‘‘ Let’s have some fun | with him,” - “How rice he looks with his new clothes all washed,” cried another. ‘‘Go and slap his ' face, Neil. I want to see what he’ll say to that. Funny, no one ever slapped his face that I re- member.” 3 4 <= They iaughed at this, and Neil Anders, the , boy who had thrown the slops over him, came | slouching up to him with a leer of insolent triumph, his hands in his pockets, and asked jeeringly: 5 ‘“‘Well, Munster, how do you feel?” The boy had risen from the gun-carriage. very fee with his heart beating rapidly, an was thinkirig to himself: _ “Am I afraid? Is it possible I am a coward?’ ; : He did not know that the heart-beat is inde- ndent of the will, but he answered in a very low voice: “T feel that—youw'd better leave me alone.” Anders tossed his head with a laugh, and drew his hands out of bis pockets, : “You are getting impudent, I see,” he said. your proper place.” He raised both hands to do as he had threatened, when— How it happened Anders could not tell. Indeed, he was not in a condition to tell any- thing or know anybody for some hours after ward, ‘ t But the other boys, watching and jeering, want it all, and it struck ieee dumb. They could not even shout for near a minute, during which Neil Anders lay ina heap on the deck, where he had dro his face spouting blood, his front teeth knocked. Pretty savage work fora boy of fifteen, you say, and all in one blow. — ; Yes, and yet he had not clinched bis hands. — At the very moment that Neil Anders had swung back his arm to give him the promised box on tie ear, young Munster had clutched of rage bred by hundreds of insults, and had dashed his head in the other’s face, rising as he muscle in his ay 4 The old sailor had told bim: ‘As hard as you can.” He had done it, and so much barder than he had intended that every one thought he had killed Neil Anders, and the other boys scattered in dismay, running for the doctor, and up the fallen boy, — a Be AA ata la “*T shall have to box your ears to teach you his nose smashed flat, . him by the shoulders with all the concentration ‘ did so and using the whole force of every ina nek ty i: _shipmen ashore can do. “Al But not one offered to injure Munster. He atood lookng down at his antagonist, in a dazed, pitjing way, and when some one | said: “ He’s killed him, I think,” the boy rushed in, pushed aw ty the comrade who was holding up Anders, an 1 cried out: ‘Ob, ro, not dead. I didn’t mean it. Oh, Anders, m: dear friend, I didn’t mean to kill you. Oh, why would you make me fight?” And there was the boy who had just laid another boy, twenty pounds heavier, a senseless Sounded, when they struck work and eee to bloody mass on the deck, now erying over him like a baby, while the others were scared out of that was our hero found out in a disagree: their wits, till the gruff old surgeon came. He examined Anders carefully, felt his pulse, and then asked with his usual growl: ‘“ Who was this boy fighting with?” ‘Tom Munster, sir,” chorused the cadets. The doctor looked at the slender boy in astonishme at for a moment, Then he felt his arms and shoulders, and gave 8 grint ancl remarked: ‘Don’t fizht that boy, any of you. He’s not safe to figh’) with. That’sall. As for Anders, his nose is broken, Tl set it, but he'll have to snuffle all the rest of his life, and he’s lost two teeth. Take him down and put him in bed, and remember what Isay. Don’t fight Munster any more.” And they did not, From the butt and drudge of the ship he had suddenly become its hero, and all the other cadets vied with each other in comrniag his acquaintance and being his warm riends. From that time forth the quiet and romantic | boy seemed to change his whole character also, and became the soul of fun and frolic in the ship, into every daredevil scrape that could be devised. ‘ CHAPTER IIL LIFE ON THE BELLONA, Nor long after Munster’s first fight with An- ders he had another adventure that came near terminating fatally, and in which he displayed for the first time that accuracy of aim and promptness of action that afterward made him such a terrible fighter, - The Bellona was lying in the harbor of Rio Janeiro in Brazil #6 the time, and the cadets, with many of the sailors, had leave to go ashore and wander about the city to see the markots, coffee warehouses and other sights of Rio. _ The cadets were all wild for a ramble and a _ donkey-ride, for nothing can equal the delight of a young sailor in riding except his unskillful- - ness. . They galloped up and down the streets, tum- bled into the gutters and spoiled theirclothes, aud generally mands such a noise as only mid- ittle Munster was one of the wildest, and _ ebance took him into the coffee market, where he gazed in astonishment at the gangs of ne- Zroes tramping along under huge loads of coffee- - bags which most white men would havo sunk under. g ; ee, _ In the drinking shops around the market were a number of sailors themselves after th ‘ The Sword Prince. from the Bellona ue { idea of fun. Tbe cade a | found their pleasure in donkey-rides; the sailorg | believed in solid drinking and watching the ne- roes, ay Little Munster, who was sore from his ride, thought he would sit down with some of them — and indulge in some of the delicious fruit which is so cheap at Rio, and was soon deep in a grand | pineapple, which cost two cents. . ay | They sat out under an awning by the shop, - | and the gangs of negroes tramped to ani fro | with the coffee-bags till the hour of noon — enjoy themselves after their idea of fun. What. able | way. : ras These negroes were all slaves, and were pick. | ed men for size and strength. Notone was less _ than six feet high, and they were all Herculean in frame and savage in demeanor. Kept in co trol during the working hours by armed me with huge whips, who treated them with great cruelty, they had yet an immemorial right to, an hour at noon for dinner and any sort of pleasure they chose to take. 5 é During that hour their guards left the mar- ket and prudent citizens kept away, for the — blacks were dangerous if provoked. ie Of all this the Danish sailors and little Mun- ster knew nothing and ey continued watch- ing the negroes as they ate their simple dinners little suspecting that they were objects of sus- picion and dislike all the while. “s For a time every thing seemed peaceful, The negroes sat down in the shade and devoured | bananas and plantains with the appetite of wolves, generally silent or conversing in growls in the languages of their native Africa, for most of them were imported in slavers, not born in Brazil, the slave trade being then still active and flourishing. : eee Munster, not thinking any harm, rose from. his place. and went down among these dark savages, to whom he tried to speak in a few words of broken Portuguese, when he was sur. _ prised to find that they took it as an affront.and saluted him with growls of unmistakable hostility. ; : Se Not knowing what it all meant, the boy re. treated to his companions and was about to take his seat when one of the negroes a buge 3 giant of a man with his teeth filed to a point in the fashion of some African tribes, rose from where he had been lying in the shade, eame up to the Danish sailors and said in broken Portu ese: ae ie en en Get out! wit is 3 hour. No whit allowed here. Get ou : Jape But the sailors guiltless of Portuguese stared and Munster asked: ee “What do you mean?” een ae Sa ta “Get out,” was the only reply with a f cious scowl, ; Ri ae me Recren The boy turned to the sailors, He knew the meaning of the two last words, pea “He says we are to get out, What shall we do?" Tita yshaye etn snes AP ae _ “Certainly, young sir, let us stay,” ch the sailors and Munster shook his head at negro, calling out: = ee | - “No, We'll stay.” : ih es The giant turned and called to his friends _who answered with a series of savage growls Mtiaies The Bword Prince. but did notseem disposed to stir from their poe of lazy enjoyment. They probably told im ig put out the Danes alone, for he was big enough.. Atoll events the huge fellow picked up a great watermelon half decayed which lay b one of the stalls and threw it at the boy wit : such force that had it hit him it would have eo leveled Munster. : As it was it struck the wall beside him, splashed all over him and ruined his uniform a second time. That was enough for the boy. He had fought his first fight for a similar injury and it mat- _tered nothing to him how big was bis opponent. . . Pale as ashes with anger, his blue eyes blaz- | jug, he caught up #4rom the table beside him es the fruit knife he had just been using and - **~burled it full at the broad breast of the blac! colossus. _ Tt was all done in an instant. . %m another, he saw the black drop to - pee around, the knife buried up to the hilt in his _ Mest, and every negro in the market had Jeap- |. sl up like a tiger and was rushing at the little o3 group of Danes, at least fifty to one in num- \ The Danes will fight; but there is no people more prudent, and before the blacks could reach the stand, Munster and the sailors were vee as hard as they could tear, down the street to the quay, followed by a mob of negroes increased from every side street they passed. . They got to the dock only about fifty feet ahead of their pursuers and had it not been for the presence of the Brazilian custom house guard, it would have gone hard with them. ray These men imagining a revolt of the slaves Yan out and poured a volley into the ranks of - the mob, sending them to the rightabout, and the Danish sailors got into their boat in a hurry _ and rowed off to the Bellona, f - _‘The result of the affair was that the ship had to leave port next day to avoid the danger run by her seamen of being mobbed in the streets, the “ig ieee having sworn revenge on anything im the Danish uniform, and our hero has of'ten said that he will never forget to his dying day ' &he terrible yells of these infuriated slaves as - *bev rushed after him and his friends. So the Bellona sailed away from Rio and cruised about in the West Indies, going from thence to the Mediterranean, young Munster growing stronger daily and having dropped - most of his old peaceable character to become ihe wildest boy in the ship. At the end of a three years’ cruise, all the cadets were given an orlov or furlough at Co- penhagen, and Munster used his-to go to Russia ‘before the mast, thence to England and finally to Portugal where he left bis ship and wandered about to all the country fairs,’ meeting so many adventures that if they were toid here we should never begin his real life. Returning to the Bellona at the age of seven- teen he met the great change of his life which - turned bim from a sailor to a soldier ina singu- lar way. The king’s birthday was kept on the Bellona with a display of fireworks, during pe Ged Oe Sy 3 an 4 : scorched and both eyes nearly pui out by the Ace ee at put an end to his prospects in the navy, for he had arrived at the age whe: it became necessary for the cadets to study had at mathe matics, drawing, gunnery and the like, all of which require good eyesight for their mastery. ‘And for a long time it was feared that he would be blinded for life. Under these circumstances he wa; discharged from the navy and sent home, wiere, by dint of skillful nursing and rest, he finally recov: ered his sight; but the doctors decided he would never be able to study again. : This has proved so far true, that, from that day to this, he has never been able to read without glasses, gradually getting stronger and stronger; and it is one of the mosi wonderful features in his career that a half-blinded man, as he is, should ever have become what he wag within a few years after, a splendid shot with defense which require quick sight, But Munster early learned to use his train to assist his sight. He has often said that in fenc- ing especially by gaslight, he cannot see the swords, except for an occasional fiash, and has to rely on his feeling and the motions of bis an- tagonist to tell where they are, ‘When he was finally allowed to go out, heen- tered the Military Gymnasium of Copenhagen, and instead of a sailor was to become a soldier, This Military Gymnasium at Copenhagen is the finest in Europe in the atbletes which it turns out, While in shooting the Germans are ahead of most of Europe except England—since Wimbledon was established—in the arts of fencing with all weapons, the Danes were then, and still are, the best of all. a They teach swimming also on a scientific system, invented by General Pfuel, a Prussian who could find no chance in Europ: elsewhere, | but was welcomed at Copenhagen. The Danish swimming academy, within a few years of its foundation became the most public exhibition, accomplished the most mar- velous feats, such asswimming in all their clothes, carrying men in the water, knafsacks muskets and other fh aes besides being skilled in the resuscitation of drowned people, In this academy, pene praia education in all its branches was carri proved scientific fashion, the young ex sailor passed a full year, and finally graduated at the age of eighteen at the head of the class as Num- ber One in athletics of all kinds. é It was immediately after his an event occurred which altered his career for the future and opened his independent life. CHAPTER IV. OUR HERO FINISHES HIS EDUCATION, at the time of the birth of Thoma; only son, was an exile for a duel, ‘Che practice of dueling had become so comnion among Danish army officers, that the king had made officer fignting a duel was de; *- will be remembered that our |:ero’s father Hoyer, his the pistol, and an expert in all those arts of self- © x celebrated in Europe; and its graduates, at a. on in the most ap- uation that. ‘ determined efforts to put is down. Any Danish ne raded from the = lie ho oes lacsiaieeeplehemmetet toes ne ee eee SoS AG a AR RRR aS ' her husband had lost through his duel, a genera- _ ting a licking as often as he wanted, at a guinea { be ee I be | 4, fs Ais @ The Sword Prince. liable to imprisonment for life if he did not flee the country. The fact that duels continued to _be fought despite these severe penalties showed how deeply rooted was the practice. Captain Munster, after several years’ exile, had been pardoned by the king as far as regard- ed his person, but his property had remained in Government hands. It was just after our hero’s graduation, near- ly twenty — subsequent to the original con- fiseation, that the king was induced to restore to the widow of Captain Munster the property tion back. ; Thus young Munster found himself, at the age of eighteen, possessed of a competence and able to choose his own walk in life. The choice of a profession was, however, lim- ited in‘his case, by the accident to his eyes, He could not study to be a lawyer, a doctor, an en- gineer, or even enter the army or navy, where poor eyesight bars the entrance on a medica) examination. Ho therefore made up his mind to keep on with the calling into which he had been forced by the accident, He was the best general ath- lete in Copenhagen Military Gymnasium. ‘ It remuined for him to attain the position of the best in the world,in the branch of athletics where intellect as well as muscle has inituence. He could now handle sword, musket and bayonet, rapier, cv27el and quarterstaff, with any man in Denmiis; but he had heard a great deal of the science of ‘‘ boxing,” which was not taught on the Continent, and in which the Eng- lish were tien said to be the leaders. At the academy he had been taught to strike at a dummy so as to hit a heavy blow, and parry such a blow. but that was all. So he went to England to take lessons of the then champion, Bendigo. < Bendigo was a Sree boxer in his day, but an sgnorant man, who had no idea of imparting his knowledge to others. The only way that. young Munster could learn of him was by en- gaging in a regular glove fight, in which he ‘ound that he could throw the champion by his Soe skill, but that Bendigo was too hard a hitter for him, Therefore he finally gave up learning from a man who could not teach him anything, but offered him the privilege of get- —or five dollars—a lickiog. . Then he beard that there wasa man at Stock- holm in Sweden—Doctor Luige —who had intro- |. .strength, called Liedersdorff, who was *he ‘which be describes in three words: duced a new system of fencing with the foils, superior to all others.- This was directly in _Munster’s line, for he wanted to be the best | swordsman in the world; so he went to Stock- | holm and entered the renowned Central Iusti- tute of Physical Culture, where he soon found that all he had learned before was as nothing to what he could learn. } ke Doctor Luige was a very remarkable man, - naturally of slender frame and delicate consti- tution, who had taken to physical exercise for the benefit of his health, and had become so fond of it that he devoted all his learning to getting bodies and become sound and healthy. He is best known as the inventor of the Swedish Ee which weak men could improve vernent Cure, which has had great success erent parry can be made by the smallest possible and still exists as an institution in most civilized oe countries, New York City having now a very : flourishing establishment of the sort. But it was as a fencer that Munster most admired Dr. Luige, and it is by the Luige system of fencing that he has since succe: so wonderfully in all contests with the foils. He remained at Stockholm long enough to graduate at the Central Institute, a master of arms, and then went to Hamburg. He had heard that at Hamburg there was another man like Luige, of medium size and moderate — most wonderful fighter in the world. : In Liedersdorff, he says, he found a quiet, gentlemanly person, who locked more like a clergyman than a pugilist; and when he asked ~ for lessons he was told to put on the gloves and try to hit his teacher, who promised not to hit _ him in return. i This was quite a change from the Bendigo system, which consisted in knocking the pupil } own as often as he could stand it, at a guinea a a lesson. eee Munster thought it would be fun, so he dashed at Liedersdorff, Bendigo style, and found him- self turned round ina moment, stumbling about like a fool, not one unable to hit his teacher, but even to keep his face to him, for he was sent spinning round like a top and felt that he Z was completely at the mercy of this;quiet- looking Liedersdorff, had the latter chi Y ‘hit him. agile” Here was something new of which*Benc had no idea, and the young man set to wot learn it, and soon found that with it he initiate quite a new science of sparring, : of brutality, and eminently useful As soon as he had Jearued all Liedersdorft could teach him in that line, he started on his travels to Spain and Italy, to find out if they could teach him anything in the fencing line, especially in knife play, which he had heard ~ yas the national way of fighting in Southern urope, _ : : z It was in this tour, when he fenced with the best men he could find, that he made the dis. _ covery that he had nothing to learn from them, He could beat them all, even at the knife play, by the secret he had learned at Stockholm, _ Kconomy of motions. : That is to say :— ‘ ie In fencing with any weapon, mp the fist, that parry is best which takes least time, ‘and causes the least amount of motion fromthe __ position of “guard.” os ee This is the whole secret of modern fencing — and boxing, to take a guard from which a blow or thrust can be instantly given, without draw- _ ing back the hand or arm, and from which a | motion. BP : : ee With this system _he beat all the Spanish and Italian fencers, and started for Paris, then—in seis eiepited to have the best fencing- masters in the world, _ 1 Eee Here at least he expected to learn something, but here again he found the Swedish system fencing was unknown, and that with it he at could beat the best men in the schools of Paris. The Sword Prince @ The leading French master in those days was Grisier, and the Frenchmen had an idea that no one could come near them with the foils. When, therefore, a Danish boy of twenty, with smooth face and light hair, came into. Paris and pinked Grisier at the first thrust, | besides disarreng bim twice at a public assault, | they were puzzled and enraged. They swore that this was not fencing at all, that it was | merely a case of a young man with a very-: strong wrist who had a new style to which they were not accustomed, but which did notamount | to anything. So they finally declined to fence with him unless he would adopt the old s.yle of fencing, and he left Paris with a contempt for French fencers, which he has kept up to the present day. : a, ie next visited Vienna and Berlin with more triumphs, and finally got to St. Petersburg, where he was invited by the Grand Duke Con- stantine, who was a most enthusiastic fencer and had seen Munster at Vienna. Here he was offered a position as the first swordmaster in the Russian army, and began to see that his fencing, which he had hitherto followed for amusement, might be made a means of earning a handsome living for him, when his money should give out, which it was fast doing. -. However, in the mean time he led a gay life x St. Petersburg with some young nobles of Guard, and in one of his expeditions at tht came to grief in trying to help a friend escape from the barracks by sliding down a -water-pipe from an ae story. Strange to say, while he got his friend off harmless, he was so confident of his own agility - that he slipped and fell, and injured his back so that he was laid up for several weeks, and lost his position as swordme ster. - When a man gets sick away from home he is very apt to think of his mother, and young Munster thought it was about time he saw Copenhagen again, so he went back ia a leaky vessel, was very nearly wrecked, had to help pump with bis lame back, got frost-bitten on the way, and finally arrived at Copenhagen, pretty well tired of ce - In all this time it will be remembered that, _while he had been fencing and boxing with hundreds of men for fun, he had never had a quarrel or duel. He was one of the most good- _ natured of boys, always ready to help a friend, - and his fame as a swordsman prevented any one seeking a quarrel with him. 3 In Copenhagen, however, it was another thing, for the Danes are a terribly dissipated and ferocious race of men at bottom, in spite of modern civilization. Their ancestors used to be the fiercest men in Europe in the days of the old sea kings, and their children still retain a good deal of the old nature. ~ There isa acc’ told of the unflinching, des- perate ferocity of the old Danes, which shows | what a people they were, and the blood of those men is stillin Denmark. A band of these sea kings —pirates—had landed in Norway to | harry the lands of one of their Norse kinsmen called Jarl Hakon the Red, from his red hair, all his men in such numbers that the bold pirates were taken by surprise, k !led al]l but nine, and the nine were overpowered by !~ — strength and dragged into Yarl Ha:on’s castle, © where they were chained to a huge log. The Norsemen decided, after a s2ort trial, to | behead them all, and the prisoners only laughed , at and taunted them. } : The executioner was brought and began his work at’ the end of the log. by cutting cf a pirate’s head. : s ; The rest raised a yell of laughter, and when they were offered the privilege of being blind- folded, refused. “Se ‘We are not, afraid to look dcath face!” said they, boldly. Then one ot. them called out: a “Come to this end of the log,.executioner, and strike straight at my throat. If you see in the ye wink my eyes when you kill me, I'll give you leave to call me a coward.” This suited the wild Norsemen, and they all » came to watch the Dane, whose name was Eric Jarl (pronounced Yarl—in English, Earl) Ha- kon knew they were coming, and got together found at intervals, ‘the Strong. They would have given anything to see him quiver as he met his death. “The executioner raised bis huge nx, and Eric the Strong stood up and stared at Lim so fic1ce- ly that he shook the man’s nerve for an instant. Instead of the victim winking, tle men that was to betead him closed his eyes for one ficet- ing instant. < n that instant Eric the Strong: seized and wrenched away the ex, cut dowr the execu- tioner, cut in two the iron chain tbat bound him to the log and dashed in amon; the Norse- men with a yell of fury. For the time he was stark mad with fury, in that state which the Norsemen know es the “ Berserker meee in which men perfermed the most amazing feats. He drove back the crowd as if they had been children, cut loose his com- - rades, and the end of it was that seven’ of the Danes cut their way out and got to the sea- shore, where they stole a boat and finally es- caped to their own land. That was the old Scandinavian spirit, which enatled. twenty thousand men under Rollo to invade France and establish the dukedcm of Normendy, to overrun England under Wiliam and to make the name of Norseman or Noiman | a terror to all Europe. The Danes and Swedes have that seme blood still, end are the sort of men who as the saying is “would fight a cross-cut saw.” It is the same blood that makes the English fight so stubbornly, and forms the backbone of/ Ameri- can borderers’ “ grit.” Find adesperaco whom nothing can cow in the wild West; trace brck, his blocd if you can, and you will always find that it ends in the old stock from Scandinavia, which overthrew the Roman Empire under the name of the “ Goths,” and settled in England, France, Spain and Russia, where i's neme still survives and its blue Ns and. feir hair are i as they were in Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, and the other fair-haired Spaniards, descended from the old Goths. sia vele te ise We ieeemlbla oo yet te co} elp it, found i : get on in Lt hagen without quarreling. Dane to Dane — will always fight, are a 2 : : d - Af The Sword Prince. Before he had entirely recovered from his fall at St. Petersburg he was forced into a duel by a young man of the name of Hauser, who wounded him under the right arm; and such was thestate of his blood at the time from his illness, that erysipelas set in and for seven months his life hung in the balance. At last he got well and found that all his old strength had come back. Seven months’ rest bad cured his back as well as bis wound, He bad no matice against his opponent, though they had quarreled about a young lady, end eat still have become a peaceable quiet |° citizen but for an event which requires a separ- ate chapter to itself. : CHAPTER V.. THE DUEL IN THE CHURCH-YARD. _Inthe year 1845, there existed in the city of Copenhagen a coffee-house and summer-garden kept by aman who had once been asoldier and had lost his arm in battle. It was known as “Sven One Arm’s Coffee House,” and was quite a well known resort for _ the young bloods of the city. The town was as always, full of life and gayety, for Copenhagen is one of the “ fastest” . places in Hurope, not excluding Paris, and there are hundreds of ways of spending money _ there, in which all classes join, ! There is one remarkable trait about the peo- ple too, which hardly exists any where else than in Cope aaEany A Dane, when he takes his enjoyment, always takes it in the grandest way. He has no idea, tov & Gcauuin, of taking some beer every night _ ina garden and keeping among his own class in and associates. He prefers to do all his pleasuring in a lump, and then go to work and earn money for more, This is true of laborers, mechanics and all sorts of men. : All the week long a Danish carpenter will work hard in the coarsest clothes, living on any sort of food; but on Sunday, -or sometimes once’a month, he must have one day when he can dress up ‘like a gentleman of fashion. Nothing else will satisfy him, and as he has not the money to buy a fashionable suit of clothes, he_) ‘ras them, ,.When the workmen behave like this, it may be imagined that the noble classes spend as mych in proportion on their own pleasures, with ‘as little fear of ultimate ruin. Prudence and economy are virtues at a discount in Denmark, where the maxim seems to be ‘‘ashort life and _ & merry one.” But to return to Sven One Arm’s coffee-house. It was a great place for young men to come to after a ball, and one night there had been a pars masked ball, to which young Munster me with a party; of friends, , r the ball he went to the coffee-house of Sven One Arm, and they sat down in one of the _ arbors inthe garden, when who should come up _ to them but Hauser, the very man who had _ forced our hero into his first duel, when be was ; we fairly recovered from his fall at St. Peters- ~“Wurg. : ; bottom of his heart, thinly varnished over v-eth civilization. &: He had caught sight of his old antagonist eud came straight up to the table, bis blue eyes blazing with hatred, for no one can hate a Dane like a Dane. ra “What! are you not dead, curse yon?” he said. ‘“‘T thought I’d killed you.” Fae Munster had not yet sat down and he knew _what was coming. Just as in his first boyish’ fight, he sought to avoid the quarrel, and found his heart beating hard against his ri “Hauser, leave me alone,” he said quietly. “Tseek no quarrel with you.” “I thought I'd killed you,” was the only reply of the mad Dane. ‘Curse you, I’ll make no mistake this time.” pie ees. os And he struck at Munster savagely with his open hand. — ee That was enough in those days in the city of Copenhagen, or indeed anywhere in Hurope. It meant a duel to the death, or to be sneered at by every one as a coward, And Munster was little more than a boy yet, hardly twenty-one, and his beard not fully grown, while Hanser had fought several duels, and was several years — older. ae her WEL “Yes, but Munster was a — You may say, great swordsman.” ; That is true, but fighting with the foil and — the sharp point are two very different thiags, ¢: as our hero alwaysinsists. = : & There is as much difference between them as between a sparring bout and a prize fight, and many a great priza fighter has been worsted in : ae match by a man he could beat with the are fist. eget ae : Young Munster had been used to the foils, but : he had never crossed the naked swords but once, and that with the very man who had now insult- ed him a second time. : te ete _ And his first duel had been a defeat. His right arm was still weak from it. Yet he saw — he must fight again the man who had run him > through before, ; . . , The preliminaries did not take long to arrange in those days. The law was strict and the peril great to all the witnesses, so that Munster’s friends all left him, and only one man was found who would act as witness for both of the duelists, This man was an ex-officer of the army. He | had been degraded for a duel, and cared nothing for what happened to himself. He agreed to 1 see fair play. ooh ; 9 ea Th a to fight also took but little time to Gincad They dated not fight anywhere t le frequented; but there was, not far f: tho coffee: ouse, an old church, outside the ci and beside the old church a large graveyard. — No one would disturb them there, they might be sure, for the place was said to be haunted, and the same Danes who would face a battery _ by daylight with a laugh, would hesitate for fear at ghosts at night to pass a few tombstones, | In America we don’t have much ghost busi-. ness except among the Spiritualists, but in these’ old countries of aarepe all the people believe im ghosts, and every old house has one of its ow _ _Hauser was a regular dissipated, d te young Dane, with the old Berserker blood as. strong as savage seill at the | @ a8 ever, a regula So that the duelists were safeen fro terference in t graveyard, and went PONE A oe BALE ger ie The Sword Prince. oe We was a bright moonlight night, and the moliering old church tower cast gloomy black whaviows over the ground. The city lay off co one side, dark and lonely, for }t was long past midnight, and the wildest People must have some sleep, even in the town of Oopenhagen. ___ The sea runs up in among the islandson which the city is built, and near one of these stretches of water stood the old church, surrounded by _ dark yew trees and green mounds of earth, with little white tombstones in rows. It was a dismal place at any time, but you may be sure it was doubly dismal to the excited imegination of the boy, Munster, as he walked si toward it with Hauser, knowing that one of them two must be left there forever, in all likelihood. - ; _. hiven Hauser, reckless Dane that he was, had __ lost a little of his ferocious swagger, and be- ' Cane quiet when they entered the gloomy pre- ciur ts of the graveyard, F _ ‘Inen the old officer, with his savage red face disi‘gured with dissipation and the scars of old wounds, said to them briefly: “Strip. No time to lose if we want to get out business done to-night.” eee nie swords and felt them. They’re all right,” he said. ‘They'll cut like razors, both of them.” | _ They were thin, narrow blades, mere ribbons of steel, with points like needles, and their edges, as he had said, were as sharp as razors, i they were not meant to cut with, but to. A cutting age ag ee more weight be- hind it to make it bite deep, but these dueling “swords would draw blood wherever they - touched. ‘ ; In fact, they were meant to do so for a mer- ciful reason. In sword duels on the Continent, where no special malice is felt, blood is suffi- cient to satisfy honor, and the dueling sword is - Meant to draw it as easily as possible, to make dueling merciful. - But when two men fight to the death, a cut is no use except with a saber. : And Hauser and Munster had come to fight.to the death. ‘ 2 Atleast Hauser had. He had said so, and his face was set like a flint in the moonlight, as he _ threw off his clothing and stood, stripped to the . waist, facing his boyish antagonist. ' He was older, taller, stronger than Munster; _ and his eye had a wolfish gleam in it, while the face of the boy duelist was anxious and wary. __ Now the second handed them the swords, held them, with the blades across, in both hands for 8 “4 t, and then sprung back, saying: Saray. had he spoken when Hauser gave a tiger spring and lunged at Munster, met avoided a death-thrust by a lithe movement of I ast fae a ret ‘ ; aan a ease streamed down bis breast as the keen edge crossed it; but Hauser, too, was | bleeding from a similar cut. ais 4 Then they began their duel in earnest, and they circled round. ; Rote eh eer gow, and then a rapid lunge would Fils took out from a bag under his arm two | thrust and parry followed each other like light~ | draw blood after it was parried, by the return of the sharp blade, and both men were cov! with it from these superficie! wounds. But as the combat progressed, a strange change might be observed between the two. It was now the wild face of the boy that began to look savage, while Hauser’s old: frown had given place to a look of care and ee Munster was beginning to fence at Tast, as it he had a foil, and feared no wound, while Hauser was beginning to realize that he Lad met his master. : And then the breath of both began to fail them, and they were forced to stop and look at each other, panting and glaring, hardly able to lift their light swords, to rest awhile. Neither could relax his watchfulness, or the other would be on him again, but as they took up their swords to re-advance, it was noticeable that Munster went forward, and Hauser fell slowly back. : Again the blades clashed, and Hauser made a desperate attack, rallying all his failing strength. He felt he had no time to lose, and for a mo- ment he made Munster give him ground to avoid the fierce thrusts. — ; But, when his attack ceased; he had to fall back in turn, and a fierce smile for the first time began to play over the features of the young swordmaster. It was the confident smile he so often wore in after years, the smile of victory. He felt that Hauser was beaten. Another short rally, as the old duelist made his last effort, and then of a sudden came a dull “thump I Hauser dropped his sword with a groan, and ; fell back on anewly covered grave, run through the body. : : In that moment Munster dropped his own pa Yo and ejaculated: * My God, mean to do that.” Hauser looked up in the moonlight witha ghastly smile. eee “Youve got the best this time,” was all he said witha gasp, ; CHAPTER VI. A STUBBORN BATTLE. Monster’s first duel was over and what made it more remarkable was that he had fought it with his left band. His right arm was still too weak from his former wound to enable him to feel confident inits use, and he had learned to use a foil with either hand. But Hauser was run through the body with such a serious wound that he died from it ina few weeks after and the young swordmaster - ing, prize fighting was a disgust to him; and that this bril- liant young swordsman, the spoiled child of for- — tune in Copenhagen, who had never been ae : The Sword Prince. < : i3 It was a trait of his mind, which he has shown all his life, to improve everything, and he soon saw a source of profit in the cigar-mak- ing business, which he turned to use. When he, began to make cigars there was a good deal of waste on account of the surplus tobacco of the large leaves being thrown away or cut-up for cheap smoking tobacco, under the name of “ scraps.” ; _ Young Monstery—for it was here he began to use this form of name—thought it quite possible to use the seraps and waste for cigars, by put- ting it in the middle and using a good wrapper. : He tried the experiment, found it work well, _ and soon made money quite fast, by buying up scraps all over the city, and working then: into cigars, which sold at many times the price of the smoking tobacco into which the scraps - had been formerly cut. s _ He remained in Baltimore till 1849, and then had saved quite a handsome sum of money, his only amusements being fencing and boxing, of which last he found plenty, for Baltimore was then the worst city for fighting in the United States. He had, as a cadet and in Mexico, acquired quite a knowledge of Spanish, and had always _ been fascinated by Spaniards, which was per- haps the reason that he made the acquaintance of the unfortunate Lopez about this time, and _ became crazy for Cuban independence. Au his friends were Spaniards or Cubans; and he was full of the romance of the Spanish character. This isa very common thing among Scandinavians. There seems to be some fasci- nat on which makes the fair-haired, blue-eyed children of the North admire the dark eyes and olive faces of the South, and revel in the soft liquid language, so different from their own deep-toned, guttural tongue. ‘or more than a year Monstery kept Spanish company, at first because the Spaniards were _ the only people he met who could fence, and, * oer awhile, because of the Spanish beauties he met, ‘His two or three years o% regular living had expanded him into a man, very different to the : ee had fought Bliss. True, he was still slender in appearance; wore Bes his hair long; had a boyish face, and dressed in the most dandified fashion, with all the rich - tastes of a Dane; but he had become known and feared as what the “ Plug Uglies” of Baltimore called a “ mighty deceivin’ man.” — To look at his slim, upright figure and foppish dress, you would take him fora regular milk- z e0Ps only fit to swing a cane and sport an eye- _ lass. | - But when you came to measure and weigh _ him, you would find that it took a forty-two _ inch tape to goround his naked chest, that he tipped the scale at a hundred and fifty-five ‘ he trained activity of a fighting athlete. _ ‘Time passed _on, and he had acquired plenty of money in his new trade, when he met a lovely Spanish girl, whom we will call only by. her Christian name, which is very pretty. _ That name was Carmen, which the Spaniards are apt to soften into Carmelita, and with Car- ounds, and was as hard asa rock all over, with” melita Monstery fell over head and ears in love, much to the satisfaction of the lady, but not so much to the liking of another person.” eh This person rejoiced in a truly Spanish name, taken from the Bible, and, to our notions, quite irreverent, : He was called Jose Jesus Gomez, and he, too, loved the fair Carmelita. In fact, he thought he had the inside track with Carmelita, for t:e had secured her father’s influence, and Spanish girls are nothing if not obedient. s So when Jose Jesus saw that this young Dan- ie ish-American had cut him out, and that Car- é melita preferred blue eyes to black, and true love to the revenue of a sugar estate—for Jose - Jesus was rich—Jose Je‘us swore he would be 4% revenged, and went about it in true Spanich ne fashion, that is to say, with a determination to : assassinate by treachery. a There ure two classes of Spaniards, about as ua different as day and night. They are the ‘ Ru- bios”—the fair hairs—descended from the old Goths, proud, high-spirited, brave, fierce, cruel, but always fighting fair, Cortez and Alvarado and the Spanish conquerors of Mexico belonged to this cldss. ~ = Then there are the Black Spaniards, who are descendants of the women of the conquered Gotl$ and their Moorish masters, with dark Arab faces and a mixture of a dozen different S bloods. These are the bad Spaniards, with all a ene vices of all the races, and little of their vir- ' ues, : Jose Jesus was a black Spaniard, crafty, cruel, cowardly, treacherous, and bent on’ revenge, if it took him a lifetime. In the play of Othello ee has painted just such a man, and given him the Spanish name of Iago, though the scene liesin Italy. Shakespeare knew what he was about when he drew Iago. Rit Jose Jesus played Iago to perfection, and Monstery was just as open and unsuspicious as Othello. Only Jose Jesus made a mistake that Iago | would never have done. He tried to beat a swordmaster by physical means. | ee This was the way it happened: : Monstery was well known among the Span- iards and Cubans of Phiiadelphia and Bul i- more as a Cuban sympathizer of the most en- thusiastic kind. : ee In those days—it was ten years before our civil war—Cuba was a great object of interest in the | United States. There was much rivalry be- tween the free and slave States as to which should have the most votes in Congress, and by the Missouri compromise it had been agreed that all new States soe into the Union south ot Mason and Dixon’s line should be slave States, all north of it free States, Sa American settlers had taken Texas from the Mexicans, :aised an independent State, joined — the Union and finally had brought on the Mexican war, which had strengthened theslave _ power by the votes of a new State. See Cuba, being discontented with Spanish rule, as. she is to this day, it was hoped by many people that her inhabitants would rebel, and — | throw off the Spanish yoke, erect an indepen- | dent_government in Cuba and apply to enter the United States, Therefore it was very easy Sore ey nh | for Lopez and other Cubans to find symp and help in the United States, from all the The Sword Prince, : “hot-headed young men who were spoiling for a izht. f : Naturally, this state of things alarmed tho Spaniards, and the American sea-ports were fuil cf Spanish spies trying to find out what the Cubans were doing, that they might com- plair to the American Government, which could not allow armed expeditions against a friendly country to go from her coast. So the Cubans were obliged to do all they dit) seecetly, under pretense of peaceable trad- ing voyages. : And in the midst of this state of affairs came the love affair of Monstery and the jealousy of Jose Jesus Gomez. 4 Naturally, Monstery being a Cuban sympa- thizer, Jose Jesus became a Spanish spy, and _— his plots with other spies to get rid of his Vi 7 In true Spanish spy fashion he did not let Monstery know he hated him. He pretended, on the. POWEAry to be delighted with bim, made friends with him, dined, wined and treated him in the most affectionate style, and prevailed on the generous young man to consider him almost asa brother, so close did he stick to him. Thus matters stood on the third day ofMay, 1851, when an adventure peppenct to our hero in which he came nearer to death than he had ever been since his duel with Hauser. CHAPTER VIII. THREE TO ONE. On the third day of May, 1851, Mr. Jose Jesus Gomez proposed to his dear friend and ‘companion Thomas Hoyer Monstery tbat they should take a little Sunday afternoon trip to Frankfort, one of the suburbs of Philadelphia, listen to the music in one of the large concert gertena there and come beck in the evening. Monstery agreed, nothing loth, and they walked out together, intending to come back in the evening by the stage. The day was Blorivgs, spring just opening, | and everything promised a pleasant little ex- eursion. The young swordmaster. was in the fullness of health, strength and high spirits, and constantly practicing all sorts of feats, beating every one he met at theirown game. For instance, the Spaniards are very proud of their ability to throw knives at a mark, and before Monstery took up that little sport, thought themselves invincible at it. 4 The Spanish method of throwing a knife is to take it by the point and cast it, so that it turns over and over in the air, and they graduate the force:so that the last turn sends it point fore- most into the mark, ; Monstery used to take the same knife by the handle and cast itso that if went point fore- most, and he would send it into a board so dee thot it required a man’s full strength to pull it outs 2s He had another trick with silver dollars, which he would cast edgewise with such forces _ that he would si k a silver dollar into a board - floor so Gaep that it had to be cut out. At stone throwing he was such an expert that he would let any one throw up a stone, and the ground. | if his dear friend had not been as quick as a cat | bis own right. arm free, and thus would pet it itin the air with another ~ As they walked along toward Frankfo: Gomez enticed him into these feats, ani laughed at his own clumsy efforts to imitate them. In fact, he was so very clumsy that more than once he nearly hurt his dear friend; for he threw more than one big stone up so that he would have received a blow on the head. 4 Monstery scolded and Jose Jesus begged his _ pardon humbly, but the same thing happened | so often that Thomas finally declined to engage - a the sport to oblige his dear friend, Josa esus, i Of course he had no suspicion that Jose Jesus was not his dearest friend, or he would have gone armed and on his guard. As it was, he carried no weapon of any sort but a light hickory cane with a hook to it, while Jose Jesus had inside his. vest a very long and beautiful knife, with an ivory handle and a blade like a razor. Monstery noticed it, but thought noth- ing of it, for all Spaniards are apt to carry knives, and Jose Jesus was too innocent and loving to be dangerous. f : He was very generous with his money too, and ordered wine at the concert garden, con- versed charmingly, and made the time pass so ees that neither of them discovered how _ ate it was till the garden began to shut up and they’found that the last stage to the city had gone. ; Monstery did not- care much for this, and a poor that they should go to a hotel; but ose Jesus insisted that he had to go to Phila- sel gia, and asked why they should not walk AC \ It was a fine starlight night, they were both oung fellows, and we may naturally suppose onstery would not decline a challenge to a walk of a few miles on a good road. WH So they started on their trip back, Jose Jesus full of high spirits, singing and talking, the very model of a friend. ee EY Now, whether it was that something in the Spaniard’s manner, an occasional glance of hig black eyes or a certain evil sneer in his smile had awakened a suspicion in Monstery’s mind | or not, certain it is that the young man be- gan to remember for the first time as they left = the lights of Frankfort behind them that hewas unarmed and that Jose Jesus had an ugly knife > while they were on a lonely road. z Pies If a suspicion crossed his mind, however, it was instantly dismissed. He knew his own su- periority to the Spaniard, whom he could han- __ dle like a child, and never dreamed that Joso — sents would dare to attack him, knife or no — nife. age To make assurance doubly sure, and half- asbamed of his own thoughts, he took the Span- iard’s right arm in bis own leftsoas to leave they strolled on chasting as pleasantly asever. fa ee He had forgotten all about his nalf-formed suspicions, and they were still walking on, when _ Jose Jesus suddenly snatched away his arm. | whipped out the long knife, and made a desper: ate stab at Monstery’s heart, withoutany warn: — ing. . ‘ oe se : With the instinct of a boxer, confused and surprised, tho young man threw up his left el- bow on guard. SEAS aoe er hearers _}is teeth gleamed ferociously, his eyes glared in | again, dropping all disguise Pmt o Thud! ; | The knife went through his left arm above the elbow, glanced off the bone, and scratched | the skin just over his heart, while the blood | spurted ous. Tbe shock and pain of the stab would have | felled any ordinary man, and they staggered | even the swordmaster. i As for Jose Jesus, his olive face was white, | the starlight, and he looked like a demon as he | plucked out the knife and stabbed at his foo | n that aoe moment, showing “that Jose | Jesus had laid his plans well, two other men leaped up from a ditch at. the roadside and ' ‘rushed at Monstery with drawn knives. And he had nothing but a stick. But he knew how to handle that stick, and his head became cool tbhe.moment he saw that it was a case of life or death. He leaped back, flourishing the stick in furi- ous circles*and shouting for help, as the three - men rushed at. him. .Then began the fight. _ quick, sharp blow ~ _of the wagon. wall on to the toll-gate, a mile or two further on. | His stick was toolight to fracture skulls, or he would have had a better chance, It was’ only a common light cane, luckily made of | tough a 5 = | arm he must hit hard and on the wagon with several people in it, to whom Mon- stery shouted:. To do an “Help! help! They're trying to murder me.” | tenderest places. Jose Jesus was the nearest, and crack went But the people in the wagon, seeing the flash - the tough stick on the wrist of the Spaniard, sod ins the knife flying, while Gomez uttered a shrill yell of rage and pain, and jumped back, bolding his injured wrist and grinding his teeth. Again Monstery leaped back, and kept hitting always either at the wrist or temple of one of his cowardly foes. But they were too desperate and eager to stop for anything, and closed in, keeping him leap- ing from side to side, fighting his hardest, but getting weaker all the time from loss of blood. And then came a welcome sound, the rattle of wheels on the road, and up. dashed a country of knives, thought it was some scheme of high- ' way robbery, and only whipped up the horse | ae went 02 at full gallop, when Monstery | found himself alone in the starlight. - Jose Jesus and his friends had run at the sight Had they gone far? * He did not know; but he felt that he was | growing weak, and he had nothing .to do but | ' All was silent round him, and he gathered up | a handful of sharp stones, which he piled upon but | his left arm, x He knew he could send a stone straight; the stick would not kill. | Then, dripping blood as he went, he slowly ' walked on, keeping in the midst of tht road aud watching the fences warily. - enuugh of it for one night, thou ‘three stabs, all in the leff arm, and lost much Jose Jesus and his friends, however, had had | Monstery received had had a good deal more, for he “In due time he arrived at the toll-gate, drop- The Sword Prince. men fore 16 ped his burden of stones, and, after a great deai of hammering, roused the keeper, who was hor- rified beyond’ measure at the apparitio: of a bloody young man as pale as a ghost waiting for admission. ; : However, he let Monstery in, and a boy was found to run for a hack and a doctor, so tbat, before morning, our hero had the satisfaction of finding that the knife had not touched an artery, and of having his wounds bound up by the fair hands of Carmelita herself. ; ‘ When Jose Jesus came home to his lodgings he found the police waiting for him, and during the three months that it took Monstery to pet back the use of his left arm, Mr. Gomez lan- guished in jail, reflecting over the folly of a Spaniard trying to cross an American Dane in ove. j Before the end of July our tough hero was about as merry as ever, and Carmelita with tke black eyes had become Mrs. Monstery, her papa being quite reconciled when he found that his — Sa eee: had several thousand dollars already ~ saved, ; Thus ended the episode of Jose Jesus Gomez, which shows the advantage, in the midst. of peaceful civilization, of keeping up the practice ee stery bee dins a ‘on! AN oF young man, the odds of three to one would ae Cee too much, and Jose Jesus would have killed him, As it was, with nothing but a hickory stick, he beat off three men with knives, and not one of them could touch him after once his eyes were opened to the danger. Treachery got him his first stabs, but they were the last. Ever since that time, Monstery has had an in- separable affection for a common hickory stick with a crook to it, and never goes out at night without one. He knows its value, rightly used. CHAPTER JX. Lira IN BALTIMORE. : Our hero, in the fall of 1851, moved to Balti- more, where he set up a small cigar store, and remained for some. years. Fencing was at a discount; but all the world wanted cigars, and they came in such numbers to the new Tabaq-" uiera Habanera that he made money fast. He paid $16 a month rent for a little bit of a store, about twenty feet by ten, and found that he could sell fifty dollars worth of cigars every day, with a profit to hisown share of about twenty dollars. And in those days good cigars were only five cents apiece, thanks to low duties. j But agen happiness, as lo: ing was in such discredit in America. People called ita ‘‘ humbug,” and he made up his mind” that they should own there was something in it. He was the only American fencing-master, and he was resolved to show that an American could fence as well as any Frenchman. © a As soon therefore as his trade became flourish- ing, he moved into the building of the Balti- more Patriot, took a larger store, nad hireda money alone did not give him ng as his darling pursuit of fenc- large room up-stairs, where hé opened the first peed Aunhs d Boxing Academy, started erica, ies ty rare : He put in the] for popularity. All the young bloods wanted to idan bos they i " 4 q 3 4 ig gt fan Bl Sn a re yg ee bi ti eat The Sword Prince. tould see the use of that. Fencing they didnt tare for, till he showed them what could be done in fencing; and then, first one, then an- other, began to take lessons, till he had quite a flourishing academy. Another reason why he taught boxing was that many people had an idea that fencing was nonsensical work, and that a rough and tumble fighter could beat a fencer by main strength. onstery soon showed them that science pays, in ang as in anything else, and that a well taught man of inferior str. ngth could beat an untaught man far heavier than himself, as he had done with Bliss, Therefore the Salle d’Armes became known throughout Baltimore, and our hero became a noted man, : In those days, as we have mentioned before, Baltimore was one of the worst fighting cities in the Union, with faction fights going on all the time between the ‘ Plug Uglies” and other gangs of ruffians, so that a man who went out alone at nights had to keep a sharp look-out for his life, and be. well armed. The anly element of Baltimore was “down on” ony. from the first, for the reason that he would have nothing to do with them, and would only teach his secret to decent and respectable people, to protect them against - just such ruffians as the ‘‘ Plug Uglies.” It was part of his creed that every man who claimed to be a gentleman should know how to protect himself from the insult and maltreat- ment of a ruffian, He would say: “You call vourself a gentleman, and you hold yourself above these corner loafers, and yet, ‘if you meet one of them, you have to keep out of his way, for fear he should give youa thrash- ing. You are afraid of him, and therefore he is your superior. This ought not to beso, You _ have as good a body as he has, and your mus- cles are supple, not stiffened by labor as his are. You bave money and can afford to hire a ceacher who will teach you to beat that ruffian, if all you gentlemen would learn how to fight, and use your knowledge for self-protection, these ruffians would have to be quiet, and Balti- more be a pleasant city.” The result of his teachings was quite a change for the ‘* Plug Uglies,” and they vowed revenge on Monstery, | Therefore bis life in Baltimore was a succes- sion of dangerous adyentures, of which a few _ will show what an advance he had made since -his youth in taking care of himself. There was a man in Baltimore in those days whom we will call Brown, who was known as e gveat fighter, although, strange to say, he was actually a deacon in a Presbyterian church. He was quite well off, and had a large shoe sore, and belonged to the Know. Nothing party, _ who hated ail-foreigners. ® was, as a rule, ~ good-natured, and hada large trade; but-all his _ neighbors were afraid of bim when he got an- _ gry, and he had a great antipathy to all but native Americans of bis own sort. - One evening Monstery’s young wife, a beau- _ tiful creature with a regular Spanish face, went out, leaving her husband in the little store, while she purchased a pair of shoes at the store fthis Brown, as - Bhe was a high-spirited, quick-tempered little creature, and, like all Spanish women, very proud of her pretty little feet. It took ber a long time to get suited at Brown’s store, and the boorish proprietor got impatient and surly, finally telling her that the — shoes were good a. for any one like her, and going on to use all sorts of insulting Jan- guage. : Ina moment Carmelita’s blood was up and she stamped her little foot and cried fiercely: “You are no gentleman! How dare you ‘speak so toa lady? I will tell my husband, and he will kill you—do you Kear? Kill you!” She was perfectly devoid of fear and wild with anger, for Monstery was the most courte- — ous of men, and Spaniards always treat ladies with deference, . Brown sneered savagely.. “A lady! You ain’t no lady. you've got no husband.” “Til show youif Lhaveornot. You wouldn’t dare to insult me if he were heré,” she said, — panting, her eyes flashing. < ee ““Wouldn’t [? We'll see about that,” said the brute, who imagined he could beat any one in the world, and thought he had to do with a Spaniard. ‘You go along out of here and I don’t believe ll see what your husband’s made of, quicker’n wink.” . Out ran the Spanish girl, all in a flame of fury at the way she was being treated, and Bully Brown left his store and strode after her. He was spoiling for a fight and imagined he had to do with some slender black-eyed Cuban boy. Fo “Monstery, quietly chatting bebind his counter with a friend, who was sitting at the back of the store, suddenly bolted in the ap-. — parition of his beautiful little wife, pale as a ghost, her eyes like furnaces, her white teeth gleaming, as she hissed out: ; eg ‘“Monstery! I have been insulted—by dis man. You must kill him for me.” : And then, in bounced a big, broad-shouldered ‘brute with the face of a bully, and stood scowl- ing at our hero, fe saw in a moment that trouble was com- ing and became excessively coolLand polite. = ‘My wife, be calm,” he said, soothingly, - “Tt is some mistake. This gentleman did not mean to insult you. He will apologiza.” — “ Apologize! ‘ p ruffi .n style, and in a moment he had caught our hero by the’collar and was pulling him over | the counter and a gla:s case with several thou- sand prime cigars in ‘it, as if he was bound to — end the fight at once. ; ste Monstery aeeeaes away and left hiscollar in Brown’s hand, but not before the other had — given him a savage punch on the head that | made him reel a moment, and feel dizzy. Then Brown ran out, crying: A Oe “Come outside, and Vil give you all you want, young feller.” ~ ah pani Monstery was usually the best natured of men; but this sort of treatment stung him. He rushed round the counter to the door, and, — for one moment, hesitated. . : A short sword hung on the wall, and fees to snatch it ‘down, after such tardly and unprovoked assault. Hell!” broke in Brown, in true. re The Sword Prince, i? Only a moment he hesitated; then he growled to himself; s “No, ll lick him with nature’s weapons, or -* pot at all.” . Then he rushed out, and as he did so, Brown, who was lying in wait in a dark doorway, ave him another blow on the back of the ead that sent him staggering into the middle of the street. ‘That blow steadied him, and he said to him- self immediately: : “‘Halloa, Monstery, you're getting licked. This won’t do!” He had received two blows, without giving a _ single return. ; ‘his left sap oa) * had collected looked at ‘ow_he grappled back his senses with a des- perate effort, turned round and faced his enemy, _ who came rushing at him, anticipating an easy , oes m. . It would not do to let that man hit ain. i rown came on, Monstery, now in full possession of his senses, and with room to spare, fetreated slowly, stepping to the right. On rushed Brown, and aimed a third blow at him. With one of his old Liedersdorff tricks, Mon- _stery evaded the blow, clutched the arm with his enemy half round by ow missing its mark, and the next moment tke young man gave him the first of those terrible right-hand blows, coming up from the hip, which he has since made so terribly efficient. ; The sound of that blow was like a sledge- hammer on arock, and it crushed in Brown’s jaw. For a moment he stood as if dazed, drop- ping his hands, and then, “‘ thud / thud !” came two more of those terrible blows in his face. Mr. Brown dropped senseless in a heap in the ‘ street, and the young man, whose blood was now fairly up, and raging at the remembrance of the force of his own bi the outrages to which he had submitted in the first instance, clutched up his enemy in his arms and dragged him to an areaway, down which he was going to throw him in his frenzy, when some one touched his arm. : Looking around, there was a venerable old gentleman, who said gravely: “Young man, you’ve given him enough, if you don’t want to commit murder,” Tho word “murder” sobered him instantly, and he dropped Brown, while the crowd that him with fear and won- der, as he went back to his little shop, : Brown had been the terror of the place so - long that they could hardly believe that a slen- der young man like this had laid out the cham- pion, with only three blows. _. : Ye soit was. Mr. Brown lay in a swoon for : several hours after in the police station, and, when ee him away home, his face was swathed ir that bis jaw was broken. A curious incident happened here, that illus- trates the difference of races, when thd stretcher went by the store. Monstery and Carmelita oy TF at the door and saw it. _ Monstery looked at the pale face of his foe, é and gave a slight shudder as he said; ‘Poor fellow! I didu’t mean to do that.” r eet ee anes began to cry, liusband bad been © Spaniard, bloody bandages, and they found. would have killed him. Oh, why did I marry a man like you?” But Monstery only laughed at her. It was not his nature to bear malice. : It was Brown’s nature, however, and he showed it as soon as he got out of bed, To be beaten so signally and with such ease by a fellow he called a boy was a bitter pill for the old bully to swallow. A few days after Monstery was in the office of a hotel, arranging a sale of cigars, when he was startled by the apparition of a face swathed.in bandages close to him, while'a shak- ing hand held out a big navy revolver, He had no pistol, but he used at that time to carry in his bosom a steel spike which he would cast across the room through a plate of sheet iron for a bet. It was his old knife-throwing trick of which he was quite vain, In a moment he had whipped out his spike, and called out fiercely to Brown: “Shoot! Shoot away if you dare. But take care you don’t miss your aim. I never miss mine.” ‘ The bully trembled more violently than before, and some bystanders caught him from behind and disarmed him before he could fire, while Monstery only laughed at him refused to make any charge. Brown was not so good-natured, ard had our hero summoned before a Baltimore justice, where he accused Monstery of having struck him with a slung shot, showing his broken jaw in evidence. : : It was quite a doubtful trial at first, so diffi- cult was it to convince the jury that any man could with his fist alone deliver such a fearful blow as to cause the damage they saw. Monstery proved that he had no weapon, and offered to show the judge on his own face just | how the thing was done; but his honor declined the offer, and the case was finally dismissed, both parties paying their own costs, : After that the Plug Uglies let our hero alone as far as sending single men to fight him, but more than once they lay in wait for him in ngs. ; 3 One night, after eleven, when the shutters” had been put up, nine of them slouched in, with their hands in their pockets, when Monstery was in a back room mab his little wife alone in the store, and one of them started to go behind the counter. ; : They had come to he pick a quarrel and steal what they could. : : nore _ The first man got no further than the edge of the counter, when he was startled by the ap- _ partion of Carmelita, at the other end of the ittle store, her dark eyes glittering as she crouched behind the desk and looked at him over the barrelof arevolver, : “What do you want? Go away,” was allshe said. But he took care to go out very quietly, and stammered thatshe and his friends “ want- Be ee that’s all.” ‘ ; asked, her heart beating fast. Ie Sir ~ We want thecigars. Do youhear?” growled | another man, ‘Come out and serve us. Time enough for money when we get the cigars. _ i Here, boys, help yourselves.” here is your money? the little woman” 18 The Sword Prince. ; It was only a pretty little Spanish girl that A said it, but she had hinges look about her, ig and they hesitated. ee And at that very moment Monstery opaned the door from behind unseen, took in fhe whole e situation at a glance, and before they had fairly Rye seen him, pulled down two long navy revolvers ES that hung behind the door. CS Click! click! i The first intimation the bullies had of our hero he stood smiling at the back door with the re- bp volvers hanging down in a careless manner, as P he said: “*Good-evening, gentlemen, Aha! you have come for cigars, Certainly. Carmelita, my ES dear, please to serve the gentlemen.” ES And somehow or other the men who had B come there bent on a row quieted in a moment, _ paid down good money for cigars, and slunk out peacefully, The trouble was, that the been recognized, and that did not suit their ideas of a fight. They liked to catch a man in _ the dark, ten to one, beat him to a jelly, and then run away and defy any one to prove the assault on them. It may be imagined, therefore, that life in ~~ [tick (6c ty was decidedly unpleasant for Mon- é stery. His only compensation for the disagree- ables was that he made money rapidly, and he staid there four years, till, in 1855, disgusted with the place and having saved twelve thou- sand dollars, he sold out and took a trip to Eu- rope. knew they had CHAPTER X. MASTER AT ARMS, ~ Our hero had found that he could always - _ make a living by doing work that he nated, but Re ‘ he had made up his mind to try if he could not " live just as well by doing work that he loved. He was as enthusiastic a fencer as ever, and as he grew older had developed a system of his own with which he could beat any one in America. _» Itremained to be seen if he could handle the se -best' masters in Europe also, et He had been in America now for about ten = ears, and in that time new men had come up Europe. Could he beat them, or would he have to learn anything from them? In a trip _ to meet adventures of this sort it was necessar. to travel al:ne, and our bero parted from his wife, who went to her family in Cuba, and, as events turned out, did not see him again for some years, _ He went to France and fenced -at Paris, but found no one there to mstch him in public. ‘om thence he traveled to Germany, Italy and he did not know. It was fencing with musket and bayonet. The French ha and another existed in See and Denmark _ which he soon recognized as the superior, and adopted and improved himself. i French and Monstery eres this: _ The French parry a bayonet thrust with the _ stock and barrel of the musket, using the arms ie + out. io Perce oe me or aoe ae trying, and has to make a wide sweep to 4 oune tack toa return point, This sort of jae: Russia, ard found on his way one novelty which | one system, | which he soon mastered, but thought little of, | Briefly stated, the difference between the -yery seldom resorted to nowadays, but when -The tion is exactly opposite to the rules of fencing — with the foil or sword, where the principle is to keep the point always ready to thrust, and to_ make the motions as small as possible from — parry to thrust. d The Monstery system of bayonet fencing is quite different. ‘The bayonet is always kept pointing straight at the enemy, and the butt of the piece is kept on the thigh, the parries being made by small motions, in which bayonet crosses bayonet. Thus the whole strength of the body is thrown into the parry, instead ot - merely the force of the arms. The consequence isthata man using the Mons. tery system will whirl his opponent half around at every parry and be able to fun him through before he can recover his balance, if he fence on the French system. _ ae During his trip in Europe Monstery made bayonet fencing a pe and attracted so much notice in Spain that the Spanish Govern- ment offered him the post of Instructor at _ Arms in Cuba, with the rank of major end— $200 a month pay, a post which our hero ac- cepted and went to Havana, Here he found a flourishing fencing-school called the Circolo de Tiralores, or Circle of Fencers, headed by Senor Antonio Galetti, and a great rivalry sprung up between them and spread to the pupils of both. First it was tke military element against the civilians. Galetti’s pupils thought they knew how to fence and did not want any soldier to teach them, while the officers of the army felt sure their man was more than a match for any civilian. 7 Secondly, Monstery came from the old country and was supported.by Spanish influence, whiic Galetti had the Cubans on bis side. And the Cubans hated the Spaniards, just as the Ameri: cans hated the English in old times, all the more because they were near relatives by blood. ~ = So it was very easy to arrange a grand pub- lic match between Monstery and Galetti in which very heavy bets were laidon each by his supporters and which made a great excitement as the time approached for it to come off. : It was fated however that it should never — take place, for within a week of the day set, | Monstery caught the yellow fever and came © near dying of it, lying in a delirious stupor for weeks, — care That fever proved the cause of his losing his lace and came very close to spoiling hisfene- ing for life, owing to the same vile Spanish treachery of which he had already had a taste — in Jose Jesus Gomez. . ~ ode While he lay delirious his rival, Galetti, pre- tended the greatest concern for his,fate and— sent in a doctor who was pronounced a wonder in yellow fever cases, though it turned out af- — terward that he was a barber, af ; This barber-doctor insisted that the patient must be bled or he would die and he bled him himself. : ¢ eg Now bleeding is an old-fashioned remedy, it is used it is always.in one way. prtient is bled in the left arm and only the blue vein just under the skin is cut. This barber-doctor ed the insonsible man in the right arm and he cut so deep that he pierced the ar’ery and very nearly severed the tendon on which the whois The Sword Prince. : pe of the forearm depends, leaving only a read, : ; Had he made one more slash and severed it ee the two ends would have shrunk away onstery would have been a cripple for ife, ,, Of all this he knew nothing in his delirium but when he recovered he found that his right _ arm was bent up and that he could not straighten it out. The tendon had healed up ‘short with a bunch at the place where the cut had been, and it was plain that he would not fence any more till that arm straightened out. Asa result, he lost bis place had to give up his match and leave the island, while Galetti had the field all to himself. This was a terrible misfortune to a man of _. Monstery’s ambition. He had only his arms to : me his position and one of them was use- less. - . Here it was that his grit showed itself. Ho made up his mind to gef that arm straight and for six months he worked at it. ees He would walk up and down his room for hours, striking out that arm, though every ef- fort cost him intense pain, and he had frequent- ly to stop and nurse it, grinding his teeth to _ keep from groaning. 'To make a long story short, at last the.tendon ‘stretched apes and he got back the use of his arm, though not till the year 1858, when he felt that he was at last as good as ever. _ He was now thirty-four, in the very prime of his strength, and he had heard that in Central America the people were enthusiastic on fenc- » Ing, fo Central America he resolved to go and re- conquer fortune, the more so that the filibuster Walker was just then in the zenith of his fame, and organizing his last expedition to Nica- - ragua. Monstery, with a party, went to Honduras and they ianded at Truxillo, hearing that Walker had landed, and that the people had pronounced in his favor. As it turned out in a few days, Walker had _ Government, turned over to the Nicaraguans and shot., _ . The game was up, and the party with which - Monstery had landed were glad to eseapo the same fate as Walker by declaring them- selves simple travelers with no idea of anything like warfare. : The excuse availed all but our hero, who had - come on really to fence and had two huge chests of arms with him labeled as such. Whatever the rest might be, it was plain that Monstery at least was a soldier. _ So they let the rest go and shut up our hero _ in the ‘Castle of Truxillo,” as a prisoner, till _the President of Honduras, whose name was Guartiola, would dispose of him. , - It sounds well to call it a ‘‘ castle,” and it had been a castle once, though a long time ago. ' In 1858 it was a ruin, with four or five rusty old guns that no one dared to fire off for fear they would burst, one broken leaf to the main , and a garrison of a men, of ae two ‘ landed, but so far from being a victor, he had | been taken oe orders of the American | In this tumble-down old ruin our hero was placed, with his arm-chests, and informed that if he went out of the gate he would be shot, while his friends were scattered in all directions. Naturally his position wasa gloomy one and his thoughts far from pleasant, As for hiscap- tivity, that was a mere farce. He could have got out any day he wanted and shot down all the garrison before they could cock a musket.’ But to get out of the castle was one thing, to keep out another. He knew that the whole | coast was aroused, and he would be a public enemy everywhere as a ‘‘ Yanqui,” if he made his escape. Buried in gloomy thoughts he was one da; pn up and down the court of the castle, ooking longingly seaward, and came near the gate where the sentry was standing. The mar | without a word of warning suddenly made a thrust at him with his bayonet, yelling: é “The prisoner is escaping!” Monstery only avoided the thrust by dodging and instinctively grasped the musket. : In a moment out ran the other, members of the “ garrison ”’—two officers and a man—musket in hand and charged him. : To the active swordmaster it was the work of an instant to wrench away the sentry’s musket and face his foes, when a singular contest commenced, None of the ‘‘ garrison” had any cartridges, but they all wanted to stab Monstery, who parried their thrusts, sent their muskets flying in all directions, jumped about from one: to the other, and foiled every attempt to kill him, Not one but was a mere child in his hands, and,he could have stabbed them, one after the other, had he been so minded. | But that was just what he did not dare to do. would have the whole country after him, and he saw that they knew it from the way in which they persevered in the attack. s Disarmed, and spinning about here and there, still they would not stop, but came at him again and again, and he found that he was growing exhausted, _ ; : | It isno joke, even for a master, to fight four in the shade. : At last to his great joy the commandant of the castle, Major Don Rafael Balderamos, made his appearance, attracted by the clash and | shouting, and to him Monstery ran. | Oh, senor,” he cried, “help for Heaven's | sake. yy rhese fellows want to kill me for nothing | — amazement, and all that he answe: | this: ee * | “Jesu Marial Se | €80 2” Jesu Maria! Can a man learn that?] | singular words at such a time, They showed him that he was safe and he | blessed the Nachtigall bayonet system which he had learned and improved in Europe. It had saved his life. Beets Bane een a ee | Balderamos was so much fascinated by the — and here he stayed for two or three days, | He knew that if he killed a single man he. e stout men with the thermometer atninety-eight | at all. : sin aa | Don Rafael had been standing watchs him pued un hombr’ aprender onstery says he shall never forget those ay - country, whom he defeated easily, and made two thousand dollars in the match, American i a _ America, and sent bim his money, years after, _. On bis way from Honduras he was captured by some ecto, fencing, who was only anxious to teach his art, best men the country could furnish. Antonio 20 The Sword Prince. poms te of one man knocking four about like | ldren with such apparent ease that he began to question his prisoner, and learned for the first time that instead of a ferocious filibuster he had come across a professor of the art of not to use it to hurt others. The reyelation changed Monstery’s prospects at once, and he was released on parole, given the run of Truxillo, feted, petted and wel- comed, while Balderamos sent off post-haste to Tegucigalpa, the capital, to tell President Guartiola that the famous Spanish swordsman had come to Honduras to try the mettle of the He had struck the right spot at last. The Spanish-Americans are enthusiastic on the sub- ject of swordsmanship, and care very little about firearms. The reason is simple. “Modern rms are made by expensive machinery and ee special cartridges, which are not made in Central America. They have to be imported, and the people are dependent on the United States for their supplies. Consequently they are scarce. But swords, pikes, lances and daggers can be made anywhere, and the Spanish Cp itoat ae are never happy unless they are ghting. 3 So they use their own weapons for their own fights, and practice fencing all the time in their own rough and ready fashion. Every village has its own local celebrity as a swordsman, and at the country fairs these men—called spada- chins—come in from all sides to challenge each other, carrying their long swords and a bundle of sticks. : As soon as Guartiola heard who the new arrival was, he sent for him to the capital, and offered bim the post of Instructor-at-Arms to all the army, with the rank of colonel. Monstery asked him the same salary as he had received in Cuba, but was informed in rep] that the prime minister only received fifty dol- lars a month, and that two hundred to one man—his demand—would bankrupt Honduras. He concluded to go on, however, and was warmly welcomed by Guarticla, who treated him—he remembers {ft to this day—to New Jersey champagne, cider and Hollands gin. Those were the royal beverages in Hondaras in those days. Here Monstery found no trouble in getting up a match with the best spadachins of the money. He became the pride of Telucigalpa, and might have been there to-day, Lut for one thing. The Central American republics have a habit of getting up revolutions about once a year, and one took place not very long after which resulted in his leaving Hon- was compelled to leave, too, witb- prope: which he intrusted to ono lanco, an Italian indigo planter, who proved one of the few honest. men in Spanish out his s and tied up for torture; buthe | " managed to buy his freedom by sacrificing his | diamond studs. Then, penniless, alone and on’ ees foot, he traversed the wilderness and en ae the town of San Miguel in rags and coverea with chigas. se These chigas, it must be remarked, are agree: able little insects that infest the forests of trop- ical America and burrow under the skin of travelers, where they Jay their eggs and hatch out large families. Once in, there is no way of getting them out but by cutting, and the tor- ment is indescribable. However, he succeeded. in getting rid of his interesting visitors after a _ ote deal of torment, and flourished in San iguel as the only master-of-arms, givin lessons at sixteen gold ounces a course—equal to about $180—with the first cavaliers contend- ing. for places under bis tuition. a elt was in San Salvador that he ese the name by which he was afterward known in rs bots America, of El Rubio Bravo—the Brave onde. ee From San Miguel he was again obliged to flee, on account of the enmity of the governor, wao was jealous of his popularity, and took his de- parture for the ublic of San Salvador where he was welcomed with open arms and made colonel and Instructor-at-Arms, It would take too much space here to recount all our hero’s adventures in these Central Am- erican republics where he remained till the year 1859, moving north at each successive revolu- tion till he came to the Mexican State of Chia- pas. In each, his history was very much the same, and the people adored him, but the governors were always jealous of bim as an American, and he was constantly waylaid for the purpose of assassination by men who feared to face him openly. ie His encounter with General Bragamonte will serve as a specimen of his everyday life. Bragamonte was a general in rank, but noted _ chiefly as the most dangerous duelist in Span- ish America, than fifty people at different times and alwiuye at an uvfair advantage, but claimed to be the most skillful swordsman living. ee Of course to a man of this sort the great faemr — of El Rubio Bravo was as gall and wormword _ Before he came the general was a hero, but ais — arrival put Bragamonte in the position of sec¢ud — best, which he could not bear. ete He did not dare to insult and challenge Mon- stery openly at first, but pretended great cou tesy when he met him one night at a great ban- quet held in a ruined convent, remnant of th old Spanish dominion, sg j ; Monstery had been warned against him and was not surprised when in the course of the banquet General Bragamonte told him he had something very particular and private to say to him, and begged him to accompany him out into ths dark shadow of the cloisters, where they might be undisturbed. iste AG aoe Bl Rubio Bravo looked at the sinietee: la face, read treachery there, remembered Jesus Gomez, and replied, coldJy: “We have nothing to discuss, senor, that we cannot speak of here in the light. I don’t love darkness,” 3 ee: Bragamonte frowned. eee ar ae “Senor, what do you mean? I tell ice have important private business, on 7 must consult you.” Po hace Steg, He was enthusiastically received in all, He was said to have killed more _ a The Sword Prince. * And ¥ say, senor, that if it is so private that it cannot be discussed here, you can come to my quarters in daylight. I will not go with you to-night.” _ Bragamonte drew himself up, and frowned savagely. He had a fierce, cruel face, was a large man, and most men would have quailed before him, but El Rubio Bravo merely smiled ina derisive way, watching him keenly for fear of treachery, and Bragamonte finally turned away, muttering under his black mustache something the other could not catch. _ When Monstery rejoined his friends one of them told him he had done right. _ . It was Bragamonte’s plan to entice him inte _ the dark, draw bim into conversation, and then, on the pee of a sudden quarrel, draw on him and stab him, as he had done before with others, He never fought fairly unless he knew he could beat his opponent easily. -Monstery went home, escorted by a party of friends, and had forgotten all about Braga- monte next morning, when he was suddenly wakened by a loud yoice at the door threaten- ing his orderly, and the next moment in strode the valiant Bragamonte, sword in hand, growl- ing: : ; = "Zou insulted me last night; now get up and : ut Monstery had acquired the habit of never going to bed without a pistol under his pillow, and the brave general, who had come to stab him, suddenly recoiled before the muzzle of a _Colt’s navy revolver, while El Rubio Bravo said, coolly: : “Get out of my room, and you shall have all . the fight you want.” d And he looked so menacing that the brave Bragamonte beat a retreat to the plaza outside, where he raved up and down, swearing and ‘shouting, trying his best to get up a mob feel- _ ing against the American, while our hero hast- ily dressed. The fact was, Bragamonte had gone too far to retreat. He had come expecting to stab an unarmed man on the pretext of a quarrel, counting on ths surprise and confusion ‘of a man just roused from sleep to enable him to _ pass it off as a duel. He had thought Monster would jump out of bed and rush fora soem so.as to give him an excuse to say he acted in ‘Self-defense, The pistol had quite upset his plans, and his reputation as a duelist was at _ Stake. If he ran now, every one would despise him; he would be mob and killed by his numerous enemies. It was quite necessary to _ keep on blustering, in the hops that national _ feeling might come to his aid, and Monstery mi Age he mobbed.. ‘ : __ Our hero, however, gave him no time to work on the people, for he had ere on his trowsers d boots, and ran out with his sword before the valiant Bragamonte had ceased his vapor- MURS Hece es a "hon it was too late to retreat, and Braga- monte had to fight, out in the open plaza, be- * fore all the poople, ; - Todo hi prec e fought well in his des- peration. His style was that of the Spaniards inherited from the Moors, of making wide, | eping cuts, and trusting ee rather than parties to escape return ee cle ‘ never su forward and back like a tiger, cutting high and low with all his force, and shouting savagely at every cut, while the American stood coolly on the defense, meeting his sword at every turn. Bragamonte even cut at the ground, and one vicious slash grazed Monstery’s foot, cut through the boot, and slightly wounded his great toe, though he did not feel it at the time. But at last Bragamonte wearied, and El Rubio Bravo became the assailant in turn, cut- ting lightly and cautiously and always on guard, At length Bragamonte tried his last secret trick, which would have puzzled any merely school fencer. Monstery made a light cut at his arm, out- side, and Bragamonte threw up his own sword to bind his enemy’s blade there, quick as a flash threw forward his left foot and clutched for Monstery’s sword-wrist with bis left hand. It was the end of the duel. Quicker than even the Spaniard, the Ameri- can threw forward his own left foot, drawin; back his sword out of danger, and in an instan had reversed the trick. : ~ Bragamonte’s sword-wrist was in his grasp, end he plunged his own blade deep into the Spaniard’s vitals, so that the point came out be: ee Bragamonte’s back, and the hilt struck his reast. ’ With a bowl of pain the would-be assassin dropped helpless to the earth, and El Rubio Bravo plucked out his sword, once more the victor. s : Bragamonte had fought his last duel, and, al- though he survived the wound, be never shone’ as a swordsman again. : El Rubio Bravo became the hero of the hour, and people breathed freer, removed from the sway of the desperado, ‘ ; In 1860 Monstery found himself in the State of Tabasco, in Mexico. - : CHAPTER XL ADVENTURES. In the Mexican Confederation Monstery mee the one honest and brave Spaniard of all hie experience, in the person of General Jose Marts Melo, with whom he served some time, and te whom he was very closely attached by ties of affection. : Jose Maria Melo, like himself, was a Rubio—= e fair hair—descended from the pure Gothic stock, without any Moorish crosses, and brave toa fault. Hoe was a cavalier in the true sense, chivalrous, generous and kind-hearted, and never went back on a friend in need, 5 Bead Yet such is Mexican misrule, Melo was a par- tisan officer, now on one side, now another, and living off the country. | * Our readers may not, all of them, know the nature of Mexican government, and a few words may not be out of place. # Mexico is not a single State, but, like our Union, a confederation of States, with a central Government. Unlike our Union, however, the — different States are allowed to have troops of their own, not militia, and are very frequently — at war mies oe oe » Te ee is, a series of petty revolutions, whic 1 — bride till this power is taken aya is in our United States. z We a 22 At the time Monstery met Melo war had existed for a long time between the States of Chiapas and Tabasco, and the two friends went into it on behalf of Chiapas. They prospered greatly, and Monstery became famous for the manner in which he trained a body of Indian premee, who conquered everything before em. At last, however, Melo was decoyed into an ambush by General Ortega, one of bis rivals, and treacherously murdered, when Monstery, inconsolable for the loss of his friend, deter- mined to leave the country. He had accumulated some $50,000 in gold and i with which he set out on his journey, aving resigned his commission as colonel of cavalry, and determined to seek his wife, whom he had not seen for several years, designing to _live quietly for the rest of his days. Ho was led to this course by a disaster which overtook him shortly after the death of Melo, in which be came nearer to death than he had ever been before. He was riding alone, when he was attacked by a picket of infantry soldiers of Ortega’s party, and hada gallant fight, in which he suc- ceeded in beating them off. He wes well armed -with a pair of revolvers, a saber and rifle, and had a lance swung at his back, a present from Melo, who was an enthusiast for its use. Yet it was to that very lance that our hero laid his misfortune that day. He was attacked by surprise and used his se tols freely, being an excellent shot, who had never missed his mark up to that time. On that day, however, he found that the lance, banging about in its sling on his right arm disturbed his aim so that he missed shot after shot, and in desperation he at last cast it like a javelin at a Mexican soldier, who was aiming at him close by, and made the only suc- cessful shot of the day, for he spitted the man like a lark... ; -In driving off the rest, however, his horse - was shot dead under him, and fell, crushing him so as to produce a formidable rupture from which he suffers even to this day at times. j His enemies fled at last, but he was so used up that his career was at-an end for the time, and it was in the guise of a peaceable traveler. that he finally left Chiapas and went to the City of Mexico to take ship from Vera Cruz for the United States. He traveled in Mexican style, with a mule for tance till he reached the little town of Pichu- co. : Besides the internal injury in his fall, he had ‘broken his wrist, and was in ne condition to take care of himself in a country like Mexico. - He was received at Pichucalco with the most made in his honor as E) Rubio Bravo. : - To ease his mind as to the safety of his bag- gage during his absence at the ball the obsequi- - yoom, fhe % Se i has So El Rubio went to the banquet and was welcomed as a perfect hero. He was toasted | and speechified in every form of flattery and his baggage, and had wo adventures of impor-— The Sword Prince. resolved to try it no more. He would extravagant courtesy by the governor of the | place, Commandante Flores, who insisted that | e should come to a grand. ball and banquet | one would have thought that he was the com mandante’s dearest friend from the compli- ments. . ’ When he got back to his room the true in- wardness of the affair came out. His trunk 3 had been broken open in his absence and all his 7 5 4 gold and jewels save those he wore on his per- — son had been stolen, ae Who had stolen them? ; : a The sentry was interrogated as to who had passed him, and to Monstery’s amazement he found that Flores himself was the thief. ae He had been absent from the ball about ten . 7 minutes, and had used his time well, Of course ~~ the sentry could not disobey his commanding officer. é Had this cecurred when Monstery was in full health and strength it is provable that he would have killed Flores, but_a man with a broken~ 7 wrist, and otherwise all battered up is in no ~ condition to enforce his right at the point. of the sword, so our hero laid a complaint before the Mexican Government. : ; 3 Flores was arrested, but in Mexico, where — bribery is the rule, honesty exceptional, the — wily commandante soon effected his release by dividing his plunder with the judges and our hero was compelled to leave the country with what he had left, and landed at New Orleans just at the beginning of the exciting winter of 1860, - ss eae He wasat once importuned to join the South- z ern Confederacy which was then being formed, but declined. : ‘ ee He had come to regain his health and find his — wife and child, for he had beard that a child had been born to him shortly after his separa- tion from Carmelita. He had hoped to come ~ back with a fortune, but luck was against him in that line. 3 aes os _ He had several thousand dollars’ worth of —— diamonds left end be sold these and went to the: / West Indies to find Carmelita. ee At Puerto Principe be found she had gone after him, hearing of him in Central America, and at last they met in the Island of Curacoa, — where he saw his child for the first time. eB He had tried making a fortune alone and ao go to” Mexico with his wife and prosecute his claim against the Government, They sailed in a large steamer and were met off Vera Cruz by a furi- ous ‘‘norther” which came near wrecking them and in which they suffered such hardships that the poor little child died on board. "tata On land they bad no better luck, our hero’s) claim being postponed so often thrt he finally gave up in disgust and went .o California where he arrived with just $7,000 remaining of all he had earned in Spanish America. = He came into San Francisco early in 1861 at the very beginning of the Civil War and ¢ once embarked in his old and reliable cigar business. j fee As soon as it became known who he was, a ' regular athletic fever took possession of § ous commandante provided him a sentry for his | kept _up her gold currency, when al Francisco, ‘time. : ae Money was plenty, business bri He had come there in the nick of sie a oe the Union took paper, the war was thousand: ules off. there Was hy dace 1ai ond _ public display for The Sword Prince. 238 Western slope was practically at peace with all mankind.” The pioneers of ’49 were stcut, hardy men, “and they had grown rich and craved a life of excitement so that it was very easy to organ- ize a grand Athletic Club. In 1861 then, with Monstery for one of its founders the Pioneer Gymnasium was erected and here our hero re- mained till the close of the war, one of the cele- brities of San Francisco, Master-at-Arms of the club, making money by teaching, selling cigars and speculating in mining stocks. At one time he was worth a hundred thou- sand dollars, and then came the close of the _ war, witha sudden drop of all California stocks and the great panic of 1865 on the Western slope. In a few weeks half San Francisco was ruined, and among the unlucky ones was Monstery, who found himself at the end of four’ years with exactly the same amount with which he had entered California—$7,000 plus a half-mile section of land at Santa Ciara which no one would buy. The distress of mind he suffered tozether with the influence of the climate, here. brought on an | j 1 | attack of internal bleeding which resulted in the | doctor’s ordering him away to the East, broken - down in mind and body. During bis stay in California he had bad chil- dren born to him, but these he was compelled to leave with their mother while he traveled to re- cover his health. Dhis at last established, in 1867, he saw in the papers that a certain Captain Mathew O'Rourke, in New York City, had challenged any man in on3 Union to match him with the short infantry saber, : This was exactly in Monstery’s line, so he started for New York at once to see O'Rourke, but found when he got there that the time had elapsed within which the challenge could be taken ue, and O’Rourke’s backers declined to put up the money on him. He tried to coax Captain O’Rourke into a l lory, but the captain could not see it. He had heard of Monstery in Cali- fornia, and knew he was no match for El Rubio Brayo. Disappointed in this, Monstery went to Cuba _ to seek his old friend, Galetti, but found him _ equally pacific. Galetti would not fence on the plea that he was getting old. ~ Monstery was determined to get up an excite- ment somewhere, and heard that a famous French swordsman called Monsieur Poupard had made his appearance in the City of Mexico, and challenged the world. - Poupard was said to be a large, powerful man, with,a very strong wrist and great on dis- arming. _ Monstery made up his mind to try him and sailed for Mexico, In the City of Mexico he made his claim against the Government which he now found more stable under Juarez than it had been when he was there before and here he found Monsieur Poupard in ail his glory, a burly, black-bearded Frenchman with bully written in every line of Lis face, a thorough French maitre darmes. _ They met first at a formal introduction and ‘the Frenchman tried to cow him at once in shaking hands b glaring at him with say: % So you are the little man that dares to think of fighting me, are you?” Like many another before and since, he was deceived by our hero’s pleasant face, his exqui- site Spanish politeness, and his pleasant smile. This line just suited Monstery. He could squeez) as hardas any man and he smiled squeezing with all his force lerce smile as muca as td u | at Poupard with a bland sarcasm that icrivated the Frenchman as he said: % *‘ Aha! you are a gladiator I perceive. I love to meet them and beat them.” Then changing like lightning to one of his : most savage scowls he flung off the French- man’s grasp, growling: “ Let go my hand!” Poupard had tried the bluff game and Mons- tery had gone over him. After that the French- man was civil and he soon developed a sort of puzzled fear of this fierce blue-eyed man, who was so deceiving in his appearance, : There was no getting outof the public match, however, which was of the kind which Mon- stery favored most. They agreed to fence first with the foils, to be followed by saber, rapier, dagger and bayonet, the man making the most points to be champion of Mexico. The night came and the house was packed. The French backed Poupard and most of the Mexicans with all of the Americans, backed Monstery. Feeling ran bigh, for the French were much hated in Mexico. At the appointed hour both men made their appearance, Poupard looking as strong as 8 bull. Monstery a regular blonde portrait of Don Quixote, gaunt and lithe with a long pointed mustache and chin beard carefully waxed. i The foils were the first on the programme and Poupard made. a furious lunge to pierce the American’s guard by main force at the first’ ass. ‘ = A shout of rapturous applause burst from the crowd as Monstery with one of his sharp par- ries struck the foil from Poupard’s hand and disa¥med him at the first thrust. “Where's Poupard’s iron wrist?’ shouted an exulting American. ‘Do your best, colonel! We're looking at you.” : : Deeply mortified Poupard et up his foil and came on guard again. He attributed the disarm to an accident. ¢ : This time he feinted for an opening, and a sharp rally followed in which our hero pinked him twice, for it is in the confusion of a rally that Monstery is at his best, as active as a cat. In the third pass Poupard, spite of his vaunted strong wrist, was disarmed a second time and the Mexicans yelled themselves hoarse over Monstery. By the rules of the assault nine passes were to be made, thrusts and disarms to count each one int. : : Oat the expiration of the nine, Poupard had been disarmed three times, had only got in his pes, ‘and Monstery was dec! ared victor at foils. ; é The people were delighted and expected still more fun with the other weapons. zag : : f E eX ae — a4 The Sword Prince. . But Poupard had one good quality: he knew when heh d enough. | He had been beaten at his national weapon and had no’confidence in his ability to reverse the issue with anything else. He gavo up the contest in despair. Monstery remained in Mexico nearly a year, trying to establish a salle @armes, but the country was still too unsettled to make it pay, and he never could get on with the Mexicans, They hated the Americans then, in 1868, about as badly as they did the French and tried _ to fasten quarrels upon them or kill them by treachery wherever they could: Monstery’slife soon became a succession of af- - fairs with Mexican officers, quarrels forced on _ ‘him by their rancorous hatred, and one of these ~~ will serve as a sample of the rest, He was introduced one night by a friend to a Mexican colonel, a tall, black-bearded fellow, with a ferocious face, who only secowled at him- and refused his proffered hand. Monstery pretended not to notice if, on ac- count of his friends, and went on with his con- versation with the rest as if nothing had hap- pened. He could not keep peace, however, for the Mexican constantly interrupted him and con- tradicted him so rudely that our hero at last - paid gently: i “ Senor coronel, it seems to me that you have some antipathy to me—” } “ Antipathy——!” cried the Mexican,. with _ @ Savage curse. ‘ You are a cowardly—” ' A foul word escaped his lips and the next mo- ment down he went under one of Monstery’s terrible right -handers, with hig cheek cut open. ; ica : Pn a moment the friends and bystanders came between the men, and the Mexican foaming with fury was taken off one way, Monstery another, while preliminaries were hastily ar- - ranged for a duel at sunrise of the next day. Nothing but blood would satisfy the Mexican volonel, whose seconds met one of Moustery’s _ friends, and it was arranged that they should * fight with navy revolvers, beginning at ten paces, both parties. to be at liberty to adwance : and fire when they pleased after the word, Monstery did not want such a savage duel in which one or both was certain to be desperate- ly wounded; but the Mexican was inexorable and he had to yield. _ Matters once arranged the Mexican’s second _ Observed to Monstery smiling: - . “Now we have made it u kill each other to-morrow there’s nothing to hinder us from passing thé night together like mtlemen. Have you any objection to my cr- mae wine and cigars? They have them good in this hotel.” _ This exactly suited our hero’s generous and _ chivalrous nature which had been always in- _ capable of bearing malice and he consented Bie share, that he should be allowed to pay share. ; en the Mexican’s second, Monster, and onstery’s second, sat down to make a night of | it. They tried to induce the Mexican colonel to | them, but he held sullenly aloof. He was | und to have blood in the morning and nursed hishatee Se repress Fe for you two to | The three oe at the table smoked, drank and told stories till long after midnight, and the Mexican’s second became fairly fasci- — nated. with our hero. Re ceee He, on his part, was delighted with the other, who proved to be a gentleman of cultivation, brave, generous and amiable, and penetrated with sorrow at the duel in which two men whom he liked were about to engage, see “What ashame it is!” he exclaimed, ‘ that two such gallant fellows as you, who ought to — be friends, should shoot at each other. Af least - you and J, colonel, whatever the result, will be — friends forever.” The hour, the stories of war, the good wine— all were in favor of the pledge, and the two oo swore eternal friendship over a clasp of _ ands. : Suddenly the Mexican started and looked earnestly at Monstery. ° : eS “Tt is not possible” he ejaculated. ‘‘ Shake hands again.” : 3 , Then as their hands met he uttered a cry of amazement, and shouted: ‘ ® “It is true. - You area brother, This duel — cannot take place.” ; : Monstery’s second, an American, looked as if a thunderbolt had fallen, 8 “Not take place!” he echoed. ‘Why not? It must take place. We didn’t come here to be fooled.” : E i But to his still greater surprise, Monstery an- swered him, very gravely: era “No, captain, it cannot take place, if, as I spprenen the gentleman up-stairs is what I | think he is.” 7 ‘ “He is, he is!” cried the Mexican, eagerly. ‘Fle isa brother. Itisimpossible. You see it. It would be sacrilege. I will go get him. He must shake hands. He shall. I will not allow the duel. It is monstrous.” aig And away he rushed after his friend, while — Captain B—, the American, sat staring at — Monstery with a mixture of amazement and — rage, ejaculating: = - Seer “ What does this mean?” a8 ‘It means, my friend, something that you — don’t understand and never will till you become a Mason. The friend who has just gone w stairs gave me the gripe of the Royal aad Masons, of which I am a brother, and if the Mexican colonel is one also, it ends the affa We cannot fight a brother without breaking a sacred oath,” : Captain B—— was thunderstruck. __ ‘What nonsense is this?’ Blows have passed, and no fight! I don’t understand it.” “You never will till you are a brother; the: you will do as I do,” replied Monstery, in. solemn tone; and just then down came tho Mexican colonel and bis friend, Ct Slowly and xrays as if he hated the deed he was about to do, the Mexican came in- to the room, advanced step by step to - stery, and held out his hand. He had to cll his teeth hard to keep from breaking out, for all that their hands met and they exchange the secret gripe. ee ete : Then, as if the words were be torn with red-hot pincers, the Mexican ) “Brother, forgive me.” — aoa _ And Monstery answer The Sword Prince. ae freely forgive. Forgive thou me, bro eh. oe bowed his head and whispered: 0. - He was as white as a sheet under the conflict of emotions, and soon after left the room. onstery never met him again. » As for Captain B——, at first inclined to be furious at the interruption of the fight, he was reconciled to it at last by the assurance of his _ friends; ‘ a; “You don’t understand it now. If ever you do, you will see we could not have done any- thing else, for all Masons are brothers, and bro- thers cannot fight.” : The Royal Arch duel terminated more favora- bly than others, for at last Monstery was co- - erced into a duel in which he shot his opponent =, at the first fire and had to leave the city to avoid arrest. From that time he has never fought a duel, and has assisted to settle many an affair with- out blood. Up to that time he had bad nineteen _ regular duels with the small sword and forty- two affairs with weapons of all sorts, saber, knife and pistol. ; It is a curious fact also that in every one of bis duels with sharp weapons he has received some wound, however slight, but enough to draw blood, even to the cut on his great toe which Bragamonte gave him, and which lamed him for gah years, _ Yet in the pistol fights, though-he-bas fairly lived in the midst of bullets, he has never re- ceived a wound to draw blood. His solitary hurt from a bullet was a contusion that raised a lump from a grazing ball, at the time his horse was shot. From Mexico he went to the mines of Cali- - fornia, where the dust brought on a severe in- flammatio.: of the eyes, from which he only re- covered with still weaker sight. ‘His claim against the Juarez Government, from which he hoped so much, was finally set aside by virtue of a Mexican law passed in 1854 but repealed in 1857. This law prohibited the payment of damages by the Mexican Govern- ment to any Mexican citizen for private wrongs _ from the Government. It was claimed in vain that the loss was suffered in 1859, after the re- a of the Jaw, and that Monstery was not a lexican citizen. They decided that as an ex- officer he came under the law, and he was obliged to bring his claim before the American _ Government, where it stands to-day. : From California he went to South America as soon as he recovefed his sight, and fenced through his old ground in Guatemala, Hondu- ras, and other places, till he went through eru, , : The trip was a Bn se one, and he finally went to New York city, where he has remained rer since 1870, the most successful teacher of s that ever was establisked in the city. : tli f bis life would end’ ee te tke | too stubborn to be explained away, ‘urally, but inasmuch as the colonel bas seen erous adventures, and figured in many | cities that would have made the story trons if inserted in their eee place, I sh insert them as anecdotes after this chapter. Meantime I hope my readers will see that they | either on a sofa of a have here the outlines of a very remarkable man, naturally of a kind and generous disposi- tion, who has been driven by circumstances into a very adventurous life. His only misfortuue is, he was born a century too late. He should’ have lived in the days of Louis XIII. of France, ‘THE Epiror. CHAPTER XT. THE MONSTERY SYSTEM. CoLtonen Tuomas Hoyer Monsrery, in his sonal appearance, very strongly resembles the por traits of Don Quixote de la Mancha’ at a distanee, except that he is still one of the most pronounced of blonde men. Z When you come close to him, however, you per- ceive that this resemblance is more in the face and_ expression than actual figure; for the Don was, as represented, very tall and narrow, whereas our Champion-at-Arms is only a little above the medium hight, and broad in the breast. Moreover, though always very thin, he is ex- tremely muscular, and his arms and chest are perfect pictures in the way of-anatomy, on account of their clean precision of modeling. They are not huge in girth by any means, and there is nothing of the Hercules in his appearanem. Neither are the muscles as hard to the feeling as it is copemgonhy synced the muscles of all strony men are. ey are firm and elastic, like India rubber, when thrown up; but at most times, when at rest, ratber soft to the touch. To grasp his hand ou would never think he was a powerful man, for t feeis soft and velvety, and the clasp is never strong enough to pain one, % He bas aregular Gothic face, with eyes of pale blue, constantly hidden behind glasses, without which he cannot see to recognize a friend across @ room, except by the general figure when it happens to be in motion. To read the coarsest print, he has to use the very highest power of magnifier made, known as “cataract glasses,’* with a focus of six ~ inches; and even with these he dare not do more than glance over a paper for half an hour. Yet this same man, without glasses, never misses a parry in the most rapid rally of the thin fencing foils, of which he can only catch an occasional flash, and be will spar against the most ar hitters as. coolly as if he had the clear sight of a hawk. What is still stranger, he is an excellent pistal-— shot, even without his glasses on, though he canna — see the sights of the pistol with which he will male bull’s-eye after bull’s-eye; and in his younger days, before he suffered from inflammation of the eyes sm California, he would make bull’s-eyes firing from the hip, without looking at his pistol at all. : As a teacher of shooti 6 has always been v successful therefore, and his Hall of Arms has ways had a shooting gallery connected with it, m which some of the best shots of the country have been wont to exercise. 3 pcs But it is as a teacher of sparring, fencing and swimming that he has been most celebrated wher- ~ : ever he has gone; andin all of these he uses methods peculiar to himself. g 9 For instance, in swimming, the first thing one -| looks for is water, and yet Monstery has never a swimming bath on his establishment. — = For all that, he has never failed to teach pupils, _ not only toswim, but to swim ell, in less than ten les- sons, This sounds ridiculous, and the time was when , the writer of these pages could not believe in the effi- cacy of such a sys Only the presence of facts,. ved the Mons: — tery swimming system to be right, and that the aver- age man will how learn to swim more quickly ay better by this system than any other. Yet the colonel” ns his lessons on dry land, and the pupil is taugt epee ot ecullar form, vented by. ‘onstery, or on @ of hanging canvas belts par m. 8 The Sword Prince. His theory is simply this: that the natural fear of water, palentatied i people who are not swimmers interferes with their learning the proper motions o: swimming at first; and that, when they have learned how to sustain themselves in the water, they have frequently fallen into such bad habits of striking out, that they will never swim well and swiftly till they have unlearned these habits. Z Therefore, he begins with them on the swimming- frame, where they lie in exactly the same _ position as if they were in the water, and there teaches them the stroke by the word of command: “*One—two—three! One—two--three!” In four lessons, if the pupils be intelligent, he has learned all the motions of swimming in all kinds of ways, and it is only then that the colonel takes him _ to the swimming-bath of some other person, where his visits always create a great deal of curiosity and amusement. The pupil is then put into a regular swimming- belt of canvas, with a rope attached, lowered into the water, but sustained, so that he is not afraid of sinking, and the first lesson in the water begins. In some cases the pupil swims at once, in others his timidity is such, at the actual contact of the water, that he forgets his lessons; but a second trial in the belt has never failed to make a swimmer of im, With this system, compared to the ordinary wa; of going into the water and eee oneself, Col- onel Monstery has had very remarkable results, One incident will illustrate this: While at the Pioneer Gymnasium, in San Fran- pais: when Monstery was first introducing his swim- ng system, the subject was discussed very freely among the young athletes of the club at a dinner- party, and most expressed their disbelief that such @ thing could be done as teaching swimming on dry land. All agreed that it was a mere theory, and that the teaching would go for nothing when the pupil first struck the water, on account of his lack of confi- dence. All agreed, too, that it would take at least two weeks to overcome the fear of water entertained by most people. ; Monstery offered then to wager a hundred dollars that he could take a person who had never entered the water in his life, teach him on dry land accord- ing to his system, with only tw o water lessons, and that, at the end of two weeks, he should be able to im better than any man who should teach him- fic to swim in the same time by daily going into the ater. ee Of course the only difficulty was to find Soete the athletes of the Pioneer Club any man who coul not swim; but it so happened that there was one, Mr, Louis Cohen, a big, good-natured giant, who had actually never been in to swim in all his life, __ And Louis Cohen, shaking his fat sides with laugh- ter at the idea of any man learning to swim on dry land, took the bet, and offered himself for the cham- _ pion of his side of the question “Tf I can’t learn to swim in the water in two _ weeks, going there every day, I'll bet a_ hundred your inan can’t, with only two lessons,” he said. “Who is he to be, colonel? No humbugging,” _ “He is.to be my own oe Emil,” said the colonel. “ Ho is only twelve years old, and he has never been in the water in his life.” 5 So the terms of the wager were duly arranged to _ every one’s satisfaction, g Louis Cohen was to go to the swimming-baths every day, or as often as he pleased, and to teach himself, while the colonel was to take Emil in hand on shore, but to be allowed two lessons in the swim- ming belt before the day set. : th parties began work next day, and for twa weeks kept it up. Monstery trained his boy wit) 4 care to mako his motions correctly; for he knew that his only chance of beating Cohen was in teaching toe boy to swim rapidly and easily He _ did not doubt that Cohen, a large fleshy man, would swim, in two weeks, after some sort of fashion. question was, could’ he swim well enough to beat the “ e ’ ‘oy? And the other questfon was, would the boy be able to overcome his terror in. two lessons, for he was very much afraid of the water? : As a matter of fact, it may be said that Emil proved more than commonly timid, and that at the — end of the first water lesson, which was limited by the terms of the bet to a single hour, he could not yetswim. He would not try, but held on to the as of the swimming belt, and cried unless he was held up out of the water, till his father vas almost in despair. Toward the close of the lesson, however, he managed to make a stroke without ducking his. head under, and would have ended in swimming had not “time ’’ been called. The lesson was over, and the boy could not swim in the water; though his motions on dry land were perfect theoretically. The undaunted colonel had only two days left to win his bet and justify his theory He cared little for the bet; but he was set on justifying his theory, and he worked oway at Emil on the motions for an- other day, talking all the while to encourage the — boy, before the last water lesson. ‘ That lesson proved the success of the system; in- side of the hour the belt was discarded, and Emil swam alone at the word of command. The eventful day came, and all the athletes of the club were gathered at the swimming baths to see the match. : ‘ : The terms were that Cohen and the boy were to lunge in together, swim. to the other end of the ath—150 feet—and back, in a race, the judges to de- cide which swam best. Big Louis and little Emil came to the scratch; the p00 -natured giant laughed and plunged'ia, . The oy hesitated a moment, then made a leap, and swam after, with clean vigorous strokes, as well as if he had swum for years. He passed the big man, who was slowly .puffing his way along without an effort, got to the other side, touched the steps and swam back to the starting-place, while Louis Cohen was less than twenty feet on his return journey; then climbed up the steps the victor, and sat down, As for Louis Cohen, he kept on the even tenor of. his way, with his round face smiling like jolly old full moon, and went swimming on as gayly as ever, he eae. imagined he was beating the boy, because Emilhad left the water, and called out proudly: “Look, colonel! I’m swimming yet.” 4% He was only apprised of the figure he was cutting by the shouts of laughter that came from hia friends on the bridge. **Do you call that swimm: “Oh, come out, and don’t m The boy’s heat you.” Aud so it was. As a matter of fact, Mr. Cohen could swim—after. a fashion. That is, he did as well as most men e a show of yourself, would have done, taking to it at his time of life and teaching themselves. He could keep up, could float, and could go forward, with short, quick strokes, in which he tired himself out to go very slowly. Per- severing in the same way, and watching other swim- mers, he would be able to swim well after a certain number of years; but the chances were against him, Emil, on the other hand, in the same time, had become a rapid and skillful swimmer, though a All he needed was practice to develop his | muscles, and he was prepared, as soon as he bad learned diving and other tricks, to become an ex- pert. s The result of this trial established the reputation of the Monstery system, and since then he has had , Louis?” they yelled, — Seg some very remarkable successes with it, especially in teaching young men. The great trouble with small boys is to overcome — their fear of the water, as they have not mental de- termination enough to conquer it of themselves, ae older boys and young men it is different. e them irtelligently ; so that in some cases Monstery’s. upils oe never taken a lesson in the belt, bur ve gone to the Jand lessons, and have swum at the very first essay, can understand their lessons and practice — ming bath after their dry _ first essay, erie less he be disposed to submi tn en The Sword Prince. 27 rew banker, Seligman, of New York, who became so famous a few years ago by his spir- ited controversy with Judge Hilton about the ad- mission of Israelites to hotels. : This young man, Mr George Seligman, had come to Monstery for swimming lessons, had taken the usual course of six, and the time had come for his two water lessons, 2 Monstery took him to one of the large swimming baths in New York harbor for these lessons, but found, when he got there, that there was no ‘such a thing as a swimming belt in the establishment, They had no swimming teacher, and had never heard of One striking instance of this was one of the sons Of the great Heb such a thing as teaching swimming on dry land. | Indeed, the attendants seemed to be unable to contain their diversion at the idea; and every one was gaping at the ‘man who taught fellers how to swim on a ot ; While the colonel was ready to give up the idea in disgust, and go somewhere else, young Seligman said, as he looked at the water, full of skillful and clumsy swimmers: : “Colonel, if you have no objection I'll try to swim without the belt. I think I eculd do it. Isee that I here, and if you'll stand by me and tell me what to do, Vi try it.” : ‘ e eo oak hesitated; for he knew what a hard thing it is for a beginner to conquer his instinctive fear of sinking, but young Seligman felt so confident that he at Jast consented to the attempt. The young man went down into the water accord- ing to his teacher's directions, sunk himself up to his chin, and then struck out. To the amazement of every one, he succeeded, the first trial, and, before ten minutes were over, had shown six different styles of swimming, on breast and back, including treading water. In short, in six lessons on dry land, and one in the water, he had nade as much progress as many men will make in their first year of swimming alone, and could take care’ of himself. This is not/the only case where the same result has followed, with a young man of good intellect and courage, who will obey orders strictly. The system is not always successful with stupid boys, or with those that are very timid by nature. The most cow- ardly, ar cot he taught in this way, with two lessons in the swimming belt, of an houreach. — Since Colonel Monstery began to teach swimming in New York, a great many teachers have arisen, for both men and Jadies, who have great success. Now, in fact, noswimming bath is considered com- plete without a teacher of swimming, and the day will come when a New Yorker who cannot swim will be L a curiosity. pe Apeeniers system is modeled on that in use at Copenhagen, where the best teachers are found. In Denmark, as in Prussia, swimming is part of the soldier, and it is the necessity of | education of every | ful man for a pupil, was scen in California many making them all swim in the shortest space of time that has given rise to this careful system. 2 Next to swimming, the most popular of Mopstaty branches of physical education has always been his - method of teaching boxing. Her, pee Arete ery uo mak bap aire very tongs in the er relgome or Toh Wk Peo a every corner Be te ee te isthat there are too many corner loafers in every ate See raat’ to fight in self-defense, there is hardly a man who has not, at some time, ~ been liable to a fight in defense of a lady, or else to submit to see her insulted, and be considered a des- picable coward for not daring to protect her from wrong. : Anordinary-sized, peaceab! man, in such a case, it ‘he undertakes to resent te insult of a loafer is Sarre eT fe Og BES Coy : ; all ant to come off the worst. ‘The same man, well taught, could take the fight out of the uvevage loat- er in two or three blows, and go about his business, It is a mistaken notion to suppose that boxing leads to bad habits and bullying ways. So much the contrary is it the case now, that in an assembly gathered to see a sparring match, it is quite safe to pick out the quietest and most civil men in the crowd as the professional boxers, while of two men of equal strength the most intelligent is pretty sure to make the best sparrer, unless he be constitution- lazy or timid. } ‘he pictures in certain comic pa rt to represent boxers as men ull-dogs are, as a rule, entirely untrue. rs which pur th the faces of | there are here and there such faces, they are never . those of boxers of the first class. The faces of Tom | Sayers, Heenan, Dwyer, Ryan, Goss, Billy Edwards, | society. Arthur Chambers, and others, who may be called real first-class boxers, are those of handsome men, who would never be taken for boxers in ordinary Dooney Harris, for instance, once the champion middle-weight, has very much the look of a sharp lawyer; and old William Clark, whose | “stopper” with the gloves has never been beaten know how to make the motions as well as any one — i et, might be sworn to anywhere as a Methodist ishop with a large salary. And among all these men, Colonel Monste: his close-buttoned frock, with his glasses, an long-pointed mustache and chin beard, has the air of a foreign officer of engineers, who might be good, erhaps, at fortification, but whose abilities in a fist Rent would not be worth ee : a And yet, this same man, with his courtly bow, his ve politeness, and his sweet smile, is known among the old sports as one of the most dangerous men to tackle in the profession. As one famous boxer once observed, in the writer’s one with a broad English, accent on his NUE, “He's as deep as the sea, my son. Don’t you go for to tackle the colonel. If 1 knowed as much as he does, I’d beat ’em all. Oh, what a pity he took to pokin’ with those swords and things, instead of usin’ bis fists in the ring. There ain't a man could touch him, old.as he is; and he hits—Lord bless you, man, it’s like the kick of a horse, and when you go for his head, it ain’t there. But he won’t put on the gloves for no man in public, or you’d see lively times.”” These remarks are literally true. The colonel is the only fencing-master alive, so far as we know, who teaches sparring also, and he is also the most entirely successful, to judge from the way his pupils have beaten those of every other boxing-master at amateur trials. - : He has never taught a eee and never wi 1; but he has, when a quarrel has been forced on him, >in beaten more than one prize-fighter at his own ame. The result of his teaching, when he had a power- years ago. There was a young drug-clerk there, called Bennett, who was very fond of athletics. He used to turn a fabulous number of handsprings, could swing the Indian clubs over his head a thou- sand times, and all that sort of thing, and he was a member of the Pioneer Club. He used to watch Monstery giving his boxing lessons; but was | too vain to learn himself and pay for his lessons. However, if a man has the opportunity to watch a teacher day after day, he can steal his knowledge as well as if he were taught; and Bennett, after a long time, mastered Monstery’s System without’ any pay. Soon after, Jim Mace came along with a great cee cus, giving exhibitions of sparring, and, according to his custom, offering to put on the gloves with any ambitious person of the town. _ Bennett accepted the invitation, put on the and actually got the best of the renown Mace, who was looked upon as the tne world . ‘loves Jim While. his* best sparrer in should not be used to 28 The Sword Prince. The match was fully reported in the San Francisco pes 7 the time it occurred, and is still spoken of the city. The most pleasant part of Monstery’s system of boxing is that you do not have to be knocked down in learning it. The master does not even put on the gloves at first; but teaches his pupil by word of command, and causes him to strike at a stuffed dummy on the wall till he has learned how to hit. The great secret of the whole system is in the “ey the pupils are taught to strike at this dummy wit all their force, without hurting their own knuckles, and aman who uses this system of hitting is sure.to beat another who does not, unless there is a mar- velous disparity in size. : Dwyer and Sullivan, who are known as the two hardest hitters in America, use this ny style. Dwyer learned it by watching Monstery, who was quite a friend of his; but Sullivan pee it up else- where, or thought it out for himself. The whole system of “‘ evasions” or ducking of the boad to avoid a blow, was also first taught by Mon- gtery, and now is used by all who aspire to be called huished boxers, Monstery reasoned it out thus: “If I pa a - Plow with one arm, I can only hit with the other, and my opponent has the same chance as I have. .But if Ican move my head quicker than his fist, I escape his blow and can Five back two, while he has oe one hand to use in the parry. e found by experience that no blow could reach the head as quick as the head could be moved out of the way, and often, in his early days, he used to bet that a prize-fighter could not hit his head, though he sat in a chair and would not raise his hands to parry. F At first he limited the trial to one blow, but he soon got so expert that he would let an old prize- fighter strike right and left at his head, and win the bet every time. But it is of course as a swordsman that he has made his greatest success, and he has trained several great actors to fence. Edwin Booth’s fencing scene in Hamlet, which has been so much admired, owes its grace to the teach- ; oe Monstery in the old ‘California days; for mn was a very docile pupil. His brother, Junius Brutus Booth, is also a pupil of Monstery, and a better fencer than Edwin, though he has not made the same hit asan actor. Hefenced # match at Virginia City, in Nevada, with a great eg fencer, in which he took the champion- arley Thorne and McKee Rankin were also pupils o! a, in those times, and became very expert in the knife play, while John Pope, now a manager in St. Louis, made a hit in the duel scene of 7 orsican Brothers through Monstery’s instruc- ions. é : Monstery has done some very wonderful oe with the saber in the way of training men for duels at short notice. This is a thing he bas seldom done, and never save on a ll the adversary. It sometimes happens, especially among the Italians and Frenchmen, who believe in dueling, that an old swordsman gets into a quarrel with one less skillful, and that the opinion of society compels the erpnors to fight the other. : In Europe this is common, but it has also happened in New York, and the Canzi-Fardella duel, of some ago, is a striking instance of this. : We mention this duel, because, strange to say, it ; ted infullin the New York Sun, a day or - two_after it occurred, and the part played therein by Colonel Monstery still remains unknown, _ _ The affair grew out of the International Society’s de of Communists and Red Republicans in New City, which created great excitement at the among the French ani Italian residents of New z e, who live under a We, w! eo A time governmefit and have have.no idea of the feelings romise that the knowledge | Gen _ Canzi, and had gray hair. of what are called the “Hed Hepublicans” of Europe, and of the state of bitter exasperation in which they are kept by the hopeless slavery in which they are held in their own country. In Europe, a working man or shopkeeper has no rights that a member of the nobility 1s bound to respect in society, and it is the monstrous injustice of the whole system that leads to all the extravagance and violence of the Communists when the people do break out at last. : The violent “ Reds ” of France, Italy and Germany, when they come to New York, are very apt to stick — together and keep up their old traditions if they can, and it was these men that organized the fa- mous Intérnational Society, which still exists, and pledges extreme republicans of all countries to help the common cause. ° On the day of the International parade, with red flags and other emblems, in New York, most Italians were out, and among them a certain Signor Canzi, a grocer, who was a violent “‘ Red.” Another Italian, a General Fardella, who belon: to the noble classes, kept aloof and watched the — roe from a club window, where he was recog- nized, Next day Fardella and Canzi met, and the hot- headed Canzi made some remarks about Italians who were not worthy to be Italians, which led to a dispute between him and the general, and finally to — a challenge to fight, the very next morning, with sabers, at a place near Williamsburg. iets Canzi was full of fury, but he had not reckoned on its ending in a sword duel; and he learned to his dismay that the general was an old swordsman, ee 2e himself never used anything but a musket. ; oes Moreover, as a soldier, he had received wounds, in 1859, which made his leg og : hat was tobe done? He could not back out, and he had. made up his mind to get killed, when one of his friends bethought him of the ,famous fencing-master.. They might hunt up Monstery and get him to give poor Canzi a lesson, so that he might have some chance. ; It was soon after our hero’s arrival in New York, before he had begun teaching regularly, and he was — sick and out of spirits at the bad luck that had dog- ed him from California. It was only his habit of iving among men of the Latin races that had made him known to the Italians at all. : They found him, however, and put the question at once: * ‘© Would he train a gentlemen for a saber duel that was to take place next day at sunrise?” =~ cae It was then after dark. Monstery hesitated. ; ‘* Has he ever fenced?” : im 5 “Not that we know of, and his opponent ie an old _ swordsman.” Epp Geisha AT : “Very well,” said the colonel, calmly. “Ill do the best I can; but it’s pretty short notice. Where’s — your man?” ; % “We will fetch him.” t _ And away went the Italians, CHAPTER XIi. : ; i DUELING STORIES. og A uiTTLE while afterward, the Italians came in ' with their principal, a swarthy little mau with flerce black eyes, but with an anxious look on his | ace. % eae This was Canzi. ‘ é aes Monstery se him as to the quarrel and his own condition, before he would promise to hely him; and only then on the understanding that should not use his knowledge to kill Fardella, but to defend himself and wound the other. ose Then they went to work, and, for a while, Mon- stery was in despair. Uis man was stiff and clumsy he could not even make a prope he had in his favor was y Fardella w: The Swo Ylowever, Monstery worked away at his strangely niet pupil, ‘aud at last resolved to confine his efforts. to teaching him a single trick. He practiced away at this for hours, making Canzi hold his guard high, and telling him ‘o cut in on his adversary the moment he dropped his guard. He did this because he had heard that General Fardelia was an old Italian cavalry officer, and judged what his style would be from what he had seen of Italian fencing. ie last he got Canzi pretty perfect, and dismissed im. : The Italian asked him his charge. “Tf you are wounded, nothing. If you win the comes an old Californian friend, who had just found kim out, and cries: “Oh, look here, have you seen the paper? Two fralians fought a duel over the river, and it’s all in the Sun, ere it is, The names are—let me see— Canzi and—and—oh, — General Fardella.”’ In great excitement Monstery cried: “Which beat? Quick, never mind reading the de- tails, Which beat?” “Beat? Why, Canzi.”” The master-at-arms eould hardly ask his next remit eee ees rd Princé. dispute with a friend ina party of young men, and that they had agreed to tight the matter out with | their fists at the colonel’s Hall of Arms if he would promise they should be undisiurbed. Monstery hesitated and questioned him closely and finally consented if they would promise to make it a fair and stand-up fight with the fists alone, ne piting, kicking or mutilating aliowed. He knew that in such a case a black eye or two was tke worst re- sult that could follow. The gent'eman consented to these terms and added that he should like to take a few Tessons himself, as he had never had a fight, while his antagonist was always boxing with his friends, and the duel wa duel, nay, me according to what you think your life | to t k place in one week from the day on which he . called, 7 , Canzi departed, and Monstery heard no more of This was very short notice, for the full boxi bim for a day or two. | course occupies twenty-four lessons and the firs Then, as he was sitting in a cafe, smoking, up | twelve are altogether taken up in learning the school motions where everything is knows in ad- yance and you have only to parry a blow that you know will be given in a certain direction. j The difference between the schoui 2ud “ free spar- ring,’’ is that in one you run no danger, in the oiher you have to find out what your adversary is going to do in an instant on penalty of catching a “hot one. : To train a greenhorn in a week to fight one used to sparring was a difficult task, but Monstery set to work at it, and laid his best pains on teaching his question for excitement. : pupil how to hit. 3 aA ae cut? Tell me only what cut? How did he ae ‘e knew = could aoe make one i «Bee Sig ak a it?” : eek, but ss ti 3 “Cut him down when he lowered his guard-laid hikter.. Dr areas ee eres open his arm to the shoulder,” said his friend look- : Se ett ged him up to the bar, saying Bi im wu e bar, saying: t “The Sa cut I taught him. _ The old chief’s not dead yet. Come and take a drink.” It vas true, and the Sun's graphic account cf the duel showed it plainly, The clumsy_ greenhorn Monstery had trained in four hours, had beaten an old swordsman at his chosen weapon, by using the _ very cut Monstery had taught him, From that moment the colonel began to take heart and the fame that spread among the Italians and Spaniards in consequence of the Canzi, Fardella duel contributed a great deal to getting him plenty as been shown, but in these instances he has al- ways refused. _.“Tkeep my secrets,” he says, “for the use of the weak against the strong, not to enable men to injure each other.” z Twice since his career opened in New York city, however, he has bcen concerned in very singular duels, in which tl in wLich we are inclined to believe that the duel did more good than harm, as it ended bad blood end made friends of those who had been Litter ene- mies), _.. These were not duels with swords or pistols, ‘knives or even sticks; they were fought with na- _ ture’s weapons alone and one of them in even a miller ae namely, with boxing gloves. tis well known tfat yourg men will quarrel and hate each other, more éspecially if there are ladies in the case, 5 Even devout church members do this, and not be- 1 till more surprised when Monstery drag- 1e results satisfied all parties, and - ‘So he hurried over the early lessons of parries and counter parries, without making his man do everything exactly right, as long as he got through and had the theory correct, but he began free - ring with him as soon as possible, let the Past bit him pretty often to encow'age him and keep bim from the fear of being hit, which makss a beginn or so nervous, and finally got him so confident that he would fight up to bisteacher like a goodone. _ To be sure, if Monstery had given him one or two of his lightning raps, as he could have done time and time again, it would have taken the fizht out of him very quick, but a boxing-master has to stand a great deal of hammering to encourage a timil pupil. — At last came the appointed day, and_at about two ; Ok poe in the afternoon, when the fene ng hall was Cesert- 5 More than once since that time he has been ap- | ed, half a dozen quiet, respectabie young gentlemen pued to to train men for other duels, where malice | galled. f _The colonel locked the onter doors, put up his sign ‘‘ Gone out—back in an hour,” and ushered the quict gentlemen into the bare hal, where the cur- tains were drawn and nothing was to be seen but the long rows of foils, broadswords, masks, bone. ¢ an and plastrous, hung up on the walis, with — enches underneath. ES am The une young gentlemen were very inuch im- pressed by the sclemnity of the whole traus.ctioa, and the colonel spoke to them in his fatherly man- ner. He told them it was much better to make up their quarrel if it was possible. They all shook their heads. : = “Oh, no; it was not possible. They had all sol- | emnly agreed to the fight.” : ae Then he told them that he could not allow any se- rious injury to be done to any one in his place, and that he should limit the time of the affair to half an hour in justice to his pupil, who was quite a novice. At the end of the half hour it must stop, and it must “ing able to fight their quarrel out, go on hating eaclr | be conducted as a fair stand up fight. er bitterly in a quiet way for years, watching | They all ed to this, and e two young princi- — fear pee cety. to harm their neighbor and keep | pals stripped in perfect silence. : inside | e law, Monstery’s man was a brunette, the other a sly 2 screed has always been thatinacase plonde, and he admits that his heart went out to the a eres nee ena Sa See rat ca z n U Lo? 0 4 : . ‘o.one ea word, eve! dy was as grave SEE CEE, pies dk Teen COLE eter . Bae hs = er ocking-feet, so that n r t be upona time he was L by a Fe ; . we who told him after some stunauerit that he hud afer tempted to kick the : Lee = The blonde was evidently an old hand at spgrring, so The Sword Prince. raceful aad a in his parries and returns, but he it in the old-fashioned way, with only the strength vi the arm in his blow. Monstery’s pupil was véry cautious, but he re- anembered his lessons well, and hit like an old boxer, , At the end of half an hour the blonde had several luge lumps on his face and both eyes swelled up, while Monstery’s pupil, though he had received sev- eral blows, had not been damaged to any extent. He had beaten his opponent fairly, and the colonel, true to ‘his word, stopped the fight and made the men shake hands. it afterward transpired that they became very close friends, each eersne the other for his pluck, and it is certain that if ull duels were as quietly con- ducted as this one, and with the same results, there would not be any harm in them. On another occasion two young men got to boast- ing of their physica prowess, and agreed to settle the dispute with the boxing gloves at the colonel’s rooms, which they did in two weeks from the time of challenge. One of them came to Monstery, the other went to another master, who taught nothing but boxing. When the match came off Monstery’s man beat the other by his superior hitting, and both shook hands and remained the best of friends ever after. To sum up the opinions of our hero on the subject of dueling, while he strongly pares of it ima civilized State, he yet holds that there may be times when a duel is necessary as redress for an injury for which the law does not give any redress, while the oat society calls a man a coward if he sufffers it tamely. ' , In such a case it is the object of the “code of honor,” so called, to provide for a contest that will not endanger life, except in aggravated cases, and until society provides a remedy for these injuries, dueling will always exist in some form or other, no matter bow many laws are passed against it. ‘ Although engeae as principal or second in nu- merous affairs, he paigts tries to arrange them without a meeting, and has prevented more than fifty at different times of his life, Of all the duels into which he has been forced in _ the course of his life, not one has been fought in the United States. : In Spanish Amorica a man has to be ready to de- fend himself at all times, and an American has to _Jook as sharp for his life against knife and sword as ' aminer in the fighting West has to watch for the pisos of the desperadoes that infest the mining wus. : Monstery can truly say that he has never fought a battleinto which he was not forced by others, and has never got the worst of one in a contest, man to man, against fair play. CHAPTER XIV, CONCLUSION. _ We have in the above pages tried to give the reader an idea of the only American swordmaster _ who has attained a wide reputation; but it must not be imagined that Monstery is only a swordmaster. On the contrary he is a man of great powers of mind, with a peculiarly wide education, picked up ‘in the world at large. He talks, English, Danis German, Spanish equally well, can make himse well understood in Italian and learns foreign lan- guages very ee \ : Before he lost his eyesight so completely as to re- quire cataract L hand imaginable, hardly to be distinguished from a fine steel engraving, and his arithmetical powers are remarkable, n mental arithmetic he is as rapid and precise as the oldest accountant and can carry complicated es in his head for weeks without putting down a . eT ; ee overseer of a plantation in Spanish America with hundreds of lazy tropi laborers, he was noted for being able to get more work out of the Meee Bnd fa Poke ee lasses he wrote the most beautiful | | peone than any white man who had tried it, though — | ‘he seldom used harsh measures, In the midst of men armed with knives and in the habit of using them on the least provocation it has often been remarked that he went about unarined and never hesitated to chastise insolence whenever it was attempted by a “ Yankee-hater.” In Mexico on one occasion, he had hired a servant called Pedrillo, who, though Monstery did net know it, was an ex-convict, who had committed several murders and was known as a desperate character. One day Pedrillo had neglected to feed the colo- nel’s horse, and an injury to his horse always touch ed our gon Hs than one to himself. He called up Pedrillo and scolded him severely when the other answered him with such insolence that Monster, saw he was only trying how far he dared go. He strode up to him and asked sternly: ‘“*How dare you answer me like know you are in the wrong?” s Pedrillo answered with a Spanish oath and in a eee Monstery dealt him a blow on the ear, cry- ng: 8 Be civil, sir. How dare you revile me?” Pedrillo’s face instantly becanie like that of a de- oe and be thrust his hand in his breast for a knife, ssing’: * Accursed Yankee, you doa’t know who I am, but I'll teach you.” mi , Monstery was unarmed; but before the knife could be drawn he had clutched Pedrillo’s wrist with _ his left hand, and up came one of his terrible right- — handers catching the man on the cheek. Pedrillo dere like a log, and the colonel threw the knife out of the window. _ ; For more than a minute the Mexican Jay there, then slowly scrambled to his feet and left the room, humble enough. ; An hour later he was gone, having fled the house without saying a word to any one, and Monstery went out to take a ride, rather regretting the occur- rence, for Pedrillo was a good enough man when he did not drink and he knew that it must have been liquor that made him so insolent. As he was coming back toward the city whom should he see hiding in a ditch but Pedrillo. He called to him to come out and the man came ~ tortn, ashy-pale and trembling to him, when he moaned: : “Oh, colonel, Monstery lau; “T don’t want to hit you, if you'll behave yourself. What made you run away?” ae s “Please, senor, I was afraid you might hit me again. Oh, do anything you like. Take a stick and beat me, but don’t hit me again with your fist.” ; Monstery promised he would not, and Pedrillo — came back, and from that day was a eget slave: — idolizing his master, and ready to die for him. © Our hero has often ue that the Spanish Americans who will not flinch from a drawn knife, sharp as a razor, bad a superstitious terror of his fist, and he never had any trouble to control the most desperate characters when once they had seer or heard of his powers as a boxer. He had, however, to keep a a at all times for treachery, for the that when you poe don’t hit me again,” hed. sharp look-out feeling against ica the nearer you come to the Texas line, and if a Mexican can gét a chance at an unarmed Yankee alone he will show him no bene : On one occasion poe ad a very narrow escape from being robbed and murdered by one of these men, and the incident will serve to show his wonderful readiness in a sudden em ney. He was sitting in his room alone and ‘inatmed when a Mexican entered with a cocked tol to rob him, and kill him if he offered r Most men-would have admitted that the cthor “had the drop on him,” but not so with Monstery. He started up, pretending terror, and cried: y Americans becomes more intense ia Spanish Amer- The Sword Prince. "Pon’t shoot, don’t shoot. Ive fot ei ot ploney and l’m willing to buy my life. fee, here yj His pockets were full of silver dollars end broad gold onzas or ounces and he fished up a handful as the man advanced. “ Give them to me then,” growled his foe, lower- ing his pistol. i “Pate them,” shouted or savagely, and as he spoke he cast a gold onza w th all his orce, edgewise at the man’s breast, It was an old trick of his to bury a fold onza ina plank so deep that it could not be pulled out with the fingers, and his blow inflicted such pain on the villain that he dropped his pistol and screamed out. In the same moment Monstery had him by the throat, shook him till bis teeth rattled, and ended by banding him over to justice. It has always been part of his creed that a cour- ageous man with presence of mind to keep his wits in danger and well trained as to his body, need never despair in a sudden emergency, while in the ae of hopeless odds only a fool will fight unavail- nity. With all his desperate daring he is always a very cautious man, and never allows himself to be drawn into a fight against hopeless odds. In his private relations with friends he is one of _ the gentlest and kindest of men, with a heart that never yet refused charity Over and over again we have Kuown him to lend a hand to an old foe, down in the world, even to men who have cheated him and done him all sorts of injuries. In fact, he seems utterly incapable of bearing malice against any one. One faculty he possesses in a remarkable degree to which we have not adverted. __ Colonel Monstery is a natural animal tamer of sur- prising powers, though he has only practiced it for ‘amusement, He used in his cavalry days to be fond of buying the most vicious of horses, that no one dared mount, and would bring them to such docility that they a would follow him like dogs, and play al? sows @& tricks at the least motion of his hena or toct. si One herse that he called ‘‘ Petite” he talks of even now with fond regret, for it pee to be a regular friend to him, thovgh he bought it for a song sfter it had killed several men. He taught Petite to dance to the music of the military band and do all sorts of feats, and cured him of biting and kicking with his forefeet. One day, however, Petite broke out when the col- onel was out of sig nt. aed , He ran at a poor little black boy who was employ- ed as a groom, and before the colonel could get there in answer to the child’s ery, had cauglt him by the shoulder and half killed him. } The moment Menstery ajpeared Petite dropped his prey, and ran to bis stall where he stood watch- Ricastony cried over the bcy, for he "vas very fond of him, took him to the house and found that no. bones were broken. Then he bound up the child’s wounds and took him back, laid him down on thé threshold, went in, tied Petite fast, the horse offering no resistance, and then he set to and gave hii the only thrashing Petite had ever had till the beast stood cowering and trembling in his stall. As soon as he saw that Petite was thoronga lg cowed, he led the horse out to the boy, mace him pre down his nose to touch little Pedro, and gave im another Boerne. Petite never touched Pedro again, and beceme as que as’a lamb ever afterward, till he was shot un- er our hero in the skirmish after Melo’s death. We might go on page after page with stories of our hero’s life and his many singular adventures, but space warns us that we have said enough. it Hoping our readers will not deem our efforts amis: we therefore take our leave of a man who, with al. his virtues and faults was born a few hundred veer too late, a genuine son of chivalry stepped down ino the middle of the nineteenth century. Long may he live to “ witch the world with noble swordsmanship. mee et re er * Recitations, TEL Di2tez SPEAKERS AND DIALOGUES. [ THE MOSE ATTRACTIVE SERIES, Most Available, Adaptive and Taking Collections Declamations, © as Notable Passages, Speeches, Extempore Ejforts, rations, Addresses, IX ALL THE FIELDS oF Wit, Humor, Burlesque, Satire, Eloquence and Argument, SCHOOL EXHIBITIONS AND HOME ENTERTAINMENTS. 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TWO REMARKABLE {n only one sense of the word can it be regarded as a novel statement when the fact is here recorded that litera- ture has given many heroes to the world, and perhaps more than one reader will have to think a moment over this remark before the subtle delicacy of Its genial wit strikes home, But it is most essentially a half dime novel statement that will be news to many when it is added that litera- ture, if traced from the dimly distant days when Adam - Was a mere child down to the present day, would show Out few heroes that in the eyes of boyhood would be even judged worthy of comparison with the two greatest heroes known to American literature, or, to promptly re- veal them, Deadwood Dick and Deadwood Dick, Jr. * * The modern heroes of fiction for young America, no are now as countless as the sands of the sea, and of whom the Deadwood Dicks are much the most important * * it is but natural that their * * * should bear away the paim of popularity, and suchas * * be left i beh ind in the r: It can be easily felieved, therefore, that the two Dicks me so firmly engrafted on the tree of popular literature boys and young men, that their position is assured. “and that they stand to-day head and Shoulders HEROES. above all rivals in the eyes of the public for which they have lived, and for which one of them has died. American boyhood, and that is a tremendous factor in the land, now knows Deadwood Dick, Jr., a good beal bet ter than It knows its catechism, and millions of young minds absorb the thrilling incidents of his career in his everlasting warfare against crime and his never-ending solving of Impenetrable mysteries. Millions of boys follow his stealthy footsteps ashe tracks his vicious victims to their undoing, and then, when ®the victims are thoroughly undone, the millions wait hungrily for the next volume, which on every Wednesday appears with the certainty of the Wednesday itself, and a new set oy eve thrills go thrilling away from Maine to Call ornia, There are the volumes each so crowded ea thrills and heart-tugs that it were madness to ho do justice to them collectively and rank sR tordiscriminate be- tween them, To abandon the idea of giving ‘a few extracts causes in- finite pain, but if once a start were made in that diree tion, it would be cruel to The Evening Sun's readers to stop, and it.is therefore better not to relate one single adventure, Suffice it to say that the stories are clean and — well vee ie ; re 4 DEADWOOD DICK The Double Daggers;'or, Deadwood Dick’s Defiance The Buffalo Demon; or. The Border Vultures 4 Buffalo Ben, Prince of the Pistol 6 Wild Ivan, the Boy Claude Duval Death-Face, the Detective The Phantom Miner; or, Deadwood Dick’s Bonanza 8 Old Avalanche, the Great Annihilator; or, Wild Edna, the Girl Brigand 9 Bob Woolf, the Border Ruffian. # Omaha Oli, the Masked Terror; or, Deadwood Dick in Danger he Bludsoe, Jr., the Boy Phenix; or, Through to ath we Deatood Dick’s Eagles; or, The Pards of Flood 18 feacnans Bill; or, The Red Rifle Team id Gold Rifle, the ‘Sharpshooter 18 Deadwood Dick on Deck: or, Calamity Jane 16 Corduroy Charlie, the Boy Bravo i” eee Rob; or, Nugget Ned, the Knight of the u 18 Idyl, the Girl Miner; or, Rosebud Rob on Hand ip Photograph oe or, Rosebud Rob’s Reappearance 8% Watch-Eye, the Shadow Dead maps Dick’s Device; or, The Sign of the Double Cro: BR Barta Chet, the Counterfeiter Chief % Deadwood Dick in Leadville; or, A Strange Stroke for Liberty % Deadwood Dick as Detective % Gilt-Kdge Dick % Bonanza Bill, the Man-Tracker; or, The Secret Twelve . #8 Chip, the Girl Sport 8 Jack Hoyle’s peret or, The Road to Fortune Boss Bob, the King of Bootblacks Dead oa Dick’ is Double; or, The Ghost of Gorgon's 's Blonde or. Deadwood Dick’s Home Base Solid Sain, tue Boy Road- Agent ; Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road “LIBRARY. | 33. Tony Fox, the Ferret: or, Boss ee 's Boss Job 34 A Game of Gold; or, Deadwood Dick’s Big Strike 85 Deadwood Dick of Deadwood; or, The Picked Party 36 New York Nell, the Boy-Girl Detective 87 Nobby Nick of Nevada; or, The Scamps of the Sierras 88 Wild Frank, the Buekskin Bravo 39 Deadwood Dick's Doom; or, Calamity Jane’s Last Adventure 40 Deadwood Dick’s Dream; or, The Rivals of the Road 41 Deadwood Dick’s Ward; or, The Black Hills Jezebel 42 The Arab Detective; or, ‘Snoozer, the Boy Sharp 4 43 The Ventriloquist Detective. A Romance of Rogues 44 Detective Josh Grim; or, The Young Gladiator's ame 45 The Frontier Detective; or, Sierra Sam’s Scheme | 46 The Jimtown Sport; or, Gypsy Jack in Colorado 47 The Miner Sport; or, Sugar-Coated Sam's Bie 48 Dick Drew, the Miner’s Son; ‘ Ole Apollo Bil we Road-. Agent # rad 49 Sierra Sam, the Detective 50 Ce Sam’s Double: or, The Three Female Detect 51 sierra § Sam’s Sentence; or, Little Luck at Rough anch 52 The Girl Sport: or, Jumbo Joe’s Disguise * 53 Denver Doll’s Device: or, ‘The Detective Quesp 54 Denver Doll as: Detective 55 Denver Doll’s Partner; or, Big Ruckskin the Sport 56 Denver Doll’s Mine; or, Little Bill’s Big Loss 57 Deadwood Dick Trap) ed 58 Buck Hawk, Detectives or, The Messenger 7% Fortune % 59 Deadwood Dick’s Disguise; or, Wild Walt, the Spo. — 60 Dumb Dick’s Pard: or. Eliza Jane, the Gold Miner | 61 Deadwood Dick’s Mission * 62 Spotter Fritz: or, The Store-Detective’s Deco: 63 eS De Road-Agent; or, The Miners of Sassa- 64 coat Sarlie’ 's Detect.ve Dash; or, The Cattle ings M. qs, IVERS & CO., Publishers (James Sullivan, Prigttsin: 879 Pearl Street, NEW YORK.