It was evident that both men recognized each other as old enemies, for they met with a ferocity that told of undying hate. The long rapier and the broadsword clashed together and played in circles of angry light, and the horses wheeled and bounded, obedient to hand and heel, as if they shared every wish of their masters.
The combatants were by no means unequally matched. The dark stranger with the pallid face was much the taller, but his long, lean frame lacked the compactness and solid force of the Herculean partisan. The inferiority in strength was fully made up by an activity and fierce energy that bordered on the supernatural, and the stranger fought with all the vigor of the demon he had so successfully personated.
The partisan, without the lightning velocity and energy of the other
