“If there are any who doubt that this field is well and fairly won, I do not wait for them to challenge me, I challenge them.”
“It is a gallant offer,” said the king, “and well beseems you.
Whom will you name first?”
“I name none, I challenge all! Here I stand, and dare the chivalry of England to come against me — not by individuals, but in mass!”
“What!” shouted a score of knights.
“You have heard the challenge. Take it, or I proclaim you recreant knights and vanquished, every one!”
It was a “bluff” you know. At such a time it is sound judgment to put on a bold face and play your hand for a hundred times what it is worth; forty-nine times out of fifty nobody dares to