It was not an exaggeration on the part of the French and Spanish to declare that the British sailors and soldiers were not ordinary men but devils, when the real tussle for mastery began, and when they were even believed to be beaten.
Every line of these letters indicates a tusslebetween a natural tendency to frank honesty and an unnatural and unworthy method of deception.
To many of those who rocked there in the bay the coming tussle was to be the first engagement.
So hot was thetussle that the pirates had to fight from house to house.
Kent had a sharp little tussle with his inborn reticence, thrust it to the wall and told a plain tale.
Wherefore Halkett's sudden appearance, mauled, begrimed and breathless from his late tussle with the two enginemen, was the first intimation of wrong-going that had penetrated to the inner sanctum of the private car.
They had seen no Yankees and could not have seen the Deacon's tussle with the old man.
The fighting had been quite a severe tussle for the soldiers.
Red-nosed gnomes roll and tumble Tussle and jumble in the firelight Roll on their backs spinning rotundly, Out of earthern jars Gloriously gurgitating, Wriggling their huge round bellies.
But when the tussle over terms was ended and Lemaire had gone forth, Elderkin swore to himself that it was the mate who should never again see the Islands rise above the rim of the sea.
Elderkin, who had somehow expected his great tussleoff the Horn, felt an odd sensation that was almost disappointment.
On the 29th a tussle took place between the foe and a man named Sheppy, who, with twelve mounted natives, was herding a thousand De Beers horses and mules.
Corporal Galt nearly shared the same fate, but while he was engaged in a smart tussle for freedom, Colonel Bodle came to the rescue and put the Boers to flight.
A storm and rain, catching them on a lee shore and giving the already exhausted men one more tussle with fortune to get their small vessel into a position of safety, made a fitting end to their experiences.
This distinguished man had had, no doubt, many boating excursions with poor Barrow, and being himself a capital wrestler, and keen of the sport, it is likely he would have many a tussle with the Windermere champion.
He got the belt without contesting a single fall; no one thinking proper to try the chance of a single tussle with him.
Another wrestler shortly after enters, and then, when due preliminaries are gone through, thetussle commenced in earnest.
Illustration: Handkerchief Tussle; Potato Joust] Handkerchief Tussle Study the illustration and see if you can discover a way for the boys to get apart.
The next moment the other party to the tussle on the terrace elucidated the matter by walking up to the window instead of running away.
He has always held that the confederacy would come to loggerheads and be no longer dangerous after our victorious tussle with them.
If it came to a tussle the enemy would certainly seize the muskets; it would be worth something to Desmond to know that they were not loaded.
Near by was a lady, standing with arms stiff and hands clenched, stamping her foot as she addressed, in no measured terms, two men who were rolling over one another in a desperate tussle a few yards away on the heath.
In the evening near the village a pair of western robins and a thieving magpie had a hard tussle along the fence of the road.
There had been a bloody tussle and much slaughter.
The last and toughest tussle came during the grey prologue before dawn.
Twill be a tussle to-night, sir; no boat can live in such a sea, I'm thinking.
I succeeded somehow, though I had a hard tussle to accomplish the feat.
I got Billy, the porter, to make up my berth and I went to sleep after a hard tussle with the rough sheets and blanket.
Great was the delight of the children, when after a hard tussle to detach a large bundle, down it came on Mr. Allen's head.
I've had such a terrible hard tussle to make a living since my man died, that I hain't had time to study fine manners.
A tussle over the flag, sir," replied Dixon, standing very stiffly and raising his hand to his cap.
And during the tussle two of your number came very near being precipitated to the ground," exclaimed the colonel.
The man who rode him sat loosely in the saddle as if the tussle in progress were of very minor importance in his estimation.
Fleetwood depicted his plodding Gower at the tusslewith account-books.
But there would be no contempt of Kit Ines in a tussle with him.
Nor could one funk the tussle and play cur, if Kit's engaged young woman were looking on.
It would have been better for both of them if they could have got the inevitable tussle over at the start; exhaustion on both sides might have brought at least a pretence at amity in its train.
The Simon Thornthwaites were old now, and under-dogs in the tussle of life, but they had once been as strong and confident as most.
