Victor Hugo - The Man Who Laughs - Cosmopolitan University 2

"Foul blow!" cried Viscount Barnard.
Phelem-ghe-Madone sank down on the knee of his second, saying,--
"I am beginning to get warm."
Lord Desertum consulted the umpires, and said,--
"Five minutes before time is called."
Phelem-ghe-Madone was becoming weaker. Kilter wiped the blood from his
face and the sweat from his body with a flannel, and placed the neck of
a bottle to his mouth. They had come to the eleventh round. Phelem,
besides the scar on his forehead, had his breast disfigured by blows,
his belly swollen, and the fore part of the head scarified. Helmsgail
was untouched.
A kind of tumult arose amongst the gentlemen.
Lord Barnard repeated, "Foul blow."
"Bets void!" said the Laird of Lamyrbau.
"I claim my stake!" replied Sir Thomas Colpepper.
And the honourable member for the borough of Saint Ives, Sir Bartholomew
Gracedieu, added, "Give me back my five hundred guineas, and I will go.
Stop the fight."
Phelem arose, staggering like a drunken man, and said,--
"Let us go on fighting, on one condition--that I also shall have the
right to give one foul blow."
They cried "Agreed!" from all parts of the ring. Helmsgail shrugged his
shoulders. Five minutes elapsed, and they set to again.
The fighting, which was agony to Phelem, was play to Helmsgail. Such are
the triumphs of science.
The little man found means of putting the big one into chancery--that is
to say, Helmsgail suddenly took under his left arm, which was bent like
a steel crescent, the huge head of Phelem-ghe-Madone, and held it there
under his armpits, the neck bent and twisted, whilst Helmsgail's right
fist fell again and again like a hammer on a nail, only from below and
striking upwards, thus smashing his opponent's face at his ease. When
Phelem, released at length, lifted his head, he had no longer a face.
That which had been a nose, eyes, and a mouth now looked only like a
black sponge, soaked in blood. He spat, and on the ground lay four of
his teeth.
Then he fell. Kilter received him on his knee.
Helmsgail was hardly touched: he had some insignificant bruises and a
scratch on his collar bone.