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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: and who, in the battle of Hastings, killed with his own
hand four-and-twenty Saxon cavaliers all on a row.
The very excess of the baron's internal rage on the preceding day
had smothered its external manifestation: he was so equally angry
with both parties, that he knew not on which to vent his wrath.
He was enraged with the earl for having brought himself into
such a dilemma without his privily; and he was no less enraged
with the king's men for their very unseasonable intrusion.
He could willingly have fallen upon both parties, but, he must
necessarily have begun with one; and he felt that on whichever
side he should strike the first blow, his retainers would
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