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"I'm spoiling for no scrap, I swear. Besides,the bodies on these benches are just bum-fluffed bairns.If I'd ridden to your castle rigged out for a ruckthese lightweight adolescents wouldn't last a minute.But it's Yuletide - a time of youthfulness, yes?So at Christmas in this court I lay down a challenge:if a person here present, within these premises,is big or bold or red-blooded enoughto strike me one stroke and be struck in return,I shall give him as a gift this gigantic cleaverand the axe shall be his to handle how he likes.I'll kneel, bare my neck and take the first knock.So who has the gall? The gumption? The guts?Who'll spring from his seat and snatch this weapon?I offer the axe - who'll have it as his own?I'll afford one free hit from which I won't flinch,and promise that twelve months will pass in peace, then claim the duty I deserve in one year and one day. Does no one have the nerve to wager in this way?"

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