The Cruise of the Branwen

THE FENCING TOURNAMENT Robinson, and Mr. E. Seligman; the Germans were Herren Casimir, Petri, Schon, and Bary de Erkrath. It was a bright and animated scene, the King and the royal party taking the greatest interest in the course and count of each assault. But the contest does not call for much description, the superiority of the French style of fencing adopted by the English team being so very marked, as against the position, fitter for foil or sabre, taken up by the German swordsmen. The latter, good as they proved themselves at other weapons, were time after time beaten by the pointe en ligne, much to their own surprise. After nine victories had been gained by our team against two only on the German side, it was apparent that the latter could not win (four a side making only sixteen assaults in all) ; the German eaptain therefore agreed to discontinue the unequal contest. He, with all the members of the British team, had the honour of being presented to King Edward, who seemed much pleased at the result. "The following day the Belgians defeated the Dutch by three points, and perhaps the result would have been different had not the Dutch selected their team while at Athens by a com– petition which accidentally eliminated one or two of their best men, such as Vigeveno and Van Blyenburgh. The Belgians were a good lot of young and vigorous fencers, and the Dutch team was chiefly composed of young army officers, very pleasant fellows, with whom 109