The Cruise of the Branwen

THE OLYMPIC GAMES we fraternised a good deal, as they were staying at the same hotel as the English. "The French, rather stale with the hard work some of them had gone through in the individual competitions, met with a surprisingly tough resistance from the Greeks, who were accomplished fencers, well in line. Athens maintains a good fencing club. The result was actually a dead heat. The same evening the English took on the Belgian team, but twilight stopped the match with four assaults yet to come. At one time the issue seemed a little doubtful, as the fading light produced a series of coups doubles, partly due, perhaps, to the fatigue of waiting about all day before the fencing began. But a little extra caution on the part of one or two of our men left us two fights to the good, and on the morning of the 26th we finished up by winning all the remain- ing four, one only being counted a coup double. The figures were : English, fourteen victories ; Belgians, nine. Meanwhile the French team, fighting off the tie with the Greeks, won by only two points, and it seems likely that if the Greeks had met the Belgians they would have defeated them and taken the third place, which the latter owe to their victory over the Dutch. This cleared the way for the final, British v. French, ai;id it was seen there would be a tough fight. · The French team was composed of M. Dillon– Kavanagh, Captain Comte de la Falaise, Comte d'Hugues, and M. Mohr, who replaced I IO