a hero like Theseus afraid , Not had the Minotaur had twenty bull-heads instead of one . Bold as he was , however , I rather fancy that it strengthened his valiant heart , just at this crisis , to feel a tremulous twitch at the silken cord , which he was still holding in his left hand . It was as if Ariadne were giving him all her might and courage ; and much as he already had , and little as she had to give , it made his own seem twice as much . And to confess the honest truth , he needed the whole ; for now the Minotaur , turning suddenly about , caught sight of Theseus , and instantly lowered his horribly sharp horns , exactly as a mad bull does when he means to rush against an enemy . At the same time , he belched forth a tremendous roar , in which there was something like the words of human language , but all disjointed and shaken to pieces by passing through the gullet of a miserably enraged brute . Theseus could only guess what the creature intended to say , and that rather by his gestures than his words ; for the Minotaur 's horns were sharper than his wits , and of a great deal more service to him than his tongue . But probably this was the sense of what he uttered : `` Ah , wretch of a human being ! I 'll stick my horns through you , and toss you fifty feet high , and eat you up the moment you come down . '' `` Come on , then , and try it ! '' was all that Theseus deigned to reply ; for he was far too magnanimous to assault his enemy with insolent language . Without more words on either side , there ensued the most awful fight between Theseus and the Minotaur that ever happened beneath the sun or moon . I really know not how it might have turned out , if the monster , in his first headlong rush against Theseus , had not missed him , by a hair 's breadth , and broken one of his horns short off against the stone wall . On this mishap , he bellowed so intolerably that a part of the labyrinth tumbled down , and all the inhabitants of Crete mistook the noise for an uncommonly heavy thunder storm . Smarting with the pain , he galloped around the open space in so ridiculous a way that Theseus laughed at it , long afterwards , though not precisely at the moment . After this , the two antagonists stood valiantly up to one another , and fought , sword to horn , for a long while . At last , the Minotaur made a run at Theseus , grazed his left side with his horn , and flung him down ; and thinking that he had stabbed him to the heart , he cut a great caper in the air , opened his bull mouth from ear to ear , and prepared to snap his head off . But Theseus by this time had leaped up , and caught the monster off his guard . Fetching a sword stroke at him with all his force , he hit him fair upon the neck , and made his bull head skip six yards from his human body , which fell down flat upon the ground . So now the battle was ended . Immediately the moon shone out as brightly as if all the troubles of the world , and all the wickedness and the ugliness that infest human life , were past and gone forever .
And Theseus , as he leaned on his sword , taking breath , felt another twitch of the silken cord ; XXXXX all through the terrible encounter , he had held it fast in his left hand .
After against as at for in of that through with