title: SPADA: An Anthology of Swordsmanship in Memory of Ewart Oakeshott
author: Members of Swordplay Symposium International
description: This anthology is authored by some of the best-known names of the historical swordsmanship community: John Clements, Stephen Hand, Stephen Hick, Gregory Mele, Russell Mitchell, Ewart Oakeshott, Paul Wagner, and William E. Wilson.
zlib_text: Copyright 2 0 2 0  by Stephen L. Hadley
  All Rights Reserved.
  Do not reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document
  electronically or in printed format. Unauthorized storage or recording of
  this publication is prohibited except by written permission of the publisher
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  B y	Stephen	L . 	H ad l ey
   
   
  
  Chapter	O ne
   
  Duke Leo VanOrden couldn’t sleep.
  That was hardly a new development;  he’d tossed and turned endlessly
  every night for the past two weeks. Worse, he’d tried everything he could
  think of to correct the matter. Wine, women, and even working himself to
  exhaustion sparring with Lucius. None of it helped.
  And so, clad in his nightclothes and a rich, woolen robe, he wandered.
  The Ducal quarters at the center of the Ministry of J ustice were still new
  enough to him that he’d not yet tired of the exercise. The pair of halberd-
  wielding elven guards who trailed silent and obedient in his wake, however,
  were a different