For, although Allan had passed his fiftieth year,[…], one had continued to think of him as a man of whipcord and iron, a natural source of untiring energy, a mechanism that would not wear out.

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The tale of the wildly divergent paths that brought the two Borises to this battle has the flavour of the synopsis for a novel Jeffrey Archer was too ashamed to show his publisher.

VVere Iacke Strawe a liue againe, And I in as good poſſibility as euer I was, I would lay a ſurer trumpe, Ere I would loſe ſo faire a tricke.