DUEL FIGHTING.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1015, 19 January 1869, Page 4

DUEL FIGHTING.

(From "All the Year Hound") IN TWO CHAPTI_BS. — FIBSI CHAPTER. Mb. Cablyle, in summing up the characteristics of the old French noblesse, gives them credit for having possessed one merit, such as it was — "a perfect readiness to fight duels." The authorities on the subject have recorded many curious stories. We will lay the authorities under contribution. To begin with the time when the tide of revolution was on the flood. A certain young noble, M. de Servan, on taking leave of pome court ladies to attend the opening of . the States General in 1789, gallantly shook out* his white cambric handkerchief before them, and said, "I shall bring you back half a dozen of those troublesome Bretons' ears." His first essay was upon M. de Heratry, whose cheek he stroked in a playful way. On being remonstrated with, he repeated the familiarity, and had his foot pounded beneath the Breton's heavy bootheel in return. A duel ensued. The courtiers came in coaches and chairs, attended by servants bearing torches, to witness the reaping of M. de Servan's first crop of ears, instead of which they saw the unfortunate champion of feudalism, in the course of a few minutes, stretched dead upon the ground. Later, the noblesse are said to have leagued together, to get rid of the popular leaders in the National Assembly, one by one, by fastening quarrels upon fchem, and by systematically silencing their tongues and their pens by the skilful application of the requisite number of inches of cold steel. This was, however, too slow a method for the royalist Faussigny, who boldly proclaimed in the Assembly, that there was but one way of dealing with the ultrapatriotic party : "to fall sword in hand on these gentry there," meaning the members on the extreme left. Mirabeau, as has often been recorded, refused to fight until after the constitution was made, and used to content himself with observing to his challenger, "Monsieur, I have put your name down on my list; but I warn you that it is a long one, and that I grant no preferences." The Grange Bateliere section prayed the Assembly to declare, that Whoever sent or accepted a challenge, should be excluded from all future civil and military employment ; and one of the . Paris journals published the proposed form of a decree, according to the terms of which every member of the Assembly fighting a • duel was to be excluded from the Assembly ; and any speeches he might have made were to be removed from its records, and publicly burnt." . A writer in the GbservoMwr went so far as to demand, that all duellists . should be branded on the forehead with the ■ letter A: (assassin). Patriots Who refused . tb fight duels had their names printed in large type in the patriotic journals ; and the company of chasseurs of the battalion of Sainte Marguerite passed a resolution to tiie effect that "they would present themselves in turn at the sittings of the National Assembly, and would regard as personal all quarrels provoked with patriotic deputies, whom theiy would defend to their last drop of blood." Citizen Boyer, however, went beyond this ; he was prepared, Atlas like, . to take the burden of all these quarrels on his own particular shoulders, and actually opened a bureau on the Passage dv Bois de Boulogne, Faubourg Saint Denis, where the preliminaries of these affairs might be arranged, and whence he wrote to the journals that he had made a vow to defend the deputies against their enemies. " I swear," said he, " that neither time nor space shall shield; from my just vengeance the man who has. wounded a deputy. I possess arms that the hands of patriotism have fabricated for me. Every kind of weapon is familiar to me ; I give the preference to none. All satisfy me, provided the result be death." After publishing this pot-valiant and sanguinary declaration, he presented himself at M. de Sainte Luce's, who had an affair in progress with young M. cleßochambeau, whereupon this noble put the bragging condottiere out at the door. In nowise discouraged by this insult, citizen Boyer formed a school, and enlisted a battalion of fifty spadassinicides (bully killers), and wrote again to the newspapers, renewing professions of courage, and his tin-eats Of vengeance. ■ While the duels between the royalists and patriots were at their height, Garvais, the maitre d'armes of Viscount de Mirabeau (Barrel Mirabeau as he was called by reason of his bulk and his powers of imbibition) used to pass his nights in training young aristocrats to spit patriot orators in -the. Bois de Boulogne, on the coming morning. At the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815, scarcely a day went by without its hostile meeting in Paris, chiefly between the officers of Napoleon's army and those . of Louis the Eighteenth's body-guard, but also between the former and the various English, Prussian, Russian, and Austrian officers in the French capital. The Bonapartist officers would repair to the Cafe Foy, the rendezvous of Prussian military men, for the sole purpose of picking quarrels with them ; and, if the opportunity presented itself, they, would insult English officers with equal readiness. Captain Gronow, known by his lively " reminiscences," who was a dead shot, was walking with a lady in the Palais Royal, when a Bonapartist officer, a notorious duellist, after announcing,, hat he intended to bully an " Anglais, " proceeded to place his arm round the lady's waist. On being remonstrated with, he replied, by spitting in Captain Gronow' s face, arid. ..was instantly felled to the ground for his filthy impertinence. A meeting took ,;-,-' place the following morning, the French- >". man bragging, that he intended to add an Englishman to his list of killed and wounded. lie • fiisdv iM-4. singred his opponent's whisfceirs,imftjn a few.ssconds was shot -through •'; j>hj^^ afterwards to

fight with the French officer's second, was content to wound his adversary in the knee c —an act of forbearance which brought the t captain no less than eleven challenges. The t French Minister of War, however, inter- t fered, and no more meetings took place. c One of the most celebrated "of theseduel- 1 lists, the Count de Larilliere, was a native i of Bordeaux. He was at the time of my 1 story a man of between thirty-five and forty . years of age, tall, well made, and with t polished manners ; in short, his. appearance 1 utterly belied the good-for-mothing kind of . life he was in the habit of leading. One < day while he was walking with a friend, or i rather, an accomplice, in the most fre- 1 quented street of Bordeaux, he saw approaching them, on the same side of the i i way, one of the richest and most honour- < able merchants of the town with his newly married wife upon his arm.^ When i the young couple were within hearing, Larilliere advanced courteously towards them, i hat in hand, and with a smile upon his lips, and with all the outward semblance of i a well-bred man, who is about to deliver i himself of a speech of more than ordinary i politeness. " I beg your pardon," said he, 1 addressing the merchant, who with his wife I had abruptly halted, "but I have just made a bet with my friend, whom I have the ho- i nour of presenting to you "—here he men- ■ tioned his friend's name and quality in due < form— " that I will kiss your wife on your : arm " (the husband, knowing the count's ; character and reputation, here became . ghastly pale) " after having, first of 'all, : given you a box on the ear." Saying this, the miscreant stared impudently in the face of the amazed merchant, who was, however, still more amazed to find, spite of all the resistance he could offer, both threats put into immediate execution. A challenge and a meeting followed as a matter of course, which resulted in the injured party receiving his death wound, and the aggressor going forth in search of new victims. After proceeding for some time in this course, Larilliere was enabled to boast of having killed no less than eleven individuals ; and of those whom he had merely wounded, he took no kind of account. He had fought altogether upwards of forty duels and was bent upon making up his dozen, after which he proposed to rest for a time, and continue his practice with the new cavalry sabre, to which, being a more deadly weapon than the ordinary small-sword, he had taken a strange fancy. This laudable desire of his was not destined to be realised, for he was himself killed in a duel, under rather strange circumstances, a few days after the death of his eleventh, and last, victim. On the evening of a masked ball at the grand theatre at Bordeaux, Larilliere was seated in an actfoining cafe, which he was in the habit of frequenting with the members of his own particular set. It was eleven o'clock, and our duellist, who had been for the moment abandoned by his ordinary companions, feeling in no particularly quarrelsome humour, was occupied in peacefully imbibing a glass of punch. Suddenly, a tall young man, wearing a black domino, and with his ,face concealed behind a black velvet mas*k, entered the cafe, and strode up to the table at which Larilliere was seated. None of fche ordinary habitues of the cafe took any particular notice of the new comer on his entrance, as the masked ball, which was to take place that night, sufficiently explained his costume ; but, no sooner was the mysterious visitor observed in the vicinity of Larilliere's table, than all eyes were attracted towards him. With a single preliminary observation he seized hold of Larilliere's glass, threw away the punch it contained, and ordered the waiter, in a loud voice, to bring a small bottle of orgeat in place of it. Witnesses of the scene say that, at this moment, for the first time in their lives, they observed Larilliere turn pale, Ifc was the common belief in Bordeaux that, during the fifteen years this man had been applying himself to the task of destruction, he had never once allowed his countenance to betray the slightest emotion. ' c Scoundrel 1 " he exclaimed to his masked adversary, "you do nofc know who I am," making, at the same moment, a vigorous, but unsuccessful effort to remove the mask from the stranger's face. " I know who you are perfectly well," coldly replied the unknown, forcing Larilliere violently back with one hand. All present started to their feet, and, though no one among them ventured to approach the disputants, they contemplated, none.the less anxiously, the issue of this strange provocation. "Waiter 1" exclaimed the unknown, "be quick with thafc bottle of orgeat." At this second command the bottle was brought : whereupon the masked man, still standing immediately in front of Larilliere, who was foaming afc the mouth with rage, proceeded to draw a pistol from his righthand pocket. Then, addressing his adversary, he said : " If in fche presence of this company, and for my own personal satisfaction, you do not at once swallow this glass of orgeat, I will blow out your brains with as little compunction as I would those of a dog. Should you, however, perform my bidding, I will then do you the honor of fighting with you to -morrow morning." " With the sabre ?" asked Larilliere, in a paroxysm of rage. "With whatever weapon you please," replied the stranger, disdainfully. Whereupon Larilliere swallowed the orgeat, with . an expression of countenance as though it were to him the dregs of a bitter cup indeed, while every one present preserved a deathlike silence. The masked man, satisfied with the effect produced by his provocation, now retired, . saying to Larilliere as he did so, in a tone of voice loud enough to be heard by the lookers-on : "To-day I have humbled you sufficiently; to-morrow I intend to take your life. My seconds will wait on you at eight o'clock in 1 the morning. We will fight on the spot where you killed the young Chevalier de 0." This was the name of the count's eleventh \ victim. ' The following morning, Larilliere found \ himself in the presence of a man no longer ' wearing a mask, and who appeared to be some twenty-five years old. The seconds by whom he was accompanied were two ' common soldiers, belonging to one of the regiments stationed in the citadel of Blaye. [ The bearing of the unknown was collected ' and dignified, and singularly resolute. His seconds had brought weapons to the ground, but Larilliere's seconds took exception to them, at which a scarcely perceptible smile ' passed over the stranger's face. t On taking his position, Larilliere turned I towards the second nearest to him, and 3 - said, in an undertone : " For once, I believe, I have found my equal." ) The combat commenced. Afc tho first r passes the count was confirmed in his fc opinion, that he had to deal with a skilful - adversary. However, his courage did not ' fail him, though there were times when he 3 seemed to lose his accustomed composure. • Lunges and parryings succeeded each other , .with rapidity on both sides. Larilliere, r desirous of bringing the affair to a close, : had already tried his finishing thrust two or • three times, bufc only to find his sword i turned aside by his adversary's blade. , Harassed at finding his efforts unavailing, ■ he insolently remarked to his opponent, i " Well, sir, afc what hour <io you intend to > kill me?" •..-•'"■

There was a momentary silence, broken »nly by the clash of the two swords. Then he stranger, who seemed to have profited >y that slight interval to assure himself hat the advantage of the encounter lay lecidedly with him, quietly replied to Lanliere's last question, "Immediately." Sayng which, he thrust the point of his sword >etween the ribs of his adversary, who iprang backwards, tottered, and sank into he arms of the nearest second. Putting iis right hand to his wound, the count said, vith difficulty : " That, sir, is not a sabre jut ; it is a thrust with the point—with the labre I feared no one." In a few moments le fell back dead. The stranger now advanced politely towards the seconds of his victim, and inquired if he was at liberty to depart. " Will you at least tell us your name ?" isked they, in reply. Larilliere's opponent proved to be one of the young officers of the garrison at Blaye. When the fact oPfche count's death became generally known in Bordeaux, many mothers of families actually had masses said, in thankfulness to the Almighty, for having delivered them from so dreaded a scourge, After this detestable count's death, there sprang up in Bordeaux a tribe of duellists, obstinately prepared to contest with each other the succession to that vacant post of infamy, which the count had for several years filled without a rival. Among these aspirants were two, more audacious and resolute than the rest, who eventually remained masters of the field of action, and for five years rivalled each other in effrontery and temerity, with the view of obtain- • ing the coveted title of " first blade." In this strange kind of contest, in which each at times gave proofs of a laudable courage, they displayed no lack of artifice to impart to their more insolent provocations all the importance of a great scandal. One of the pair, an Italian by birth, but resident in France for a considerable time, and recently settled at Bordeaux, was the Marquis de Lignano, better known by the simple title of the Marquis. He was rather above thirty-five years of age ; of a small, thin, weakly figure ; and with a repulsive, sicklylooking countenance. He was excessively nervous and petulant. The sound of his voice grated most disagreeably on the ear, and it was impossible to look at the man while he was speaking, with his head insolently thrown back, without conceiving a strong prejudice against him. The marquis handled his sword like no other individual skilful of fence ; his lunges were lively, jerky, in fact, singularly rapid, and commonly mortal. He recognised but a single rival ; only one foeman really worthy of his steel. This was his intimate friend, M. Lucien Claveau, who for the moment shared his glory, but whom he hoped some day to kill, and so peaceably to enjoy the succession of the deceased Count de Larilliere. The inhabitants of Bordeaux, victims of the turpitudes of this pair of spadassins, on their part looked forward with interest to a contest which they knew to be inevitable, and the issue of which would be their certain deliverance from one or the other scourge. Meanwhile, the Marquis and Lucien Claveau seemed on the most intimate and agreeable terms. Some few days subsequent to a meeting which resulted in the marquis killing his adversary (and which made a great noise at the time on account of the peculiarly unjustifiable act which led to it), Lucien Claveau, priding himself upon his brute strength, and jealous of his rival's reputation, resolved to outdo the marquis in some more than ordinarily extravagant proceeding. For this purpose he went one evening to the opera, accompanied by a friend and accomplice. Claveau, having slowly scanned the different individuals seated in the stalls, fixed upon the particular person whom he would insult, and then sat himself immediately behind that person. The curtain rose for the continuation of the performance, and when the audience were eagerly listening to the singers, Olaveau drew from his pocket a pack of cards,, which he gravely proceeded to shuffle : watching all the while, with a fierce look, the slightest movements of the individual with whom he was bent upon picking a quarrel. His friend having cut the cards, he dealt to his friend and to himself, and this pair of spadassins commenced playing a game of ecarte on the crown of a hat^ as unconcernedly as though they had been in the card-room of their club. Suddenly, and precisely at the moment when the principal singer entered, Claveau cried out so that the whole house might hear him : " I mark the king!" A loud murmur followed this untimely exclamation. " Silence I" shouted the predestined victim, looking round at Claveau and peri fectly unconscious of the fate in store for | him. I "I tell you that I mark the king!" I roared Claveau, darting back on him a savage glance. "And I tell you that you are an illmannered fellow," was the response. At these words the duellist rose, and, in the midst of the clamour raised by the protests of the audience, gave a sharp box on the ear to the unhappy individual who had ventured to remonstrate with him. Addresses were, of course, exchanged, and Lucien Claveau quitted the theatre perfectly satisfied : for the outrage had been as public as possible. On the following day the duellist killed his man, and thought himself entitled to shai-e the marquis's honours. "When the latter was informed of all the details of the quarrel, he called immediately on Claveau to congratulate him. "What you have been doing is certainly rather remarkable in its way," said the ! marquis ; but I promise you I will hit upon something, better still." "That is hardly possible," replied his friend, " unless we ourselves were to fight, and •" "So, then, you, too, think of this coming about between us, dp you?" asked the marquis, regarding his rival languidly. " One day or other, I fear, we shall be compelled to fight," rejoined Claveau. "We shall be forced to take the step, sooner or later, I fancy, in defence of our reputations." " My poor friend, I hope not 1" exclaimed Lignano, grasping Claveau's hand with an affectation of tenderness. " Dear old fellow !" responded the other, pumping up with considerable effort a hypocritical tear. One can imagine a couple of hyenas, as they dispute in the night time over some dead body, interchanging such sickening expressions of sympathy. "Ere long you shall hear me talked about," rejoined tho marquis, on taking leave. Indeed he was not the man to allow Lucien Claveau to enjoy his triumph long. He was resolved to outdo his rival, and in a few days, had decidod upon his plan.

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