HERO OF 200 DUELS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 127, 4 July 1914, Page 5

HERO OF 200 DUELS.

MODERN D'ARTAGNAN DISS IN PARIS. Labertesque is dead, and with his death a figure that belonged to old French romance has passed away, for Labertesque was Cyrano de Bergerac and d'Artagnan rolled into one, and set down on. the Paris boulevards, where he kept alight for years the flame of chivalry, gallantry, and picturesque swashbuckling (comments the Paris correspondent of the "Express"). Though his clothes were the prosaic garb of modernity, his spirit belonged to the days of cloak and ruffle, when men drew swords on a quarrel and spitted their opponents deftly. He was the hero of 200 duels. Tall and broad, with a brown face, he swaggered along the boulevards a few years ago, ready to pick a quarrel with anyone whose presence was obnoxious to him aud ask for satisfaction at the point of the sword. His manner was grandiloquent and authoritative. When he lifted his slouch hat with a mediaeval flourish you could almost see a cloak and sword behind his lounge suit. He rolled his name grandly as he delivered his challenge to those who were luckless enough to merit his anger. " Laber-r-r-tesque," he would say. Fought the Mayor.

He achieved an instant notoriety when he came to Paris, for he began his career by fighting the whole Town Council of Algiers, and finished up with

his-famous duel with Max. Regis, the mayor. The duel lasted two "days, an»l in the end aar Regis in the arm. He became vard hero, acclaimed in song &&-&&&&•.': and he became also the leader 4t?w'->'-group known as "The Musketeers. *^" They practised with notched - • the points bare, so that a wound couM be inflicted, but having a piece of woatft an inch below the point so that the st«i could not penetrate more than an inchu They constituted themselves a court of honour, and fought all who offended against their code. Labertesque was a giant in strength His prowess has passed into a At 18 he dropped into the swiri e& Venezuelan revolution, fighting in the streets of Caracas. A little later ke was in Cuba following the high advcittura. Forty-three duels with swot*!, yataghan, or pistol stood to his ere«Kt in three years. He joined the Spafc* Regiment in Algeria, and astounds** them with his prodigious strength. Ho could lif carry his horse on hits back. He was brave and generous; aadt? told of his exploits with the vanity-oC a Gascon. _ He went to the opera recently an* fell forward suddenly in his carriage dead from heart failure.