SOME REMARKABLE DUELS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue V, 3 August 1895, Page 130

SOME REMARKABLE DUELS.

An extraordinary duel has recently taken place between two Germans in a village not far from Berlin. They are young men, and it appears that both had taken a fancy to a certain young lady, who, after considerable hesitation, accepted one of them. The rejected lover challenged his rival to combat, and made the singular proposal that each should be supplied with a stout piece of rope, and that they should thrash each other as long as they could stand. This was mutually agreed upon, and a terrific contest ensued, which, however, was stopped by the police, but not until both combatants had been severely punished. Report has it that the challenger got the worst of this remarkable duel.

A duel on a tight rope may be fairly classed amongst the most extraordinary and unique of this form of encounter. A Frenchman named Perate and an Italian named Sarfuico quarrelled over their respective merits as performers on the tight rope. Eventually they both agreed to perform upon the same rope in a ‘ dance of friendship.’ Dressed in wigs and ruffles, and wearing rapiers, they mounted the tight rope and commenced their performances. The Italian’s foot slipped, upon which his colleague made a remark which roused the Italian’s anger. He drew his rapier, and before the audience could comprehend the meaning of the act the dancers were engaged in mortal combat. Both were excellent swordsmen, and the battle waged hotly for some moments without any serious issue. Presently the Italian made a desperate lunge at his antagonist, and, losing his balance, fell from the rope. Throwing away his sword, he caught the rope with his hands. The shock also dislodged his assailant, and he fell to the ground. A duel between vacqueras was fought in Mexico about a year ago, in which the weapons were lariats. Each endeavoured to lasso the other. After an hour’s hard work, one of the combatants was secured by the flying noose, and the victor dragged him off his horse and shot him dead. A duel of a most unique type was fought under water. The combatants were divers who in the year 1792 were sent down to examine the wreck of the Royal George. France, the land of duels, is responsible for no less than 4,000 of these absurd contests every year. The majority of them are the outcome of senseless foibles and petty spites, and rarely have a fatal ending. Some French duellists have, however, exhibited a distinct sense of originality and humour in ther operations. The once celebrated Marquise Merle Sainte Marie, a famous Royalist, who had a passion for duelling, on one occasion insisted that an ‘ affair of honour ’ between himself and a certain fiery Bonapartist should be settled by each climbing a tree at fitfy paces, and firing upon his opponent from its branches. This unusual arrangement was actually carried out. The duel was fought in a grove of chestnut trees, and the Marquise succeeded bringing his man to the ground by a wound in the leg, * like a ripe chestnut,’ as he grimly remarked at the close. Another French duel, fought in 1808, was contested from balloons, 1,000 feet above the Tuilleries. The duellists —M. Grandpree and M. de Pisque—had furiously quarrelled concerning the charms of a celebrated actress. Each of them carried a loaded rifle, and fired 700 yards. Pisque missed, but Grandprde sent a bullet through his adversary’s balloon, the result being that Pisque and his second were dashed upon a building below, and killed immediately. Texas is often the scene of a curious form of duelling, unknown, perhaps, in any other country, save Mexico. When a difference in opinion is to be seriously decided by the cow boys of Texas, the two leading belligerents resort to the open prairies, riding mules, and armed with long leathern lassoes. They gallop round in a circle, eyeing each other fixedly, and warily watching for the first opportunity to ‘spring the cord.’ When the critical moment arrives, the lasso is hurled with unerring accuracy, and the rest is settled by main force. One or other of the combatants is fated to come to earth, and be mercilessly dragged along for some distance over the rough hillocks, to the obvious detriment of limb, and sometimes of life, for these affairs occasionally have a fatal ending. The last example we shall place on record serves to illustrate, more forcibly, perhaps, than any of the foregoing the utterly unreasonable grounds upon which certain duels are conceived and fought. A certain Neapolitan nobleman fought a score of duels during his lifetime to defend his constant assertion that Dante was a superior writer to Ariosto. In his old age he took humerous pride in saying that he had never perused a line of either of the writers named.