The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-03-14
WOMEN WHOFOUGHT DUELS
DISPUTES THAT WERE SETTLED IN
MASCULINE FASHION.
Some Noted COmbats th mt h ave TAX en-
Place Between WOmen-COurt La
dies on the ssFfeId of HonOr.,'

Some Noted Combats that ave TAX en-
Place Between Women-Court La
dies on the "FieId of HOnOr.D
If women, as a general thing, do not
countenance, and have never counte-
nanced, dueling, and are naturally averse
to all systems of individual combat-for
varied and sometimes heroic reasons
still they have their womanly sympathies
at play, either upon one side or the other,
in all encounters and controversies where
they may be interested, however trivial or
majestic the diffic ulty or its cause. Dur
ing the existence of judicial dueling in
European countries ladies of rank were
always to be found among the respectable
spectators, and there have been instances
of the presence of women upon hostile
fields since the prohibition of judicial
duels, particularly in Italy and France.
There are also records of hostile en-
counters between neutrality-suspicious.
among them was the duel with pistols
between Lady de Nesle and the Coun-
tess of Polignac, in 1921, in the gar
dens of Versailles, France. The ladies
had INDUCED in most disgraceful quar-
rel two evenings before, at grand fetc
at the palace, over the Due de Richie
lieu--that wondrous character in
the history of France-during
which Lady de Nesle, losing all control
of herself, had sprung like tigress
upon her rival and attempted to tear a
diamond necklace from the countess
neck. Failing in this, however, she
snatched the blush roses from the bosom
and flung them in the face of her rival
Up to this time, says some English wri-
ter, the countess of Polignac had kept
down, by powerful effort, the mighty
rage which was inwardly consuming her,
but this last indignity destroyed even
outward calmness, and, casting aside all
further reserve, she attacked Lady de
Nesle in the same way she herself had
been assaulted. In a moment jewels and
flowers and ribbons and laces strewed
the floor, and there is no telling to what
extent the extraordinary exhibition would
have gone had not the enraged Amazons
been separated by the Marquis de NAL
buisson and Mile. Nathalie de Condacet.
Out of this grew the duel, the Countess
of Polignac being the challenging party.
The ladies met at o'clock in the morn
ing, in July, 1921, and fired one shot at
each other without effect Their seconds
the Marquis de Malbuisson and the
Comte de Penthievre for Polignac, and
M. de Remusac and Vicomte D'Allagne
for De Nesle-then rushed in to prevent
further hostilitics. The fair demons,
however, would not be appeased, but
called for change of pistols and again
blazed away-this time with satisfactory
effect, for the marchioness fell danger
ously wounded by bullet in her left
side, while the countess was Just quietly
touched in an ear.
a duel took place at Paris, January
81, 1872, between Mile. de Guignes and
Mile. d'Aguillon, two ladies of quality,
who had Quarreled about presidency AT
soiree, and retired to a garden ada
cent to the scene of disturbance and
fought with knives until both were
wounded, the former in the arm and the
latter in the neck. 1t is re-
corded of Mile. Moussin, a French
prima donna, that, after killing three
men in duels in the woods near Paris, by
sword, she fatally wounded her fencing
master, Serane, and fed to Brussels,
where she domiciled with the Elector of
Bavaria for a short period Lola Mon
tez was also skillful with both pistol and
ever engaged in anything of a hostile
character above the dignity of street
fight She once challenged a journalist
at Grass Valley, Cal, to meet her with
pistols according to prevailing rules
governing such meetings, and, upon his
refusal to do so. thrashed him with a
cowhide upon public street. In 1915
she was witness in the trial of NJ Bou-
WALTON for killing NJ. Dujarier, at Paris,
and said in her testimony: II was bet
ter shot than Dujarier: and, if Bouvallon
only wanted satisfaction, / would have
fought him myself. Duiaucr was the
friend of Lola Montez, and in his will,
written the evening before his death,
he bequeathcd the aftcrward Countess
of Landsfeldt 100, 900 francs.
On August 81, 1777, Mile Leverrier, n
young lady of good family, who had
been Tilted by a navy officer named Du-
PREF, met the latter in the street and
handed him pistol and told him to de-
fend himself-at the same time she drew
a weapon and shot her false one in the
face while he discharged his pistol in the
air. An extract from a Georgia news
paper, published in 1917, says:
Last week point of honor was de-
cided between two ladies near the South
Carolina line, the cause of the quarrel
being the usual one-love. The object
of the rival affections of these fair cham
pions was present on the field as the
mutual arbiter in the dreadful combat,
and he had the grief of beholding one of
the suitors for his favor fall dangerously
wounded before his eyes. The whole
business was managed with all the de-
corum and infexibility practiced on such
occasions, and the conqueror was i'm
mediately married to the innocent second,
conformably to the previous conditions
of the duel"
A Buffalo On. " paper of August,
1853, gives an account of an arrest of
Catherine Hurley and Jane Hall, "who
had met on the toll bridge on Ohio street
in the presence of vast assemblage, to
fight a duel with Aliens revolvers."
The most singular combat, says an