The morning news., 1897-03-21
ODD DUELs.
CarteIs Exchanged Between Mo-
narchs-VOltaire and Maupertius.

CarteIs Exchanged Between Mo-
narchs-VOltaire and Maupertius.
From the London Standard.
The oldest duels generally have never
been fought, and among them is the long
series of royal attempts Has any king
succeeded in pulling off" the match for
which he thirsted with some triumphant
rival? Perhaps so; for many tried and
one cannot recollect them all. But at least
such happy hits have been very rare. Our
conquering William challenged Harold
again and again, without results. Years
before that he had invited his enemy
Godfrey of Anjou, to send a description Of
his surcoat and shield-he himself would
do the same, and then they might "haVe
it out" before the assembled armies. This
message. by the by, is very useful to those
who contend that heraldry is. older than
the Crusades. Edward III made an effort
to escape his difficulties by provoking the
King of France to duel, addressing him
as Prince de Valois." Philip answered
that letter to some unknown person
had reached him; if, perchance 1t were
intended for himself, but misdirected, the
King of France was always ready to fight
But nothing more came of 1t. In his turn,
however, Philip demanded a duel when
he found 1t impossible to relieve Calais,
suggesting in a business-like way that the
and arrange prelimnaries; but Edward
did not care about it this time.
Buckle has laid down, with his usual au.
thority, that duelling was unknown be-
fore the fifteenth century in France, the
sixteenth In England; single comhats at
an earlier date are not to be described.
We are not without instances by any
"
wrote to Francois !. that he had broken
his sword, and offered to prove the same
upon his body. Francois replied, "Qull
en- await menti dams sa gorge" and in
Vited the emperor to fix time and place.
Sporting gentlemen Of the period found
no takers probably at any odds when they
offered to bet that a royal match would
come off this time. But 1t did not. The
original letters in which these sovereigns
gave each other the lie so bravely were
found In the carriage of Joseph Bonaparte
after the battle of Vittoria, and sent by
the Duke of Wellington to Sir Walter
Scott. Where are they now? The latest
of such abortive cartels, and the most
amusing, was that sent by our George IT.
to Frederick William of Prussia. They
quarrelled over the protective marriage of
their children-a story so long and so
wearisome that IL bores one when Carlyle
himself recites it, Both monarchs were
in earnest, and both were as brave as men
could be. They named their seconds
Brigadier General Sutton for England,
Col Derschein for Russia The spot was
fixed, in the territory of Hildesheim, con-
venient alike to Hanover and Berlin. But
when It came to appointing the day, sa-
gacious Count Borck reminded Frederick
that he had been unwell lately. His hand
probably would be not so firm as usual
In short, he could not do himself justice,
Better wait until his nerves had recovered
their tone. That was the argument to
weigh with a king so passionately at
tached 20 reason and fair dealing that he
pursued them like mailman. Frederick
raved, but he postponed the meeting until
his health should be quite restored. And
meantime grave events distracted both
monarchs.
An odd duel which did come 10 fighting
was that of Sir Jeffrey Hudson, the dwarf
of Charles The who was served up in a
pie. Though less than four feet high.
Jeffrey had a great soul and not a little
talent. He accompanied Henrietta Maria
10 France. A young gentleman named
Crofts-wohse sister is all too famous In
history-bantered him 20 roughly one day,
and tho dwarf challenged his insu.ter.
Crofts could not refuse a knight, but he
armed himself with a squirt. They met
on horseback In the park at Nevers When
the word was given, jeffrey set off at fun
speed, and IN passing shot his foe through
the head. Mazarin was furious az this
breach Of the law, and the queen. in con-
sequence, was furious with Jeffrey Dis
missed from her service. he fell somehow
into the hands OF the Algerines and died
In that terrible slavery. n we remember
right
which ended with the challenge. Horace