The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1911-09-08
THE CODE DUELL0
1t Had Its Origin In the Barba-
rous Wager of Battle.
QUEER COMBATS IN FRANCE.
One Fatal Affair Of Honor Was Fought
Out In Balloons, and Another Was
Decided With Billiard Balls as
Weapons-A Duel Between Women.

north with the barbarians who over
ran the Roman empire. They brought
with them the ordeal or wager Of bat
tie or judicial duel, which sprang from
their idea to fight IL out and let the
guilt or innocence Of the accused be
determined by the result Of the battle.
Strangely enough, the judicial duel
was considered n fitting mode OF set
Ting disputes between man and wife.
To equaliAe as much as possible the
inequality Of such a contest the man
was put in n pit in which he was
buried up to the girdle, while one OF
his arms was bound 20 his side.
Sometimes a barrel took the place OF
"A pit. For n weapon the man had a
baton or stick, the woman a kind OF
sling with a stone in 1t.
The story Of the duel in the modern
sense may be dated from 1927, when
Francis /. gave the lie to the Emperor
Charles ", proceeding which prom
ised to lead to a combat of excep-
tional interest, but which never took
place because mutual friends recon
clled the pugnacious mOnarchs.
BY this time the judicial duel had
been gradually abolished, and the pri-
vate duel, fought before witnesses,
who seconded the principals in the en-
counter, came in. Sometimes the sec
onds also mixed 1t up, and instead Of
a duel there was quartet or a seXtet
The day Of dueling has passed long
since in England and America and
only fingers in France as a sort or
harmless comedy.
Several duels have been fought be-
tween women, and there are two or
three instances OF duels between a
man and woman, in which the man
did not always get the better Of it.
One Of these duels between women
was that between two Frenchwomen,
the Marquse de Nesle and the Com
tesse de Polignac, in the eighteenth
century. The two titled women were
rivals for the affections Of n certain
duke. and an incident occurred which
brought on n bitter quarrel between
the two jealous grande danes.
As n result Of this the marquise chal-
lenged the cOmtesse to fight her duel,
and the challenge was accepted. Pis-
tolls were chosen and the Boise de BOu-
logne selected as the place OF meeting.
When the women had taken their
places the cOmtesse called out TO the
marquise, "Do you fire first, madame,
and, mind you, don't miss me; don't
imagine for a moment that l am going
to miss you!" The marquise fired, but
missed and hit neighboring tree. The
comtesse smiled. "Your hand trembles
with passion, madame" cried she.
"You are lostv .
The comtesse aimed deliberately at
the head of the marquise and fired.
The marquise fell with great cry as
Of one who had received mortal
wound. but the bullet had only cut
away a minute piece of her shell-like
ear. All Paris laughed-even the duke.
Two duels have been fought from
balloons. The most interesting was
that between NJ. de Grandpre and Nj.
lie PiQue, which took place on May ),
1908. Why they selected balloons Is
not clear, but possibly because balloon
Ing was one OF the crazes of the day.
Each duclist, with his second. got
into a balloon In the field adjoining the
Tuileries. and in the presence Of a
great crowd the cords were cut and up
shot the balloons. The combatantS
we're armed with blundcrhusses. At
about 500 feet from the ground lie
Piuue fired. and Grandpre Immediately
responded. The lattcr'S shot was eff
fective and penetrated lie Pique's bal
loon, which rapidly descended, and lie
Pique and his second were dashed to
death on a housotop, while Grandpre
and his second descended safely some
seven leagues away.
A duel with billiard balls took place
In France Sept /, 1913, between two
young men named, respectively, LIE
FAINT and Mefant. They quarreled
over a game Of billiards and decided
to fight n duel with the balls with
which they were playing They drew
lots for the first throw, aud Mclfant
won. Il am going 10 kill you ut the
first throw" said Nclfant. and, aim
ing the missile, he hurled it at Lefant,
striking him In the center of the fore
head and killing him almost instantly.
Among curious American ducls was
that fought at the Oaks, the famous
New Orleans dueling ground. between
NJ. Pedesclaux, creole, and retired
French cavalry officer, i'm antebellum
days. The duel was fought with both
combatants mounted on magnificent
stations and armed with broadswords.
II was a fierce battle, in which the
French officer was killed.