The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1911-09-28
THE CODE DUELLO'
It Had Its Origin In the Barba-
rous Wager of Battle.
QUEER coMBATs IN FRANCE

OHS dIat AHaiF OF 7oHof wa F0uQnt
Out In Balloons, and Another Was
Decided With Billiard Balls -
Weapons-A Duel Between Women.
The idea from which the code dueIIo
was developed came down from the
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 it 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 a fitting mode-of set
thing disputes between man and wife
TO eQualize as much as possible the
inequality of such a contest the man
was put in a pit in which he, was
buried up to the girdle. while one OF
his arms was bound r. his side.
Sometimes a barrel took ia place of
a pit. For a weapon th- u i a
baton or stick. the Wesai Ia of
sling with a stonp in i
The Story of tho dur tie ,Hodern
sense may be dated f1s.1 1927 when
Francis l. gave the lie TO the Emperor
Charles ". a proceeding W.. j nrDm-
ised to lead to a combat OF e4tf,
tional interest. but which never took
place because mutual friends recon
ciled 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 it up. and instead Of
a duel there was a quartet or a sextet
The day of dueling has passed long
since in England and America and
only fingers in France as a sort OF
harmless comedy.
Several duels have been fought be-
tween women, and there are two -
three instances of duels between .
man and q woman, in which the man
did not always get the better Of it.
One Of these duels between wome1
was that between two Frenchwomeu,
the Marquise de Nesle and the Com
tesse de Polignac. in the eighteenth
century. The two titled women wee
rivals for the affections OF a certain
duke, and an incident occurred which
brought on a bitter quarrel between
the two Jealous grande DANES.
AS a result Of this the marquise chat
Ienged the comtesse to fight her q 0uet
and the challenge vas accepted. Pb
tolls were chosen and the Boise de Boo
logne selected as the place OF meeting
When the women had taken theh
places the comtesse called out to tn
marquise, do you fire first. madan1e
and, mind you, don't miss me; DOM
imagine for a moment that / am going
to miss you'll" The marquise fired but
missed and hit a neighboring tree. The
comtesse smiled. "Your hand trembIeA
with passion. madame" cried she
''You are LOST
The comtesse aimed deliberately 81
che head of the marquise and fired
The marquise fell with a great cry -
of one who had received a mortal
wound, but the bullet had only cut
away a minute piece of her shell-hke
ear. All Paris laughed-even the duke
Two duels have been fought from
balloons. The most interesting was
that between M. de Grandpre and M
LIE Pique, which took place on May >
1908. Why they selected balloons 4
not clear. but possibly because balloon
ing was one Of the crazes of the day.
Each duelist. with his second, gOt
into a balloon in the field adjoining the
Tuileries. and in the presence OF 8
great crowd the cords were cut and uT
shot the balloons. The combatantz
were armed with blunderbusses. Al
about 800 feet from the ground L.
Pique fired. and Grandpre Immediately
responded. The latter's shot was e
fectiye and penetrated LIE Pique's bal
loon. which rapidly descended, and La
Pique and his second were dashed 70
death on a housetop. while GrandprS
and his second descended safely SOM
seven leagues away.
A duel with billiard balls took plaet
in France Sept. 4. 1843, between twt
young men named. respectively, lie
FAINT and Melfant. They ~quarreleC
over a game of billiards and decided
to fight a duel with the balls witt
which they were playing. They drew
lots for the first throw. and MelfaH'
won. 81 am going to XIII you at thu
first throw said Melfant, aud. aim
ing the missile. he hurled it at Lefant
striking him in the center OF b o
head and killing him almost instantly
Among curious American duels wa
that fought at the Oaks. the famou'
New Orleans dueIing ground. betweeI
NJ. Pedesclaux. a creole, and a retirel
French cavalry officer, in ~antebeIluH
days. The duel was fought with bot
combatants mounted on magnihcen
stations and armed with broadswords
1t was a fierce battle, in which tn
French officer was killed.
4, Consolation.
sT have hnen a drudge all my lie