Evening star., 1923-04-29
Some Strange Duels in Modern Settings
Described by Former Fencing Champion
Italian Expert Re-
calls Romantic Incl
dents Which Led to
Bitter Clashes With
Pistols and Swords.
R e c a m b boni Was
Principal in One
Battle and Second in
Another.
AS Told to Prosper Buhanelli.

AS Told to Prosper Buhanelli.
The old years OF staggering swords
men and aristocratic pistol affairs at
presentday dueiins. The custom Of
settling quarreIs by formal resort to
blade or firearms Is by no means extinct
In the Latin countries, least Of all, per-
with pointed weapons is to be found in
much Of It's ancient romantic color.
E. L. Recamboni. a former italian
fencing champion. who now resides In
New York.. tells Of two Of the stransest
duels that came into his long experience
as fencer and dueiist. In one he was
second. In the other principal
7 y villa rat Nice, twenty years
ago, lived an Austrian lady,
young. blonde and lovely. She
swan. danced and gambled. and
In every other way followed. the
whlms of saycty and high fashion
Reside her was ever seen a great, red
bearded Russian of middle years
FRINGE Ivan kushiloff, colonel of Cos
sacks. This prodigious trooper, a dis
tant relative of the lady's. had fallen
into an immense infatuation for her.
lie haunted her jealously and begged
sponded with merry flippancies.
In Nice. for a fling at gambling.
was the Italian Marquis of Monforte,
lieutenant in the Savoia cavalry He
was. in secret, the beautiful Aus
trian's lover.
One evening at club Monforte and
i sat beside each other in a game Of
baccarat. We were close friends
i kuShiloff. with another Russian, came
in. His face was flushed and his blue
eyes were stretched open. l saw his
checks turn as crimson as his beard
when his eyes encountered the Italian
cavalry lieutenant. With grave cour-
tesy he asked permission to join the
play. We assented and he sat down
After several hands he suddenly
threw his cards on the table, arose
and glared at Monforte.
You are cheating" he shouted.
Monforte leaped out of his chair
and for a moment the two men faced
each other with glances of fury. The
Italian turned to me,
You will be my second, please"
he said with suppressed violence.
Any weapons and any rules" He
walked across the room and waited,
gazing out of the window.
1t was perfectly clear to every one
at the table that the Russian had
used an ugly pretext to force duel.
He had. in fact. learned of the amour
between my friend and the woman
he loved, and, out of reluctance to
entangle her in scandal. had been
that score.
was very uneasy. The man was
obviously mad with hatred. and Mon
fortewas writhing over the villainous
accusation that had been thrown at
him. 1t promised to be no light arm
scratching encounter.
kushiloff nominated his fellow-R Rus
sian to be his second and they con-
ferred briefly. The second came to
me. saying that his principal demand
ed pistols at twenty PAGES. the toss Of
n 10-franc piece for the first shot, the
contestants to fire alternately until
one had been hit. With both men
known to be dead shots, this was the
most sanguinary possible condition.
Either would surely die with the first
shot. Who would fall and who would
live would lie with the turn of a coin.
] hesitated. went to Monforte and told
him OF the ugly conditions the Rus
sian wanted.
ANY weapons and any rules" he
waved me away with crazy impa-
tienCe.
x x X X
THUS ii was-pistols at twenty
l. PAGES, with the toss of 10-franc
piece for the first shot. We agreed
to meet the following sunrise in the