He Was No Sooner Waked From His Reverie, Than He Begged
Pardon, And Offered To Make All Proper Concessions For What He
Had Done Through Mere Inadvertency.
The marquis would have
admitted his excuses, had there been any precedent of such an
affront being washed away without blood.
A conclave of honour was
immediately assembled; and after long disputes, they agreed, that
an involuntary offence, especially from such a kind of man, d'un
tel homme, might be attoned by concessions. That you may have
some idea of the small beginning, from which many gigantic
quarrels arise, I shall recount one that lately happened at
Lyons, as I had it from the mouth of a person who was an ear and
eye witness of the transaction. Two Frenchmen, at a public
ordinary, stunned the rest of the company with their loquacity.
At length, one of them, with a supercilious air, asked the
other's name. "I never tell my name, (said he) but
in a whisper." "You may have very good reasons for keeping it
secret," replied the first. "I will tell you," (resumed the
other): with these words he rose; and going round to him,
pronounced, loud enough to be heard by the whole company, "Je
m'appelle Pierre Paysan; et vous etes un impertinent." "My name
is Peter Peasant, and you are an impertinent fellow." So saying,
he walked out: the interrogator followed him into the street,
where they justled, drew their swords, and engaged. He who asked
the question was run through the body; but his relations were so
powerful, that the victor was obliged to fly his country, was
tried and condemned in his absence; his goods were confiscated;
his wife broke her heart; his children were reduced to beggary;
and he himself is now starving in exile. In England we have not
yet adopted all the implacability of the punctilio. A gentleman
may be insulted even with a blow, and survive, after having once
hazarded his life against the aggressor. The laws of honour in
our country do not oblige him either to slay the person from whom
he received the injury, or even to fight to the last drop of his
own blood. One finds no examples of duels among the Romans, who
were certainly as brave and as delicate in their notions of
honour as the French. Cornelius Nepos tells us, that a famous
Athenian general, having a dispute with his colleague, who was of
Sparta, a man of a fiery disposition, this last lifted up his
cane to strike him. Had this happened to a French petit maitre,
death must have ensued: but mark what followed - The Athenian, far
from resenting the outrage, in what is now called a gentlemanlike
manner, said, "Do, strike if you please; but hear me." He never
dreamed of cutting the Lacedemonian's throat; but bore with his
passionate temper, as the infirmity of a friend who had a
thousand good qualities to overbalance that defect.
I need not expatiate upon the folly and the mischief which are
countenanced and promoted by the modern practice of duelling.
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