A DUEL FOUGHT BY LADIES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1445, 15 January 1887, Page 2

A DUEL FOUGHT BY LADIES.

♦ • ! An extraordinary duel hss been fought ' on the field of Waterloo, between two ( female medical students. It appears that < they had a difference, not unconnected with a certain handsome professor of surgery of the opposite b&x, and that one i of them, a JVldlle. Valsavre, threw her i gauntlets m the face of the other, an American lady, by name Mies Shelby. . This resulted m a challenge and its * acceptance, the' weapons ohosn being * rapiers. Th« affaired honneur duly came t oft on the famous battlefield, and a M. c Jean Bosander thus describes its incidents ; j

I —He followed two carriages which came m on the road by Hougomont m the hope of selling some photographs, views, and bullets to their occupants. They drove rapidly, however, past the usual objectß of inrerest, and finally stopped near a clump of woods Oo the party dismounting, he was surprieed to see no man except the driver. He hurried up by a short cut through the woods and suddenly came upon the party, two of the ladies fighting with swords, "It almost took away my sight," he say a ; " they fenced like demons for a few minutes without any gaining an advantage. Then they stopped to take breath, each lady resting, standing with the point of her sword on the ground. They wore neither bonnetß nor upper garments. The other ladies stood at angles with the two fighters, One of them called for her handkerchief and wiped her hands. She wsb stouter than the other. In a minute they were fencing again, and it is a mercy that neither of them were killed. At last the stout one m making a vicious lunge over reached. The other simply stepped aside, and, quick as a flash, stabbed the stout one m the upper right arm. An inch to the left and it would have pierced her bosom through and through. At the sight of the little trickle of blood, one of the ladies screamed, and the stout lady, Miss Shelby, fainted. A tall, gaunt woman m speotacles gave her something to drink from a flask, and two others bound up her wounds like real doctors. The other woman helped the girl who stabbed her opponent to dreßs. AH shook hands, and then drove off. I came out and shouted to them, but they only went faster." Mdlle. ValsaVre, who escaped without a scratch, has returned hastily to France, and Miss Shelby, the American lady who received the wound m the arm, is m concealment.