DUEL FOR LADY'S HAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 172, 7 December 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

DUEL FOR LADY'S HAND.

DESPERATE COMBAT IN A WOOD.

The claim to Mi'ss Maria Foster, a Leeds centenarian, that she is the only living Englishwoman who was the cause of a real duel is countered by a remarkable story of a 30th century due! between two lovers. In Miss Foster's case it was SO years ago when a Wellington was not immune from challenge, by a. political opponent, and "pistols for two and coffee for one" often proved a stern reality. Two men were suitors for her hand, one of them a cousin. They fought with pistols. and one fell with a bullet through his heart. The tragedy cast a shadow over her young life that was never dispelled. She is still a spinster. In these more prosaic days, when neither law nor custom lends countenance to duelling, and the victor is as likely as not to hang, men arrange their disputes and rivalries in other ways. But the method recently adopted by two rivals for a Liverpool lady's hand is proof that the spirit of the armored knight is alive in his modern counterpart.

They were both about 30. able and vigorous men, and the lady found herself incapable of making a choice, though fond of both. One of the lovers was related to her, and had known her from childho6d, had gone abroad, and in the course of his travels became imbued" with

the notion of mediaeval chivalry whUh seemed to harmonise with v a romantic strain in his blood.

In the ballads and legends of the Middle Ages one meets many a story of the tasks allotted by a much-sought damsel of high degree to her gallants, the prize for the best performance to be herself. So also did this modern knight errant have recourse to such a way of putting the Qordian knot. He challenged the other—also a man of spirit, but more in tune with the sober realities of the age in which we live—not to mortal combat, but a duel first of wit, then of endurance. Seconds were dispensed with, and the other man agreeing, they solemnly arranged the conditions of the struggle.

m'KL OF WORDS. First there was to be a dialectical duel into which all the subtleties of sword play were to be introduced —retort and repartee and clean but stinging innuendo to take the place of parry and turn; a fight between two active and intellectual minds, in which the points would he adjudged by a scholarly and critical referee. Then would the combatants strip and engage in a wrestle a l'outrance. till one man was disabled or even killed. Both agreed that the vanquished should retire and leave the ladv to the victor.

For the first stage of the combat it was not difficult to find a judge, and the challenged man won. but the friend, who held a prominent position in Liverpool commercial circles, declined to be drawn into the more serious part of the affair.

So the rivals decided to light it out without witnesses in a deserted, coign of "Bidston Woods. They stripped to the waist, shook hands, and there followed a combat Which must have been halfbox, half-wrestle, with no rulos except those principles of fair play innate in an Englishman. It ,was a terible tussle, for they fought for an hour and a-half. now one on top. now the other. Their trousers were in ribbons, and from pummelled nose and swollen lip flowed a red stream down their heaving breasts. Bruised and battered tliey circled round, each trying to give the other a coup de grace which might give the winner the treasured prize. One of the rules of this strange struggle was that when a man was down the other should not damage him as he lay but give him reasonable time to rise. At length the challenged man put forth all his strength in one mighty heave, and after lifting his adversary nil' the ground floored him. falling on him in Hnckensi'hniidt style and pinning the prostrate man to the ground.

The challenger made no movement, and the other man loosened his grip, fearing that his opponent, might have been seriously hurt by the fall. But slowlv the ''hallenger rose to his feet, and with the. solitary word, "l'eccavi!'' solemnly surrendered his claim to the lady's hand. Their enmity vanished, and each assisted the other, by recourse to a brook close by. in removing as far as possible the crimson stains of the most Quixotic combat ever fought in the twentieth century. Then they dressed, each helping the other when certain wearied and stiff muscles refused to do their work. Tn accordance with the conditions laid down the defeated man called on the ladv and told her the, whole story, howhe had been beaten twice and was in honor bound to retire from the field. Instead of awarding herself as a consolation prize to this honorable loser the lady entered fully into the spirit of the pact, and was married to the victor three weeks afterwards. All three are ' still living in Liverpool.