DUELS AND DUELING.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3134, 5 March 1879, Page 4

DUELS AND DUELING.

During the first French Revolution, in 1793, dueling was very common. Mirabeau and Camille Desmoulins both went out and met their foes. The eloquent Barnave had two duels. Danton was challenged by the Duke d'Artois, but declined. Two days after another Royalist asked him if he would rather be kicked than shot like a dog, to which Danton replied, as he was the challenged party, he would choose the guillotine, which retort he made good by causing the Royalist to be beheaded in a few days. Under the Second Empire there were many duels. The newspaper men had their full share. One editor was challenged for having stated that the sub-lieutenant!-s in the army devoured too mapy refreshments at social parties; the whole set challenged him. The editor ■elected one and " pinked " him ; his second flew at the editor and wounded him seriously ; and, as the journalist lay on his bed, the whole body of Republican editors called on him, and formed a Committee of combatants to fight for him. This was as late as 1858, and two years after, in 1860, the Due d'Aumale challenged the cousin of Louis Napoleon, Prince " Plon Plon." He consulted the Emperor, and Eugenic was so incensed that Bhe exclaimed: " The gentleman who wants to fight never asks questions or takes advice," and Louis "Napoleon added, with a wit more than cousinly, a few days after, "If ever a bullet is found in my cousin's stomach he will have to swallow it."