WOMEN WHO FOUGHT DUELS.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 8, 21 January 1905, Page 8 (Supplement)

WOMEN WHO FOUGHT DUELS.

In 1886, Miss Shelley, an American girl, met Mme. Astie de Valsayre, the advocate of woman’s rights in France. The young American declared that the women doctors of France were far less skilled than the American women who have taken up the study of medicine. One word led to another, until the American at last called the Frenchwoman an idiot. This was too much for the Gallis blood of Mme. de Valsayre, so she challenged the other to a duel. As the American knew nothing of the use of foils, her antagonist gave her two weeks for practice. The contest took place near Waterloo. Despite the ominous name—ominous for the Frenchwoman—the American girl was defeated, and carried her hand in a sling for some time. The incident created a great sensation at the time. But duels among women have not been rare in the past. Under Louis XIII. two women of the highest aristocracy, the Marquise de Merles and the Countess de Pdlignac, had a duel with pistols in the Bois de Boulogne. The cause was the gallant Duke de Richelieu. Mme. d’Aubigny, better known as Mlle. Maupin, was challenged by three cavaliers, who took her to be a man. She put all three hors de combat. A diplomatic duel was that in which the Countess Lodiska Trautmannsdorff, a born Pole, was engaged. It was a tragic affair, indeed. A rival of her husband published an article which attempted to make the latter ridiculous. The Count—it was soon after their marriage, in 1893 —discovered that a certain Baron Rapp was the author of the article, and called him out on the field of honor. A friend of the baron's, with the count’s permission, represented the former in the contest, and killed Count Trautmannsdorff. The count’s second then called Baron Rapp himself to account, and in such a manner that the exasperated baron drew his sword and stabbed the second. What was his mortification and chagrin, however, when he discovered that the brave second was the Cbuntess Trautmannsdorff, wife of the dead principal. The countess died from the effects of the wound, and the baron ended his own life from shame.