in the sum of 50 pounds as
security for good behavior for twelve months.[85]

But though the Virginia gentleman, in the days when he still retained
the prosaic nature of the merchant, frowned upon duelling, it was
inevitable that in time he must become one of its greatest advocates.
The same conditions that instilled into him a taste for war, could not
fail in the end to make him fond of duelling. We are not surprised
then to find that, at the period of the Revolutionary War, duelling
began to grow in popularity in Virginia and that from that time until
the Civil War appeals to the code were both frequent and deadly.
Writers have sought to find a reason for this change in the military
customs introduced by a long war, or in the influence of the French.
There can be no doubt, however, that the rapid increase of duelling at
this time was due to the fact that conditions were ripe for its
reception. A spirit had been fostered by the life upon the plantation
which made it distasteful to gentlemen to turn to law for redress for
personal insults. The sense of dignity, of self reliance there
engendered, made them feel that the only proper retaliation against an
equal was to be found in a personal encounter.

Perhaps the most beautiful, the most elevating feature of the chivalry
of the Middle Ages was the homage paid to women. The knight always
held before him the image of his lady as an ideal of what was pure and
good, and this ideal served to make him less a savage and more a good
and true man. Although he was rendered no less brave and warlike by
this influence, it inclined him to tenderness and mercy, acting as a
curb to the ferocity that in his fathers had been almost entirely
unrestrained. It made him recognize the sacredness of womanhood. The
true value of the wife and the mother had never before been known. In
none of the ancient communities did women attain the position of
importance that they occupied in the age of chivalry, for neither the
Roman matron nor the Greek mother could equal the feudal lady in
dignity and influence.

And this was the direct outcome of the feudal system. The ancient
baron led a life of singular isolation, for he was separated in his
fortress home from frequent intercourse with other men of equal rank,
and around him were only his serfs and retainers, none of whom he
could make his companions. The only equals with whom he came in
contact day after day were his wife and children. Naturally