st duels
were very sanguinary, terminating frequently in the death of one, and
sometimes, as in the ballad, of both persons engaged. Nor was this all:
The seconds, who had nothing to do with the quarrel, fought stoutly,
_pour se desennuyer_, and often sealed with their blood their friendship
for their principal. A desperate combat, fought between Messrs Entraguet
and Caylus, is said to have been the first, in which this fashion of
promiscuous fight was introduced. It proved fatal to two of Henry the
Third's minions, and extracted from that sorrowing monarch an edict
against duelling, which was as frequently as fruitlessly renewed by his
successors. The use of rapier and poniard together,[A] was another cause
of the mortal slaughter in these duels, which were supposed, in the
reign of Henry IV., to have cost France at least as many of her nobles
as had fallen in the civil wars. With these double weapons, frequent
instances occurred, in which a duellist, mortally wounded, threw himself
within his antagonist's guard, and plunged his poniard into his heart.
Nay, sometimes the sword was altogether abandoned for the more sure
and murderous dagger. A quarrel having arisen betwixt the vicompte d'
Allemagne and the sieur de la Roque, the former, alleging the youth and
dexterity of his antagonist, insisted upon fighting the duel in their
shirts, and with their poniards only; a desperate mode of conflict,
which proved fatal to both. Others refined even upon this horrible
struggle, by chusing for the scene a small room, a large hogshead, or,
finally, a hole dug in the earth, into which the duellists descended, as
into a certain grave.--Must I add, that even women caught the phrenzy,
and that duels were fought, not only by those whose rank and character
rendered it little surprising, but by modest and well-born maidens!
_Audiguier Traite de Duel. Theatre D' Honneur,_ Vol. I.[B]

[Footnote A: It appears from a line in the black-letter copy of the
following ballad, that Wharton and Stuart fought with rapier and dagger:

With that stout Wharton was the first
Took _rapier_ and _poniard_ there that day.
_Ancient Songs,_ 1792, p. 204.]

[Footnote B: This folly ran to such a pitch, that no one was thought
worthy to be reckoned a gentleman, who had not tried his valour in at
least one duel; of which Lord Herbert gives the following instance:--A
young gentleman, desiring to marry a niece of Monsieur Disaucour,
_ecuyer_ to the du