CHAPTER X.

DUELLING IN FRANCE DURING THE REIGN OF LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH.

Picture of the Times.--Endeavours to check the Spirit of Duelling.--The celebrated “Edit des Duels.”--Severe pains and penalties.--Courts of Honour instituted.--Prize Medal for a Poem against Duelling.--Ecclesiastical frays.--Fighting with Crucifixes, Prayer-books, and Missals.--Private Outrages in high life.--The great Condé and the Comte des Rièux.--Duel between the Duke of Beaufort and the Duke de Nemours.--Between the Comte de Coligny and the Duke de Guise.--Between the Comte de Rochefort and the desperado Bréauté.--A singular Challenge.--Duel between La Frette and De Chalais.--Case of the Marquis de la Donze, Duel between the Counts de Brionne and d’Hautefort.--Quarrel of the Dukes de Luxembourg and Richelieu--And of the Prince de Conti and the Grand Prior of Vendôme.--A gambling duel.--Meeting between La Fontaine and an Officer.--Association for the Abolition of Duelling.--Its decline traced in the progress of Civilization.--The Point of Honour.--Coustard de Massis.--Defence of Duelling.--Frequency of Duels in the United States of America accounted for.--Montesquieu’s recapitulation of the grounds on which the erroneous views of the Point of Honour were based 151