romances, a woman is righted and justified by the arms of her lover from a calumnious accusation. Nor is it less remarkable that, in conformity with the Teutonic custom, women were refused the right of having champions. A woman challenged by a man was obliged to fight in person. But it must be admitted that the mode of fighting prescribed in such cases tended to equalize the combat, to a certain extent at least. The man was planted, as it were, in a hole dug in the ground, and deep enough to enclose him up to the middle. This gave a great advantage to the woman, who could vault round him, and belabour his head with a strap or sling loaded with a heavy stone at the end. The man was armed with a club; but if in aiming at the woman he missed three times, so that the club struck the ground three times, he was declared vanquished. The Scandinavian combatants frequently selected small islands for their meetings, in order to prevent either of the parties from fleeing; these islands were called Holms, and the duels Holmsgang. Sometimes a hide, seven ells long, was spread upon the ground; at others, the lists were enclosed by circular stakes, or marked off with stones, in order to circumscribe their limits. Whoever stepped beyond this barrier, or was beaten out of the circle, was considered conquered. The kamping matches of our Norfolk and Suffolk peasantry are traces of these encounters, which were called kempfs.* * Millingen. had not the heart of a man, and the other replied, “I am as good a man as yourself," a meeting was to follow. If the aggressor came to the ground, but did not find the offended, the latter was to be considered dishonoured, and held unfit to give testimony in any cause, and deprived, moreover, of the power to make a will. But if, on the other hand, the insulted party came forward, and the offending party did not make his appearance, the former was to call him aloud by name three times, and if he did not appear, make a mark upon the ground, when the offender would be held as false and infamous. When both parties met, and the offender was killed, his antagonist had to pay a half compensation for his death; but if the aggressor succumbed, his fate was to be attributed to temerity and an unguarded expression, therefore his death called for no compensation. In Norway, any gentleman who refused satisfaction to another was said to have lost his law, and could not be admitted as evidence upon oath. According to the Danish laws, it was held that force is a better arbiter in contestations than words, and in the judicial combats, which frequently arose on the slightest provocation, no champion was allowed to fight in the cause of another, however feeble or unskilled in arms he might be.* It would be difficult to cite a single example of the employment of a champion in Scandinavia, unless we admit the authority of a Danish ballad, in which, according to the ordinary intrigue of *Millingen; Fougeroux de Campignuelles. romances, a woman is righted and justified by the arms of her lover from a calumnious accusation. Nor is it less remarkable that, in conformity with the Teutonic custom, women were refused the right of having champions. A woman challenged by a man was obliged to fight in person. But it must be admitted that the mode of fighting prescribed in such cases tended to equalize the combat, to a certain extent at least. The man was planted, as it were, in a hole dug in the ground, and deep enough to enclose him up to the middle. This gave a great advantage to the woman, who could vault round him, and belabour his head with a strap or sling loaded with a heavy stone at the end. The man was armed with a club; but if in aiming at the woman he missed three times, so that the club struck the ground three times, he was declared vanquished. The Scandinavian combatants frequently selected small islands for their meetings, in order to prevent either of the parties from fleeing; these islands were called Holms, and the duels Holmsgang. Sometimes a hide, seven ells long, was spread upon the ground; at others, the lists were enclosed by circular stakes, or marked off with stones, in order to circumscribe their limits. Whoever stepped beyond this barrier, or was beaten out of the circle, was considered conquered. The kamping matches of our Norfolk and Suffolk peasantry are traces of these encounters, which were called kempfs.* * Millingen. 5. BELGIUM. In the year 1554 Jean de Henin-Liétard, Seigneur de Boussu, in Hainault, being at a bal masqué at the Court of Charles V., challenged to a meeting on the following morning a mask who had tormented him with incessant raillery during the entire evening. "I shall be there, Boussu," replied the mask, still chaffing him. Jean de Henin, on the following morning, went to the place appointed, and there found waiting for him a chevalier armed cap-à-pié, who, raising his vizor, exclaimed:-"Count de Boussu, did I not tell you I would be here ?" The The count was petrified with astonishment. chevalier was no other than the Emperor Charles V. himself. Instantly he fell at the feet of the emperor and requested him to give him permission to adopt as the motto of his arms the very words used by his imperial majesty Je y serai, Boussu, "I shall be there, Boussu." The emperor consented and the motto continued to figure on the arms of the challenger's descendants. A DUEL OF TWENTY AGAINST TWENTY. Shortly after the capture of Fort Saint-André by the Prince Maurice of Nassau, the Marquis de Bréauté, a captain of cavalry, had a quarrel with a lieutenant CHAPTER X. DUELS FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY TO THE MIDDLE OF THE EIGHTEENTH. 1. FRANCE. ABOUT the commencement of the period to which I am referring, or immediately preceding it, there figured in France an English nobleman and duellist, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, then our ambassador at the French Court, to whom I have already alluded, as the authority who stated that there was scarcely a Frenchman deemed worth looking on who had not killed his man in a duel. To show the prevalence of duelling in France, and the esteem in which duellists were held, he relates the case of a M. Mennon, who, being desirous to marry a niece of M. Disancour, thought to be an heiress, was thus answered by him,—“ My friend, it is not time yet to marry. I will tell you what you must do if you will be a brave man. You must first kill in single comb: two or three men; then marry, and beget two or thi |