Duels had at one time become so frequent in France as to require
particular enactments for their prevention; as, for example, when the debt
about which any dispute occurred did not amount to five-pence. The
regulation of the mode in which the barbarous custom might be maintained
had engaged the attention of several of the French kings. In 1205, Philip
Augustus restricted the length of the club, with which single combat was
then pursued, to three feet; and in 1260, Saint Louis abolished the
practice of deciding civil matters by duelling. With the revival of
literature and of the arts, national manners became ameliorated, and duels
necessarily declined. It was still, however, not unusual for the French to
promote or to behold those single combats over which the pages of romance
have thrown a delusive charm, and which were, in early times, hallowed, in
the opinion of the vulgar, by their accompanying superstitious ceremonies.
When any quarrel had been referred to this mode of decision, the parties
met on the appointed day, and frequently in an open space, overshadowed by
the walls of a convent, which thus lent its sanction to the bloody scene.
From day-break the people were generally employed in erecting scaffolds
and stages, and in placing themselves upon the towers and ramparts of the
adjacent buildings. About noon, the cavalcade was usually seen to arrive
at the door of the lists; then the herald cried, "Let the appellant
appear," and his summons was answered by the entrance of the challenger,
armed cap-a-pie, the escutcheon suspended from his neck, his visor lowered,
and an image of some national saint in his hand. He was allowed to pass
within the lists, and conducted to his tent. The accused person likewise
appeared, and was led in the same manner to his tent. Then the herald, in
his robe embroidered with fleur-de-lis, advanced to the centre of the
lists, and exclaimed, "Oyez, oyez! lords, knights, squires, people of all
condition, our sovereign lord, by the grace of God, King of France,
forbids you, on pain of death or confiscation of goods, either to cry out,
to speak, to cough, to spit, or to make signs." During a profound silence,
in which nothing but the murmurs of the unconscious streamlet, or the
chirping of birds might be heard, the combatants quitted their tents, to
take individually the two first oaths. When the third oath was to be
administered, it was customary for them to meet, and for the marshal to
take the right hand of each and to place it on the cross. Then the
functions of the priest began, and the usual address, endeavouring to
conciliate the angry passions of the champions, and to remind them of
their common dependence on the Supreme Being, may have tended to benefit
the bystanders, although it generally failed of its effect with the
combatants.
If the parties persisted, the last oath was administered. The combatants
were obliged to swear solemnly that they had neither about them nor their
horses, stone, nor herb, nor charm, nor invocation; and that they would
fight only with their bodily strength, their weapons, and their horses.
The crucifix and breviary were then presented to them to kiss, the parties
retired into their tents, the heralds uttering their last admonition to
exertion and courage, and the challengers rushed forth from their tents,
which were immediately dragged from within the lists. Then the marshal of
the field having cried out, "Let them pass, let them pass," the seconds
retired. The combatants instantly mounted their horses, and the contest
commenced.--_Foreign Review_.
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