"But this is a digression for which I apologise. I was led astray by my
subject and drifted quite unconsciously into an unpremeditated preface."
"Don't apologise," said M. de C., "your digression is charming."
"And besides," I continued, "you know I have a sort of moral claim on
your indulgence, for I might have displayed my erudition, and have
quoted names and dates and facts unearthed from dusty folios, and yet I
have mercifully spared you."
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" came from several arm-chairs.
"When one talks of duelling, there is a point that strikes one at the
outset, and though it is not directly connected with sword-play, it is
too nearly allied to the duel to be dismissed without notice. I mean
the duties of seconds.
"I shall not now enter upon the question of what those duties may be
before the combatants meet. These consist in pressing for moderate
counsels, in acting or even over-acting the part of peacemaker. You
all know as well as I do that no chance of arriving at an honourable
settlement should be neglected before allowing your men to go out.
"What should we think of the man who could forget that his friend's
honour and his friend's life are equally committed to his keeping, and
that he ought not, out of a quixotic regard for the one, to jeopardise
the other needlessly?
"When a man fights, his conviction that right is on his side is
everything. And therefore the correct attitude of a second is that
of a man, who acting calmly but firmly in his friend's interest seeks
to avoid a quarrel. Any other attitude is not only incorrect but even
renders him liable to be called to account for neglecting his bounden
duty.
"Personally, if after exhausting every effort to obtain a friendly
settlement I found that a meeting was unavoidable, although I was
thoroughly satisfied in my own mind that it was a case not of injured
honour but only of injured vanity, or of wounded pride, I should not
hesitate to withdraw. Duels played to the gallery are either odious or
absurd; they are out of date, and should be numbered with the obsolete
fashions of the past.