We have now to examine the duel with swords from a different point of
view. The ignorant and inexperienced fencer, trying at the last moment
to find a desperate remedy for a desperate state of affairs, may be
dismissed, and we have now to consider the case of combatants who are
more or less evenly matched, and who are fighting in deadly earnest.
For as I have already said, a duel generally equalises the forces
on either side, except when a skilful and resolute swordsman meets
a clumsy hesitating duffer, or when a cool head is opposed to that
rash and furious bluster which more often than not leads a man to his
destruction.
"First and foremost, your invariable rule must be:--Distrust your
enemy; never be overconfident. I cannot too often repeat that the
unexpected always turns up just when you are least prepared for it. It
is this glorious uncertainty that to my mind makes fighting with swords
the only sort of duelling that is fair and sportsmanlike, the only sort
in which energy, courage, and resolution always give some chance to the
weaker combatant.
"In a duel fought with pistols, what a wretched rôle is assigned to the
combatants. Energy is of no use, courage of no value; you stand up like
a target to be shot at, without any possibility of defence. Courage
and cowardice meet on equal terms; the feeblest and most spiritless
sneak may succeed in defeating the most determined courage and the
manliest energy. A finger presses a trigger, and the thing is done.
Duelling with pistols has always seemed to me a monstrous practice. I
am delighted to see it disappearing from our manners, and going more
and more out of fashion every day.