Different versions of the following anecdotes, respecting Mr. G---- (an
English officer), may be abroad, but we give them as detailed to us:--
Mr. G----, a young English _militaire_ of fashion and spirit, not a
great while since, had the fortune to fight a couple of duels in Paris,
under circumstances rather curious. He was acquainted with a French
gentleman, whom nature had endowed with more tongue than with discretion
and good principles;--in fact, it came to the ears of Mr. G----, that
the loquacious Gaul was a revolutionist in politics, a professed atheist
in religion, and (how could it happen otherwise?) a man devoid of the
most ordinary principles of honour, probity, and social decencies. He
was in the habit of slandering and vituperating, in the most violent
manner; and, in the well-thronged _cafés_ and _salons_ of the
French capital, not only his _bon ami_ Mr. G----, but everything
and everybody _English_, until our young officer, provoked by his
insolence beyond all patience, taking the advice of a friend, challenged
him. The Gaul, affecting to be highly irritated, at first protested that
"he would never consent to _degrade_ himself by fighting any of the
d--d English;" and, with horrid imprecations, parodied Caligula's
memorable malice, by wishing that "all the cursed members of that
infernal nation were but one body, which he might destroy at a shot!"
However, that no imputation might rest on his courage, he consented to
meet his adversary--for whom, by the way, he expressed the most thorough
contempt--next morning, at the _Bois de Boulogne_. They met; and
this miserable man received the reward of his perfidy and malice, by a
ball through his heart!
Some days after this affair, Mr. G---- being grossly insulted by another
French gentleman--a notorious duellist, and, if we mistake not, an ally
of the deceased--felt himself obliged to notice the affront in a similar
manner. Monsieur ---- treated the challenge with supreme contempt,
begged to assure Mr. G---- that he was a dead man if they met, but
professed himself much at his service if he was really bent on quitting
this world, and thought the most appropriate spot for so doing would be
the _Champs d'Elysées_. Thither next morning the parties repaired.
Mr. G---- found his antagonist already on the ground, and amusing
himself by firing at a mark: viz.--his glove, attached to the branch of
a tree, which he shot at with such precision as to send his bullet, at
every successive trial, through the aperture in the glove made by the
first. Monsieur was, in truth, a splendid and formidable marksman. Mr.
G----, in preparing for the duel, happening to cast his eyes on his
adversary, perceived that he had slily placed his arm in such a
position, as must ensure, on the _honourable_ gentleman's fire, the
fulfilment of his vaunt to make him "a dead man." No time was to be
lost; the young Englishman's life depended upon dispatch; and, instantly
firing, he proved himself as good a marksman as Monsieur ----, by
sending his ball, with the utmost precision, through the wily
manoeuvrer's elbow, from whence it passed into his side; and he
dropped down, disabled, if not dead. Thus did British spirit twice
humble, in a remarkable manner, French insolence and presumption!
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