When the restoration of the Bourbons took place, a variety of
circumstances combined to render duelling so common, that scarcely a
day passed without one at least of these hostile meetings. Amongst the
French themselves there were two parties always ready to distribute to
each other "des coups d'epees"--the officers of Napoleon's army and the
Bourbonist officers of the Garde du Corps. Then, again, there was the
irritating presence of the English, Russian, Prussian, and Austrian
officers in the French capital. In the duels between these soldiers
and the French, the latter were always the aggressors. At Tortoni's,
on the Boulevards, there was a room set apart for such quarrelsome
gentlemen, where, after these meetings, they indulged in riotous
champagne breakfasts. At this cafe might be seen all the most notorious
duellists, amongst whom I can call to mind an Irishman in the Garde du
Corps, W--, who was a most formidable fire-eater. The number of duels
in which he had been engaged would seem incredible in the present day:
he is said to have killed nine of his opponents in one year!
The Marquis de H--, descended of an ancient family in Brittany, also in
the Garde du Corps, likewise fought innumerable duels, killing many of
his antagonists. I have heard that on entering the army he was not of
a quarrelsome disposition, but was laughed at, and bullied into
fighting by his brother officers; and, like a wild beast that had once
smelt blood, from the day of his first duel he took a delight in such
fatal scenes--being ever ready to rush at and quarrel with any one.
The marquis has now, I am glad to say, subsided into a very quiet,
placable, and peacemaking old gentleman; but at the time I speak of he
was much blamed for his duel with F--, a young man of nineteen. While
dining at a cafe he exclaimed, "J'ai envie de tuer quelq'un," and
rushed out into the street and to the theatres, trying to pick a
quarrel; but he was so well known that no one was found willing to
encounter him. At last, at the Theatre de la Porte St. Martin, he
grossly insulted this young man, who was, I think, an eleve of the
Ecole Polytechnique, and a duel took place, under the lamp-post near
the theatre, with swords. He ran F-- through the body, and left him
dead upon the ground.
The late Marshal St. A-- and General J-- were great duellists at this
time, with a whole host of others whose names I forget. The meetings
generally took place in the Bois de Boulogne, and the favourite weapon
of the French was the small sword, or the sabre; but foreigners, in
fighting with the French, who were generally capital swordsmen, availed
themselves of the use of pistols. The ground for a duel with pistols
was marked out by indicating two spots, which were twenty-five paces
apart; the seconds then generally proceeded to toss up who should have
the first shot; when the principals were placed, and the word was given
to fire.
The Cafe Foy, in the Palais Royal, was the principal place of
rendezvous for the Prussian officers, and to this cafe the French
officers on half-pay frequently proceeded in order to pick quarrels
with their foreign invaders; swords were quickly drawn, and frequently
the most bloody frays took place: these originated not in any personal
hatred, but from national jealousy on the part of the French, who could
not bear the sight of foreign soldiers in their capital; which, ruled
by the great captain of the age, had, like Rome, influenced the rest of
the world. On one occasion our Guards, who were on duty at the Palais
Royal, were called out to put an end to one of these encounters, in
which fourteen Prussians and ten Frenchmen were either killed or
wounded.
The French took every opportunity of insulting the English; and very
frequently, I am sorry to say, those insults were not met in a manner
to do honour to our character, Our countrymen in general were very
pacific; but the most awkward customer the French ever came across was
my fellow-countryman the late gallant Colonel Sir Charles S--, of the
Engineers, who was ready for them with anything: sword, pistols, sabre,
or fists--he was good at all; and though never seeking a quarrel, he
would not put up with the slightest insult. He killed three Frenchmen
in Paris, in quarrels forced upon him. I remember, in October, 1815,
being asked by a friend to dine at Beauvillier's, in the Rue Richelieu,
when Sir Charles S--, who was well known to us, occupied a table at the
farther end of the room. About the middle of the dinner we heard a
most extraordinary noise, and, on looking up, perceived that it arose
from S--'s table; he was engaged in beating the head of a
smartly-dressed gentleman with one of the long French loaves so well
known to all who have visited France. Upon asking the reason of such
rough treatment on the part of our countryman, he said he would serve
all Frenchmen in the same manner if they insulted him. The offence, it
seems, proceeded from the person who had just been chastised in so
summary a manner: he had stared and laughed at S-- in a rude way, for
having ordered three bottles of wine to be placed upon his table. The
upshot of all this was a duel, which took place next day at a place
near Vincennes, and in which S-- shot the unfortunate jester.
When Sir Charles returned to Valenciennes, where he commanded the
Engineers, he found on his arrival a French officer waiting to avenge
the death of his relation, who had only been shot ten days before at
Vincennes. They accordingly fought, before S-- had time even to shave
himself or eat his breakfast; he having only just arrived in his coupe
from Paris. The meeting took place in the fosse of the fortress, and
the first shot from S--'s pistol killed the French officer, who had
actually travelled in the diligence from Paris for the purpose, as he
boasted to his fellow-travellers, of killing an Englishman.
I recollect dining, in 1816, at Hervey Aston's, at the Hotel Breteuil
in the Rue de Rivoli, opposite the Tuileries, where I met Seymour
Bathurst and Captain E--, of the Artillery, a very good-looking man.
After dinner, Mrs. Aston took us as far as Tortoni's, on her way to the
Opera. On entering the cafe, Captain E-- did not touch his hat
according to the custom of the country, but behaved himself, a la John
Bull, in a noisy and swaggering manner; upon which, General, then
Colonel J--, went up to E-- and knocked off his hat, telling him that
he hoped he would in future behave himself better. Aston, Bathurst,
and I, waited for some time, expecting to see E-- knock J-- down, or,
at all events, give him his card as a preliminary to a hostile meeting,
on receiving such an insult; but he did nothing. We were very much
disgusted and annoyed at a countryman's behaving in such a manner, and,
after a meeting at my lodgings, we recommended Captain E--, in the
strongest terms, to call out Colonel J--, but he positively refused to
do so, as he said it was against his principles. This specimen of the
white feather astonished us beyond measure. Captain E-- shortly after
received orders to start for India, where I believe he died of
cholera--in all probability of FUNK.
I do not think that Colonel J-- would altogether have escaped with
impunity, after such a gratuitous insult to an English officer; but he
retired into the country almost immediately after the incident at
Tortoni's, and could not be found.
There were many men in our army who did not thus disgrace the British
uniform when insulted by the French. I cannot omit the names of my old
friends Captain Burges, Mike Fitzgerald, Charles Hesse, and Thoroton;
each of whom, by their willingness to resent gratuitous offences,
showed that insults to Englishmen were not to be committed with
impunity. The last named officer having been grossly insulted by
Marshal V--, without giving him the slightest provocation, knocked him
down: this circumstance caused a great sensation in Paris, and brought
about a court of inquiry, which ended in the acquittal of Captain
Thoroton. My friend, B--, though he had only one leg, was a good
swordsman, and contrived to kill a man at Lyons who had jeered him
about the loss of his limb at Waterloo. My old and esteemed friend,
Mike Fitzgerald, son of Lord Edward and the celebrated Pamela, was
always ready to measure swords with the Frenchmen; and, after a brawl
at Silves', the then fashionable Bonapartist cafe at the corner of the
Rue Lafitte and the Boulevard, in which two of our Scotch countrymen
showed the white feather, he and another officer placed their own cards
over the chimney-piece in the principal room of the cafe, offering to
fight any man, or number of men, for the frequent public insult offered
to Britons. This challenge, however, was never answered.
A curious duel took place at Beauvais during the occupation of France
by our army. A Captain B--, of one of our cavalry regiments quartered
in that town, was insulted by a French officer, B-- demanded
satisfaction, which was accepted; but the Frenchman would not fight
with pistols. B-- would not fight with swords; so at last it was agreed
that they should fight on horseback, with lances. The duel took place
in the neighbourhood of Beauvais, and a crowd assembled to witness it.
B-- received three wounds; but, by a lucky prod, eventually killed his
man. B-- was a fine-looking man and a good horseman. My late friend
the Baron de P--, so well known in Parisian circles, was second to the
Frenchman on this occasion.
A friend of mine--certainly not of a quarrelsome turn, but considered
by his friends, on the contrary, as rather a good-natured man--had
three duels forced upon him in the course of a few weeks. He had
formed a liaison with a person whose extraordinary beauty got him into
several scrapes and disputes. In January 1 1817, a few days after this
acquaintance had been formed, Jack B--, well known at that time in the
best society in London, became madly in love with the fair lady, and
attempted one night to enter her private box at Drury Lane; this my
friend endeavoured to prevent; violent language was used, and a duel
was the consequence. The parties met a few miles from London, in a
field close to the Uxbridge Road, where B--, who was a hot-tempered
man, did his best to kill my friend; but, after the exchange of two
shots, without injury to either party, they were separated by their
seconds. B-- was the son of Lady Bridget B--, and the seconds were
Payne, uncle to George Payne, and Colonel Joddrell of the Guards.
Soon after this incident, my friend accompanied the lady to Paris,
where they took up their residence at Meurice's, in the Rue de
l'Echiquier. The day after their arrival, they went out to take a walk
in the Palais Royal, and were followed by a half-pay officer of
Napoleon's army, Colonel D.--a notorious duellist, who observed to the
people about him that he was going to bully "un Anglais." This man was
exceedingly rude in his remarks, uttered in a loud voice; and after
every sort of insult expressed in words, he had the impudence to put
his arm round the lady's waist. My friend indignantly asked the
colonel what he meant; upon which the ruffian spat in my friend's face:
but he did not get off with impunity, for my friend, who had a crab
stick in his hand, caught him a blow on the side of the head, which
dropped him. The Frenchman jumped up, and rushed at the Englishman;
but they were separated by the bystanders. Cards were exchanged, and a
meeting was arranged to take place the next morning in the
neighbourhood of Fassy. When my friend, accompanied by his second,
Captain H--, of the 18th, came upon the ground, he found the colonel
boasting of the number of officers of all nations whom he had killed,
and saying, "I'll now complete my list by killing an Englishman." "Mon
petit tir aura bientot ton conte, car je tire fort bien." My friend
quietly said, "Je ne tire pas mal non plus," and took his place. The
colonel, who seems to have been a horrible ruffian, after a good deal
more swaggering and bravado, placed himself opposite, and, on the
signal being given, the colonel's ball went through my friend's
whiskers, whilst his ball pierced his adversary's heart, who fell dead
without a groan.
This duel made much noise in Paris, and the survivor left immediately
for Chantilly, where he passed some time. On his return to Paris, the
second of the man who had been killed, Commander P., insulted and
challenged my friend. A meeting was accordingly agreed upon, and
pistols were again the weapons used. Again my friend won the toss, and
told his second, Captain H--, that he would not kill his antagonist,
though he richly deserved death for wishing to take the life of a
person who had never offended him; but that he would give him a lesson
which he should remember. My friend accordingly shot his antagonist in
the knee; and I remember to have seen him limping about the streets of
Paris twenty years after this event.
When the result of this second duel was known, not less than eleven
challenges from Bonapartists were received by the gentleman in
question; but any further encounters were put a stop to by the Minister
of War, or the Duc d'Angouleme (I forget which), who threatened to
place the officers under arrest if they followed up this quarrel any
further. When the news reached England, the Duke of York said that my
friend could not have acted otherwise than he had done in the first
duel, considering the gross provocation that he had received; but he
thought it would have been better if the second duel had been avoided.
In the deeds I have narrated, the English seem to have had the
advantage, but many others took place, in which Englishmen were killed
or wounded: these I have not mentioned, as their details do not recur
to my memory; but I do not remember a single occasion on which
Frenchmen were not the aggressors. At a somewhat later period than
this, the present Marquis of H--, then Lord B--, had a duel with the
son of the Bonapartist General L--. General S-- was Lord B--'s second,
and the principals exchanged several shots without injury to either
party. This duel, like the preceding, originated with the Frenchman,
who insulted the Englishman at the Theatre Francais in the most
unprovoked manner. At the present day our fiery neighbours are much
more amenable to reason, and if you are but civil, they will be civil
to you; duels consequently are of rare occurrence. Let us hope that the
frequency and the animus displayed in these hostile meetings originated
in national wounded vanity rather than in personal animosity.
In the autumn of 1821 I was living in Paris, when my old friend H--,
Adjutant of the 1st Foot Guards, called upon me, and requested that I
would be his second in a duel with Mr. N--, an officer in the same
regiment. After hearing what he had to say, and thinking I could serve
him, I consented. It was agreed by Captain F--, R.N., of Pitmore, Mr.
N--'s second, that the duel should take place in the Bois de Boulogne.
After an exchange of shots, Captain F. and myself put an end to the
duel. The cause of the quarrel was that Mr. N--, now Lord G--,
proclaimed in the presence of Captain H-- and other officers, that a
lady, the wife of a brother officer, was "what she ought not to be."
When the report reached the ear of the Colonel, H. R. H. the Duke of
York requested Mr. N-- to leave the regiment, or be brought to a
court-martial; and then the duel took place, happily without bloodshed.
Both of the officers, it need scarcely be stated, behaved with courage
and coolness.