One hundred years ago
THE Boulangist disclosures have pro- duced a whole crop of duels. On Satur- day, M. Rochefort fought with M.
Thiebaud under conditions which, in any country but France, would make duelling impossible for the future. To begin with, M. Rochefort and his anta- gonist, their seconds and doctors, wan- dered up and down the frontier between Belgium and Holland, endeavouring to find a quiet place to fight in, dogged all the time by a large posse of gendarmes and a mob of newspaper reporters. At last, however, they contrived to give the police the slip, and to select ground where they would not be disturbed. But an unforeseen difficulty arose at this
point. An enterprising body of journal- ists had engaged the only available
conveyance, and all that M. Rochefort could get offered him was a milk-cart drawn by six dogs. Ultimately, howev- er, a more legitimate means of reaching the field of battle was secured, in the shape of a one-horse fly, and in this the
editor of the Intransigeant proceeded to
the rendezvous. The actual fight was of a piece with the preliminaries. M.
Rochefort danced round his enemy pricking him in various places, till the doctors intervened and declared that the play was becoming dangerous. The duel between M. Mermeix, the author of the celebrated articles, and M. de Labruyere, which was fought on Sunday in Paris, in the garden in front of M.
Laguere's house, was equally harmless, though it was rendered somewhat un- pleasant by M. Mermeix spitting his opponent's hand after 'the director of the fight' had called 'Stop!' — an act which, however, was probably not meant treacherously. We wonder how long Frenchmen will permit their pre- sent absurd system of duelling to con- tinue. If only a few of the challenged would have the courage to insist upon the use of pistols at a killing distance, we should hear far less about people called out over petty political squab- bles.
The Spectator, 13 September 1890
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