Paris has been amused and a little disgusted by an
affair `between M. Paul de Cassagnac and Henri Rochefort. It appears that on the 17th of November, 1872, the former published in the Pays an article taunting Rochefort with belonging to the Com- mune and with personal cowardice, and threatening, if ever he 'were pardoned, to shoot him like a dog. M. Rochefort, having escaped from Caledonia and seen this article, chal- lenged M. de Cassagnac to come to Geneva and fight him, and the challenge was accepted in a letter of the vilest abuse. M. Rochefort's seconds, however, demanded that .as he was unskilled in weapons, while his adversary was noto- riously a successful duelist, the combatants should be placed five paces apart and fire at the word of command. M. de Cassagnac's seconds rejected this, alleging that it would be murder,—which, one would say, was the precise object of private war,—and Imperialist and Radical are therefore to keep alive.
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