Therefore now to come to that which concerneth my part, I say that by the favor of the king and the court, I will prosecute in this court in the cases following: If any man shall appoint the field, though the fight be not acted or performed. If any man shall send any challenge in writing, or any message of challenge. If any man carry or deliver any writing or message of challenge. If any man shall accept to be second in a challenge of either side. If any man shall depart the realm, with intention and agreement to perform the fight beyond the seas. If any man shall revive a quarrel by any scandalous bruits or writings, contrary to former proclamation published by his Majesty in that behalf.
Nay, I hear there be some counsel learned of duels, that tell young men when they are beforehand, and when they are otherwise, and thereby incense and incite them to the duel, and make an art of it. I hope I shall meet with some of them too; and I am sure, my lords, this course of preventing duels, in nipping them in the bud, is fuller of clemency and providence than the suffering them to go on, and hanging men with their wounds bleeding, as they did in France.
To conclude, 1 have some petitions to make first to your lordship, my lord chancellor, that in case I be advertised of a purpose in any to go beyond the sea to fight, I may have granted his Majesty’s writ of ne exeat regnum to stop him, for this giant bestrideth the sea, and I would take and snare him by the foot on this side; for the combination and plotting is on this side, though it should be acted beyond the sea. And your lordship said notably the last time I made a motion in this business, that a man may be as well fur de se as felo de se, if he steal out of the realm for a bad purpose. As for the satisfying of the words of the writ, no man will doubt but he does machinari contra coronam, as the words of the writ be, seeking to murder a subject; for that is ever contra coronam et dignitatem. I have also a suit to your lordships all in general, that for justice’s sake, and for true honor’s sake, honor of religion, law, and the King our master, against this fond and false disguise or puppetry of honor. I may, in my prosecution, which, it is like enough, may sometimes stir coals, which I esteem not for my particular, but as it may hinder the good service, I may, I say, be countenanced and assisted from your lordships. Lastly, I have a petition to the nobles and gentlemen of England, that they would learn to esteem themselves at a just price. Nos hos qu–asitum munus in usus—their blood is not to be spilt like water or a vile thing; therefore, that they would rest persuaded there cannot be a form of honor, except it be upon a worthy matter. But this, ipsi viderunt, I am resolved.
—This speech was given by Francis Bacon (1561–1626) in his official capacity as the King’s Attorney-General, during a suit brought against two nobles who had fought a duel. Bacon was the Attorney-Genral of King James I and held that position from 1613 to 1617, when he became the Lord Chancellor.
3 “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.”
4 “It is right to be taught even by an enemy.”
5 “To fight by proxy.”
6 “And so it seemed that they were fighting their temptations, so that God would have just cause to cast down a wonderful miracle upon those who emerged victorious from that fight.”
Cover of an anti-dueling pamphlet containing: “The Remedy for Dueling” by Lyman Beecher (1775–1863) alongside the Anti-Dueling Society of New York and an address to the electorate of New York state.
Whose Feet Have Slipped in Gore:
On the Remorse of Duelists
Remorse of Duellists
This is a painful theme. In the notices entitled Camelford, William Barrington, O’Connell, and Colclough, the reader will find details to move his feelings. But these are only examples. A gentleman of wide observation, who has always lived in a duelling section of the United States, and who has taken much pains to inquire into the mental condition of every person who had slain an adversary, remarked, that not a single instance had come to his knowledge which did not afford him proof, that peace of mind was forever destroyed. The same sad intelligence has been derived from others; and as the result of my inquiries, I can truly say, that the narratives which I have read and to which I have listened have uniformly reminded me of the words of Psalmist: “Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me: for I am desolate and in misery.”
Addison, in the Spectator, refers to Thornhill (who slew Sir Cholmy Dering) under the translated name of Spinamont, and possibly gives us the substance of what fell from the lips of the unhappy survivor in an address to the imaginary King Pharamond: “I come not,” he says, “O excellent prince, to implore your pardon; I come not to relate my sorrow, a sorrow too great for human life to support”; and again, “Know, then, that I have this morning killed in a duel the man whom of all men living I most loved.” Dante, in his Hell, describes the sufferings of the damned in words that cause us to shudder; but unless we doubt the veracity of some of the first characters in the country, the poet’s inexhaustible imagination fails to express the wretchedness of most of the living men whose “feet have slipped in gore.” Some utter unceasingly,
“My own life wearied me!
And but for the imperative voice within,
With mine own hand I had thrown off the burden.”
Others, men of gentle and affectionate nature, who had often grieved at the wanton killing of a bird, and on whose bosom wife and children nestled, —with the blood of a husband and a father upon their hands,—dwell, in their woe, upon the thought that
“Not all the blessings of a host of angels
Can blow away a desolate widow’s curse!—
And though thou spill thy heart’s blood for atonement,
It will not weigh against an orphan’s tear!”
Still others, the nervous system shattered, the whole of the physical or intellectual powers weakened or destroyed, see and hear their victim in every passing object, or whisper of the wind; and, as time wears on, sink into hopeless imbecility or raving madness.
I forbear the mention of particular names and instances of either class, for obvious reasons; but such has been the fate of many pure and highly gifted men who have passed away, of many who yet survive. For, say what we will, facts show that persons of the most eminent worth, and most hopeful talents, are oftenest involved in duels. There are, indeed, fiends who howl for blood like ravening wolves, who, because national peace prevents its flow in streams, seek their life long to lap it in drops from the breast of individuals. But let no one believe that even such men are strangers to remorse. The fire is lighted, and slowly consuming them; nor can the shout which these men send up at the midnight carouse, from brothels and drinking and gambling hells, conceal its progress from keen and searching eyes.
“Remorse is as the heart in which it grows;
If that be gentle, it drops balmy dews
Of true repentance; but if proud and gloomy,
It is a poison tree, that, pierced to the inmost,