t 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.

PISTOL SHOOTING

From 1820 to 1830 pistol shooting was not much practised. One evening,
in the Salon des Etrangers, I was introduced to General F--, a very
great duellist, and the terror of every regiment he commanded; he was
considered by Napoleon to