, the police interfered and stopped
a duel after the first innings. This was a sabre-duel between the
chief of police and the city attorney. Unkind things were said
about it by the newspapers. They said the police remembered their
duty uncommonly well when their own officials were the parties
concerned in duels. But I think the underlings showed good
bread-and-butter judgment. If their superiors had carved each other
well, the public would have asked, Where were the police? and their
places would have been endangered; but custom does not require them
to be around where mere unofficial citizens are explaining a thing
with sabres.

There was another duel--a double duel--going on in the immediate
neighborhood at the time, and in this case the police obeyed custom
and did not disturb it. Their bread and butter was not at stake
there. In this duel a physician fought a couple of surgeons, and
wounded both--one of them lightly, the other seriously. An
undertaker wanted to keep people from interfering, but that was
quite natural again.

Selecting at random from my record, I next find a duel at Tarnopol
between military men. An officer of the Tenth Dragoons charged an
officer of the Ninth Dragoons with an offence against the laws of
the card-table. There was a defect or a doubt somewhere in the
matter, and this had to be examined and passed upon by a Court of
Honor. So the case was sent up to Lemberg for this purpose. One
would like to know what the defect was, but the newspaper does not
say. A man here who has fought many duels and has a graveyard, says
that probably the matter in question was as to whether the
accusation was true or not; that if the charge was a very grave
one--cheating, for instance--proof of its truth would rule the
guilty officer out of the field of honor; the Court would not allow
a gentleman to fight with such a person. You see what a solemn
thing it is; you see how particular they are; any little careless
act can lose you your privilege of getting yourself shot, here. The
Court seems to have gone into the matter in a searching and careful
fashion, for several months elapsed before it reached a decision.
It then sanctioned a duel and the accused killed his accuser.

Next I find a duel between a prince and a major; first with