regulation of the mode in which the barbarous custom might be maintained
had engaged the attention of several of the French kings. In 1205, Philip
Augustus restricted the length of the club, with which single combat was
then pursued, to three feet; and in 1260, Saint Louis abolished the
practice of deciding civil matters by duelling. With the revival of
literature and of the arts, national manners became ameliorated, and duels
necessarily declined. It was still, however, not unusual for the French to
promote or to behold those single combats over which the pages of romance
have thrown a delusive charm, and which were, in early times, hallowed, in
the opinion of the vulgar, by their accompanying superstitious ceremonies.
When any quarrel had been referred to this mode of decision, the parties
met on the appointed day, and frequently in an open space, overshadowed by
the walls of a convent, which thus lent its sanction to the bloody scene.
From day-break the people were generally employed in erecting scaffolds
and stages, and in placing themselves upon the towers and ramparts of the
adjacent buildings. About noon, the cavalcade was usually seen to arrive
at the door of the lists; then the herald cried, "Let the appellant
appear," and his summons was answered by the entrance of the challenger,
armed cap-a-pie, the escutcheon suspended from his neck, his visor lowered,
and an image of some national saint in his hand. He was allowed to pass
within the lists, and conducted to his tent. The accused person likewise
appeared, and was led in the same manner to his tent. Then the herald, in
his robe embroidered with fleur-de-lis, advanced to the centre of the
lists, and exclaimed, "Oyez, oyez! lords, knights, squires, people of all
condition, our sovereign lord, by the grace of God, King of France,
forbids you, on pain of death or confiscation of goods, either to cry out,
to speak, to cough, to spit, or to make signs." During a profound silence,
in which nothing but the murmurs of the unconscious streamlet, or the
chirping of birds might be heard, the combatants quitted their tents, to
take individually the two first oaths. When the third oath was to be