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