Fie upon them!
_S_.--I shudder at the contemplation of the consequences of Parr's
abominable example. Well had it been for posterity if some one had
killed the cent-sexagenarian at the outset of his wicked career.
_K_.--Horrible! that would have been _Parr_-icide!
* * * * *
DUELLING.
_N_.--Apropos of duelling. I hear that General F--rn--r is dead. He
was the most celebrated, or, I ought to say, the most notorious
duellist in France--at a time, too, when duelling was most the rage.
He had been a great favourite of Napoleon's. Having the command of a
regiment, upon--I forget what occasion--he led it with such
extraordinary bravery to the attack, yet, at the same time, conducted
its movements with so total a want of skill and discretion, that,
without attaining any good result, his men were nearly all cut to
pieces, and he himself narrowly escaped with his life. As a reward for
his gallantry, his Imperial master promoted him to the rank of
general; but, to mark his sense of F--rn--r's total want of "the
better part of valour," he never after entrusted him with a command.
So fatal was his skill in duelling, that, when I knew him in Paris, he
was under an interdiction of the police ever to fight again. The terms
of one of the duels in which he had been engaged were, that the
parties should fire at eight paces, and that they should alternately
advance two paces till the fire of one or both of them should take
deadly effect.
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