VI.
“But this is a digression for which I apologise. I was led astray by my subject and drifted quite unconsciously into an unpremeditated preface.”
“Don’t apologise,” said M. de C., “your digression is charming.”
“And besides,” I continued, “you know I have a sort of moral claim on your indulgence, for I might have displayed my erudition, and have quoted names and dates and facts unearthed from dusty folios, and yet I have mercifully spared you.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you!” came from several arm-chairs.
“When one talks of duelling, there is a point that strikes one at the outset, and though it is not directly connected with sword-play, it is too nearly allied to the duel to be dismissed without notice. I mean the duties of seconds.
“I shall not now enter upon the question of what those duties may be before the combatants meet. These consist in pressing for moderate counsels, in acting or even over-acting the part of peacemaker. You all know as well as I do that no chance of arriving at an honourable settlement should be neglected before allowing your men to go out.
“What should we think of the man who could forget that his friend’s honour and his friend’s life are equally committed to his keeping, and that he ought not, out of a quixotic regard for the one, to jeopardise the other needlessly?
“When a man fights, his conviction that right is on his side is everything. And therefore the correct attitude of a second is that of a man, who acting calmly but firmly in his friend’s interest seeks to avoid a quarrel. Any other attitude is not only incorrect but even renders him liable to be called to account for neglecting his bounden duty.
“Personally, if after exhausting every effort to obtain a friendly settlement I found that a meeting was unavoidable, although I was thoroughly satisfied in my own mind that it was a case not of injured honour but only of injured vanity, or of wounded pride, I should not hesitate to withdraw. Duels played to the gallery are either odious or absurd; they are out of date, and should be numbered with the obsolete fashions of the past.