The following remarks on duelling apply only to countries where duelling is permitted.
In duelling the challenged has the right to choose what weapons are to be used, pistols or swords.
The pistol is the weapon for any one deeply wronged, provided he is anything of a pistol shot.
In a sword duel the duellist can parry; in a pistol one, he cannot parry, but he can shoot first. If his adversary is a good shot and intends to kill him, his best chance is to hit him before he can fire. A man who knows he is in the wrong and also knows he has a man in front of him, determined to kill him, is very apt to shoot too hurriedly and wildly.
Suppose A. who is a good pistol shot and an indifferent fencer, wishes to fight a duel to the death with B., who is a good swordsman but a bad pistol shot.
It would be very bad policy for A. to send a challenge to B. It would be equally bad policy for B. even if he does not want to fight, to refuse A.’s challenge, if he knows A. wants to kill him.
The reason A. makes a mistake in challenging is that B. when challenged, can choose swords as the weapons, which gives him the advantage.
If B. does not want to fight, having nothing to gain by killing A. and objecting to have A. try and kill him, refusing to fight avails him nothing. It puts him in a worse position. A. has merely to take the opportunity when B. is in a public place to insult B. and compel B. to challenge him else B. is publicly branded as a coward. A. now being the challenged can select weapons and chooses pistols, thus signing B.’s death-warrant.
The most important thing of all in a pistol duel, is not to lift the pistol before the word “feu.”
There is very little danger of shooting too late, each wishing to hit the other first prevents that, but there is a very serious risk of lifting the pistol before the word “feu.”