mortally wounded, threw himself within his antagonist’s guard, and plunged his poniard into his heart.  Nay, sometimes the sword was altogether abandoned for the more sure and murderous dagger.  A quarrel having arisen betwixt the vicompte d’ Allemagne and the sieur de la Roque, the former, alleging the youth and dexterity of his antagonist, insisted upon fighting the duel in their shirts, and with their poniards only; a desperate mode of conflict, which proved fatal to both.  Others refined even upon this horrible struggle, by chusing for the scene a small room, a large hogshead, or, finally, a hole dug in the earth, into which the duellists descended, as into a certain grave.—­Must I add, that even women caught the phrenzy, and that duels were fought, not only by those whose rank and character rendered it little surprising, but by modest and well-born maidens! Audiguier Traite de Duel.  Theatre D’ Honneur, Vol.  I.[B]

[Footnote A:  It appears from a line in the black-letter copy of the following ballad, that Wharton and Stuart fought with rapier and dagger: 

  With that stout Wharton was the first
  Took rapier and poniard there that day.
      Ancient Songs, 1792, p. 204.]

[Footnote B:  This folly ran to such a pitch, that no one was thought worthy to be reckoned a gentleman, who had not tried his valour in at least one duel; of which Lord Herbert gives the following instance:—­A young gentleman, desiring to marry a niece of Monsieur Disaucour, ecuyer to the duke de Montmorenci, received this answer:  “Friend, it is not yet time to marry; if you will be a brave man, you must first kill, in single combat, two or three men; then marry, and get two or three children; otherwise the world will neither have gained or lost by you.”  HERBERT’S Life, p. 64.]

We learn, from every authority, that duels became nearly as common in England, after the accession of James VI., as they had ever been in France.  The point of honour, so fatal to the gallants of the age, was no where carried more highly than at the court of the pacific Solomon of Britain.  Instead of the feudal combats, upon the Hie-gate of Edinburgh, which had often disturbed his repose at Holy-rood, his levees, at Theobald’s, were occupied with listening to the detail of more polished, but not less sanguinary, contests.  I rather suppose, that James never was himself disposed to pay particular attention to the laws of the duello; but they were defined with a quaintness and pedantry, which, bating his dislike to the subject, must have deeply interested him.  The point of honour was a science, which a grown gentleman might study under suitable professors, as well as dancing, or any other modish accomplishment.  Nay, it would appear, that the ingenuity of the sword-men (so these military casuists were termed) might often accommodate a bashful combatant with an honourable excuse for declining the combat: