the greatest of all evils; what avail laws, when death only attends the breach of them, and shame attends obedience to them? As for me, O Pharamond, were it possible to describe the nameless kinds of compunctions and tenderness I feel, when I reflect upon the little accidents in our former familiarity, my mind swells into sorrow which cannot be resisted enough to be silent in the presence of Pharamond." With that he fell into a flood of tears, and wept aloud. "Why should not Pharamond hear the anguish he only can relieve others from in time to come? Let him hear from me, what they feel who have given death by the false mercy of his administration, and form to himself the vengeance called for by those who have perished by his negligence.'

No. 97. Thursday, June 21, 1711.

Projecere animas

Virg. Æn. vi. 436.

They prodigally threw their lives away.

R.

Among the loose papers which I have frequently spoken of heretofore, I find a conversation between Pharamond and Eucrate upon the subject of duels, and the copy of an edict issued in consequence of that discourse.

Eucrate argued, that nothing but the most severe and vindictive punishment, such as placing the bodies of the offenders in chains, and putting them to death by the most exquisite torments, would be sufficient to extirpate a crime which had so long prevailed, and was so firmly fixed in the opinion of the world as great and laudable. The king answered," that indeed instances of ignominy were necessary in the cure of this evil; but, considering that it prevailed only among such as had a nicety in their sense of honor, and that it often happened that a duel was fought to save appearances to the world, when both parties were in their hearts in amity and reconciliation to each other, it was evident that turning the mode another way would effectually put a stop to what had being only as a mode; that to such persons poverty and shame were torments sufficient; that he would not go further in punishing in others crimes which he was satisfied he himself was most guilty of, in that he might have prevented them by speaking his displeasure sooner. Besides which the king said, "he was in general averse to tortures, which was putting human nature itself, rather than the criminal, to disgrace; and that he would be sure not to use this means where the crime was but an ill effect arising from a laudable cause, the fear of

shame." The king, at the same time, spoke with much grace upon the subject of mercy; and repented of many acts of that kind which had a magnificent aspect in the doing, but dreadful consequences in the example. "Mercy to particulars," he ob served, "was cruelty in the general. That though a prince could not revive a dead man by taking the life of him who killed him, neither could he make reparation to the next that should die by the evil example: or answer to himself for the partiality in not pardoning the next as well as the former offender." "As for me," says Pharamond, "I have conquered France, and yet have given laws to my people. The laws are my methods of life; they are not a diminution, but a direction to my power. I am still absolute to distinguish the innocent and the virtuous, to give honors to the brave and generous; I am absolute in my goodwill; none can oppose my bounty, or prescribe rules for my favor. While I can, as I please, reward the good, I am under no pain that I cannot pardon the wicked: for which reason," continued Pharamond, "I will effectually put a stop to this evil, by exposing no more the tenderness of my nature to the importunity of having the same respect to those who are miserable by their fault, and those who are so by their misfortune. Flatterers,' concluded the king, smiling, "repeat to us princes, that we are Heaven's vicegerents; let us be so, and let the only thing out of our power be to do ill."

Soon after the evening wherein Pharamond and Eucrate had this conversation, the following edict was published against duels :

Pharamond's Edict against Duels. "PHARAMOND, King of the Gauls, to all his loving subjects sendeth greeting.

"Whereas it has come to our royal notice and observation, that in contempt of all laws, divine and human, it is of late become a custom among the nobility and gentry of this our kingdom, upon slight and trivial, as well as great and urgent provocations, to invite each other into the field, there by their own hands, and of their own authority, to decide their controversies by combat; we have thought fit to take the said custom into our royal consideration, and find, upon inquiry into the usual causes whereon such fatal decisions have arisen, that by this wicked custom, maugre all the precepts of our holy religion, and the rules of right reason, the greatest act of the human mind, forgiveness of injuries,

is become vile and shameful; that the rules of good society and virtuous conversation are hereby inverted; that the loose, the vain, and the impudent insult the careful, the discreet, and the modest; that all virtue is suppressed, and all vice supported, in the one act of being capable to dare to the death. We have also further, with great sorrow of mind, observed that this dreadful action, by long impunity (our royal attention being employed upon matters of more general concern) is become honorable, and the refusal to engage in it ignominious. In these our royal cares and inquiries, we are yet further made to understand, that the persons of most eminent worth and most hopeful abilities, accompanied with the strongest passion for true glory, are such as are most liable to be involved in the dangers arising from this license. Now taking the said premises into our serious consideration, and well weighing that all such emergencies (wherein the mind is incapable of commanding itself, and where the injury is too sudden or too exquisite to be borne) are particularly provided for by laws heretofore enacted; and that the qualities of less injuries, like those of ingratitude, are too nice and delicate to come under general rules; we do resolve to blot this fashion, or wantonness of anger, out of the minds of our subjects, by our royal resolutions declared in this edict as follow:

"No person who either sends or accepts a challenge, or the posterity of either, though no death ensues thereupon, shall be, after the publication of this our edict, capable of bearing office in these our dominions.

"The person who shall prove the sending or receiving a challenge, shall receive to his own use and property the whole personal estate of both parties; and their real estate shall be immediately vested in the next heir of the offenders, in as ample manner as if the said offenders were actually deceased.

"In cases where the laws (which we have already granted to our subjects) admit of an appeal for blood, when the criminal is condemned by the said appeal, he shall not only suffer death, but his whole estate, real, mixed, and personal, shall from the hour of his death be vested in the next heir of the person whose blood he spilt.

"That it shall not hereafter be in our royal power, or that of our successors, to pardon the said offences, or restore the offenders in their estates, honors, or blood, for ever.

"Given at our court at Blois, the 8th of February, 420, in the second year of our reign."

T.

No. VIII.

FROM THE GUARDIAN.

"Blois, May 15, N. S.

"SIR, Because I am at present out of the road of news, I shall send you a story that was lately given me by a gentleman of this country, who is descended from one of the persons concerned in the relation, and very inquisitive to know if there be any of the family now in England.

"I shall only premise to it, that this story is preserved with great care among the writings of this gentleman's family, and that it has been given to two or three of our English nobility, when they were in these parts, who could not return any satisfactory answer to the gentleman, whether there be any of that family now remaining in Great Britain.

"In the reign of King John there lived a nobleman called John de Sigonia, lord of that place in Tourraine. His brothers were Philip and Briant. Briant, when very young, was made one of the French king's pages, and served him in that quality when he was taken prisoner by the English. The king of England chanced to see the youth, and, being much pleased with his person and behavior, begged him of the king his prisoner. It happened, some years after this, that John, the other brother, who in the course of the war had raised himself to a considerable post in the French army, was taken prisoner by Briant, who at that time was an officer in the king of England's guards. Briant knew nothing of his brother, and, being naturally of a haughty temper, treated him very insolently, and more like a criminal than a prisoner of war. This John resented so highly, that he challenged him to a single combat. The challenge was accepted, and time and place assigned them by the king's appointment. Both appeared on the day prefixed, and entered the lists completely armed, amidst a great multitude of spectators. Their first encounters were very furious, and the success equal on both sides; till, after some toil and bloodshed, they were parted by their seconds to fetch breath, and prepare themselves afresh for the combat. Briant, in the mean time, had cast his eye upon his brother's escutcheon, which he saw agree in all points with his own. I need not tell you after this with what joy and surprise the story ends. King Edward, who knew all the particulars of

it, as a mark of his esteem, gave to each of them, by the king of France's consent, the following coat of arms, which I will send you in the original language, not being herald enough to blazon it in English."

"Le Roi d'Angleterre, par permission du Roi de France, pour perpetuelle memoire de leurs grands faits d'armes et fidelite envers leurs rois, leur donna par ampliation a leurs armes en une croix d'argent cantonee de quatre coquilles d'or en champ de sable, qu'ils avoient auparavant, une endenteleuse faite en facons de croix de gueulle inserée au dedans de la ditte croix d'argent et par le milieu d'icelle qui est participation des deux croix que portent les dits rois en la guerre."

No. IX.

RIDICULOUS QUARRELS.

THE Lady Honoria and her daughter Flavia, with their lovers, Dick Crastin and Tom Tulip, are not creatures of the imagination. They exist in real life, in every age of the world. The Dicks and Toms of our day and country are not often the lovers of a parent and her child, and do not often quarrel for the precise causes related in the Spectator; but they do fall out, and the Dicks do send challenges, on grounds quite as ridiculous as did those of England in the time of Queen Anne. Indeed, several stories not wholly unlike that told of the lovers of the ladies who, in the year 1711, lived" within the liberties of the city of Westminster," would have appeared in the appropriate places in this work, but for reasons which are obvious without explanation. It is sufficient for my purpose to employ the polished pen of Addison to illustrate a class of gallants who conduct themselves in a manner to excite the mirth of neighborhoods.

They rush into the flame;

For love is lord of all, and is in all the same. - Dryden.

Though the subject I am now going upon would be much more properly the foundation of a comedy, I cannot forbear inserting the circumstance which pleased me in the account a young lady gave me of the loves of a family in town, which shall be