General Tufto was of the old school when he said of Sir Barnes Newcome, after he had received Clive’s challenge, “At first I congratulated him, thinking your boy’s offer must please him, as it would have pleased any fellow _in our time_ to have a shot.” And the Colonel himself, instead of reprimanding Clive for wishing to commit murder, “regarded his son with a look of beautiful, inexpressible affection. And he laid his hand on his son’s shoulder and smiled, and stroked Clive’s yellow moustache. “‘And--and did Barnes send no answer to that letter you wrote him?’ he said slowly. “Clive broke out into a laugh that was almost a sob. He took both his father’s hands. ‘My dear, dear old father, what an--old--trump you are!’ My eyes were so dim I could hardly see the two men as they embraced.” [Sidenote: Extinction of the old Sentiment.] All this is much more French (even down to the embracing and the tear-dimmed eyes of the spectator) than the opinions professed about duelling by the English newspapers of 1886. According to them, a man who sends a challenge is ridiculous, and no more. This marks the final extinction of the old sentiment. Another indication of this change is the ridicule of duelling on the ground that it is not dangerous. French duelling is constantly represented in English newspapers as a very safe kind of ceremony, in which a slight scratch only is to be apprehended. As to this, perhaps I may be allowed to give an instance that was brought very near home. [Sidenote: A French Duel.] I had been away for several days, and on my return journey dined at a railway station. The waiter had known me for years, and, according to his custom, enlivened my solitary dinner with a little talk. He asked if I had “heard about M. de St. Victor.” I had heard nothing. “Because, sir,” the waiter continued, “he was killed this morning in a duel in the wood at Fragny.” Now, it so happened that my wife and daughter were to have lunched and spent that afternoon with Madame de St. Victor; but as her husband’s dead body had been brought back to the château of Montjeu, where he lived, with a sword wound through it, Madame de St. Victor did not receive her friends that day.[62] [Sidenote: Cause of the Duel.]