There probably never existed a mortal who was opposed by more powerful or more malignant adversaries than St. Augustin was. His great enemies the Donatists never, it is true, challenged him to any more dangerous affray than a war of literary controversy. But it was in answer to one of their missiles hurled against him, in the form of an assertion, that the majority of authors was on their side, he aptly told them that it was the sign of a cause destitute of truth when only the erring authority of many men could be relied on. The Norman knights or chiefs introduced the single combat among us. It is said they were principally men who had disgraced themselves in the face of the enemy, and who sought to wipe out the disgrace in the blood of single individuals. It is worthy of remark too, that when king and sovereign princes had forbidden duelling, under the heaviest penalties, the popes absolved the monarchs from their vows when the observance of them would have put in peril the lives of offending nobles who had turned to Rome in their perplexity, and who had gained there a reputation for piety, as Hector did, who was esteemed so highly religious, for no other reason than that he had covered with rich gifts the altar of the father of Olympus. Supported by the appearance that impunity was to be purchased at Rome, and encouraged by the example of fighting-cardinals themselves, duelling and assassination stalked hand in hand abroad. In France alone, in the brief space of eighteen years, four thousand gentlemen were killed in _rencontres_, upon quarrels of the most trivial nature. In the same space of time, not less than fourteen thousand pardons for duelling were granted. In one province alone, of France, in Limousin, one hundred and twenty gentlemen were slain in six months--a greater number than had honorably fallen in the same period, which was one of war, in defence of the sovereign, their country, and their homes. The term _rencontre_ was used in France to elude the law. If gentlemen “met” by accident and fought, lawyers pleaded that this was not a _duel_, which required preliminaries between the two parties. How frequent the _rencontres_ were, in spite of the penalty of death, is thus illustrated by Victor Hugo, in his _Marion Delorme_:-- “Toujours nombre de duels, le trois c’était d’Angennes Contre d’Arquien, pour avoir porté du point de Gènes. Lavarde avec Pons s’est rencontré le dix, Pour avoir pris à Pons la femme de Sourdis. Sourdis avec Dailly pour une du théâtre De Mondorf. Le neuf, Nogent avec Lachâtre, Pour avoir mal écrit trois vers de Colletet. Gorde avec Margaillan, pour l’heure qu’il était. D’Himière avec Gondi, pour le pas à l’église. Et puis tous les Brissac avec tous les Soubise, A propos d’un pari d’un cheval contre un chien. Enfin, Caussade avec Latournelle, pour rien. Pour le plaisir, Caussade a tué Latournelle.