"We hear on all sides that duelling is no better than murder, that duellists are brainless and thoughtless, that none but a fool could, in our enlightened age, mistake such a mad, meaningless savagery for chivalry. Poor duels, and poor irresponsible duellists! Were Pouschkin and Lermontoff, those victims of offended honour, really such fools? And Bentham, and the great socialist Lassalle himself? No--on certain conditions, duels are inevitable, and not one of my opponents in this matter will ever produce or invent anything better to take their place." After quoting these passages from various of my {192} brother's private letters and articles, I insist upon adding that I have never seen a man more courteous, polite and universally esteemed than he. Two of our old generals--General Fock and General Smirnoff--who distinguished themselves by their courage in the Japanese war, quarrelled and found no one better able to arbitrate between them than Alexander Kiréeff. Their confidence in him was unlimited, but he understood that the question was of vital importance, and that a duel was unavoidable. Both combatants asked him to be present at the duel, and to see that the Russian duelling laws were strictly adhered to, which he did. General Smirnoff was wounded, but both recognised that my brother did all he could to bring about a reconciliation. If he failed, it only showed that certain tragic elements in life will take place in spite of all our efforts to prevent them. I may add that my brother, equipped as he was with his chivalrous code of honour, was also an expert fencer, so distinguished indeed that, at a public fencing competition at Naples open to the whole of Europe, he carried off the first prize--a gold sword of honour. But I am glad to say that never once did he engage in a duel. Apart from being in favour of duelling, Kinglake was, although in himself essentially a man of peace, all for war; it thinned out populations, just as duelling kept up a better tone in society. I, on the other hand, the daughter of a man who earned the St. George's Cross on the battlefield, the sister of two soldiers, and the wife of another, was always dreaming of peace. {193} My own idea is that no generation that has suffered a great war ever wants another. That is left for following generations who cannot conceive the horrors of what they themselves have not experienced. Whenever I was absent from England I always received from Kinglake a weekly letter. I remember his once complaining that writing to a lady through the poste restante was like trying to kiss a nun through a double grating. Sometimes he would imitate the "little language" of the great satirist Swift, calling himself "poor dear me," and referring to me as "my dear miss." Thereby hangs a story.