“The German races were not less alive to this view of the Point of Honour; they were, if possible, still more punctilious: the most distant relations took part in disputes, and all their codes were founded on this principle. Accordingly, the laws of the Lombards ordained, that if a man, accompanied by his followers, went to assault another who was not upon his guard, to bring shame and ridicule upon him, he should pay one-half of the _composition_ which he would have had to give in the event of his having killed him. Thus do we see our ancestors keenly alive to an affront; but they had no particular view of any affront of a specific nature as regards the weapon made use of, or the part of the body that was struck.” It is to chivalry that this eloquent writer attributes the rise of gallantry, when sentiments of love were associated with a sense of strength, valour, and protection; and this spirit was inherent in the practice of tournaments, which, uniting tender passions with noble deeds, gave to gallantry a greater importance than it would otherwise have obtained, had they merely been trials of skill and courage in a passage of arms; and to this day the term _gallant_ is applied to a man brave, high-spirited in his bearing, splendid and magnificent in his appearance, and devoted to the service of the fair. CHAPTER XI. DUELS DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. During this century the social body in France underwent a total renovation and reform. A long despotism had brutalised the public mind, and rendered it unfit to receive any generous impressions, or to be capable of any noble reaction against tyranny. The nation was sick of glory, and of a magnificence which had drained its wealth: still, it murmured silently and moodily, until master-minds should appear, to bring these elements of discord into action. Apathy had succeeded energetic deeds, and indolence ushered in vice stripped of all its gaudy attractive fascination, and in all its natural baseness and turpitude. Philip d’Orleans, Regent of the kingdom during the minority of the fifteenth Louis, plunged the court into every possible species of debauch; and the polished gallantry of former days was succeeded by the most degrading excesses. Libertinism, in all its hideous deformity, no longer sought the concealment of a prudent mask; but profligacy was considered fashionable, consequently the pride and boast of its votaries. Vice had become the reigning _ton_; and, where a blush was raised, it was upon the conviction of a virtuous action.