A little Jew had a quarrel with a renowned Schläger, or duellist, of
great stature, who had maltreated the little Hebrew. When they stood
upon the measure, the little fellow who had never before entered this
arena, awaited with wrathful impatience the word "loose," and made a
spring in the moment, whereby he gave the opponent a tremendous
_quarte_ in the face, crying, "There, thou'st got something!" The tall
fellow, who expected nothing so sudden, was horribly enraged at this
inroad upon the honour of his swordsmanship, and so much the more as
every one laughed heartily at the droll occurrence. Spite of all
outcries and commands to "halt," the student pursued the Jew with
terrible strokes, so that he, unable to maintain his ground, stepped
continually backwards till he at length actually took refuge behind the
stove. The seconds were seized with such a paroxysm of laughter at this
scene, that they were unable sooner to run to the aid of the little
Jew, and then first placed themselves as a wall between the stove and
the enraged swordsman.
When a round is ended, the seconds and the witnesses, who come to their
aid, often contend the point, whether an after-blow was made or not,
whether one or other of the seconds forwarded, that is, exceeded his
duty in protecting his protégé to the prejudice of the opponent or not;
which last act, if often repeated, entitles the other second to demand
that he be dismissed from his post. But most frequently of all, the
dispute is, whether the blow took or not. All these points of dispute
have to be referred to the umpire, against whose decision there is no
appeal. When the single round is fought, the seconds do not stand at
the left side, but so that they make a cross with the duellers, as here
that frequent springing in between them is not necessary. So goes the
duel forward till terminated in one of the aforesaid ways. In the mean
time the doctor has, from the very commencement of the fight, had his
bandages in readiness, his needles threaded, and water set at hand,
prepared at a moment with a skilful hand to afford assistance to the
wounded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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