The document itself then followed.
It purported to be an agreement privately drawn up between Mr.
Monkton's second, Monsieur Foulon, and the Count St. Lo's second,
Monsieur Dalville, and contained a statement of all the
arrangements for conducting the duel. The paper was dated
"Naples, February 22d," and was divided into some seven or eight
clauses. The first clause described the origin and nature of the
quarrel--a very disgraceful affair on both sides, worth neither
remembering nor repeating. The second clause stated that, the
challenged man having chosen the pistol as his weapon, and the
challenger (an excellent swordsman), having, on his side,
thereupon insisted that the duel should be fought in such a
manner as to make the first fire decisive in its results, the
seconds, seeing that fatal consequences must inevitably follow
the hostile meeting, determined, first of all, that the duel
should be kept a profound secret from everybody, and that the
place where it was to be fought should not be made known
beforehand, even to the principals themselves. It was added that
this excess of precaution had been rendered absolutely necessary
in consequence of a recent address from the Pope to the ruling
powers in Italy commenting on the scandalous frequency of the
practice of dueling, and urgently desiring that the laws against
duelists should be enforced for the future with the utmost rigor.
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