Page:Reminisences of Captain Gronow.djvu/170
the neighbourhood of Beauvais, and a crowd assembled to witness it. B received three wounds; but, by a lucky prod, eventually killed his man. B was a fine-looking man and a good horseman. My late friend the Baron de P, so well known in Parisian circles, was second to the Frenchman on this occasion.
A friend of mine—certainly not of a quarrelsome turn, but considered by his friends, on the contrary, as rather a good-natured man—had three duels forced upon him in the course of a few weeks. He had formed a liaison with a person whose extraordinary beauty got him into several scrapes and disputes. In January, 1817, a few days after this acquaintance had been formed. Jack B, well known at that time in the best society in London, became madly in love with the fair lady, and attempted one night to enter her private box at Drury Lane; this my friend endeavoured to prevent: violent language was used, and a duel was the consequence. The parties met a few miles from London, in a field close to the Uxbridge Road, where B, who was a hot-tempered man, did his best to kill my friend; but, after the exchange of two shots, without injury to either