Sir MARK.  Our very pretty fellows, whom I take to be the successors of the very topping fellows, think a quarrel so little fashionable, that they will not be exposed to it by another man’s vanity, or want of sense.

Mr. SAGE.  But, Colonel, I have observed in your account of duels, that there was a great exactness in avoiding all advantage that might possibly be between the combatants.

Col.  PLUME.  That’s true, sir; for the weapons were always equal.

Mr. SAGE.  Yes, sir; but suppose an active, adroit, strong man, had insulted an awkward, or a feeble, or an unpractised swordsman.

Col.  PLUME.  Then, sir, they fought with pistols.

Mr. SAGE.  But, sir, there might be a certain advantage that way; for a good marksman will be sure to hit his man at twenty yards distance; and a man whose hand shakes (which is common to men that debauch in pleasures, or have not used pistols out of their holsters) won’t venture to fire, unless he touches the person he shoots at.  Now, sir, I am of opinion, that one can get no honour in killing a man (if one has it all rug,[388] as the gamesters say), when they have a trick to make the game secure, though they seem to play upon the square.

Sir MARK.  In truth, Mr. Sage, I think such a fact must be murder in a man’s own private conscience, whatever it may appear to the world.

Col.  PLUME.  I have known some men so nice, that they would not fight but upon a cloak without pistols.

Mr. SAGE.  I believe a custom, well established, would outdo the Grand Monarch’s edict.[389]

Sir MARK.  And bullies would then leave off their long swords; but I don’t find that a very pretty fellow can stay to change his sword, when he is insulted by a bully with a long diego,[390] though his own at the same time be no longer than a penknife; which will certainly be the case, if such little swords are in mode.  Pray, Colonel, how was it between the hectors of your time and the very topping fellows?

Col.  PLUME.  Sir, long swords happened to be generally worn in those times.

Mr. SAGE.  In answer to what you were saying, Sir Mark, give me leave to inform you, that your knights-errant (who were the very pretty fellows of those ancient times) thought they could not honourably yield, though they had fought their own trusty weapons to the stumps; but would venture as boldly with the page’s leaden sword, as if it had been of enchanted metal.  Whence I conceive, there must be a spice of romantic gallantry in the composition of that very pretty fellow.

Sir MARK.  I am of opinion, Mr. Sage, that fashion governs a very pretty fellow; nature, or common sense, your ordinary persons, and sometimes men of fine parts.

Mr. SAGE.  But what is the reason, that men of the most excellent sense and morals (in other points) associate their understandings with the very pretty fellows in that chimaera of a duel?