Page "Lettres provinciales" Paragraph 20

*"‘ If a gentleman ,’ says he, in a passage cited by Diana, ‘ who is challenged to fight a duel, is well known to have no religion, and if the vices to which he is openly and unscrupulously addicted are such as would lead people to conclude, in the event of his refusing to fight, that he is actuated, not by the fear of God, but by cowardice, and induce them to say of him that he was a hen, and not a man, gallina, et non vir ; in that case he may, to save his honour, appear at the appointed spot — not, indeed, with the express intention of fighting a duel, but merely with that of defending himself, should the person who challenged him come there unjustly to attack him.

His action in this case, viewed by itself, will be perfectly indifferent ; for what moral evil is there in one stepping into a field, taking a stroll in expectation of meeting a person, and defending one ’ s self in the event of being attacked?

And thus the gentleman is guilty of no sin whatever ; for in fact it cannot be called accepting a challenge at all, his intention being directed to other circumstances, and the acceptance of a challenge consisting in an express intention to fight, which we are supposing the gentleman never had .’”