Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/580

546 the appellant shall be deprived of his habit in perpetuity without any remission. If his antagonist accept the challenge, even if neither party appear on the ground, they shall nevertheless both be deprived of their habits without hope of pardon. But should they both have proceeded to the place of assignation, even though no blood should have been spilt, they shall not only be deprived of their habit, but shall afterwards be handed over to the secular power. In addition, we decree that whoever shall have been the cause of any such duel or defiance, or who shall have given either advice, assistance, or counsel, either by word or deed, or who upon any pretence whatever shall have persuaded any one to issue a challenge, if it shall be proved that he accompanied him to act as his second he shall be condemned to lose his habit. The same penalty we likewise attach to those who shall be proved to have been present at a duel, or of having posted or caused to be posted a cartel of defiance in any spot whatever.”

The above law relates only to a regular premeditated duel, but brawls and fracas are punished under the following statute:—“If a brother strike another brother, he shall perform a quarantaine; if he strike him in such a manner that blood be drawn elsewhere than from the mouth or nose, he shall be stripped of his habit; if he shall have attempted to wound him with a knife, a sword, or a stone, and has not succeeded in doing so, he shall perform a quarartaine.” This statute was moderated by a subsequent one, passed at a chapter-general during the rule of La Cassière, giving the Grand-Master and council authority to mitigate the rigour of the penalty.

The laws against duelling were, in practice, found to be so severe, and the difficulty of checking the evil so great in a fraternity which embraced in its ranks so many young and hotheaded spirits—men keenly alive to an affront and ever ready to resent it, and who regarded personal courage as the first of all human virtues—that some modification or evasion was absolutely necessary. It became gradually tacitly recognized that duels might be held in a particular locality set apart for the purpose without incurring the above-mentioned penalties. It had been expressly stipulated that no fighting was permitted either upon the ramparts or without the town. There exists,