CHARGE AGAINST DUELS. 115 



and discipline, that these persons shall be banished 

 and excluded from his court for certain years, and 

 the courts of his queen and prince, I think there is 

 no man that hath any good blood in him will conv 

 mit an act that shall cast him into that darkness, 

 that he may not behold his sovereign s face. 



Lastly, and that which more properly concerneth 

 this court : we see, rny lords, the root of this offence 

 is stubborn, for it despiseth death, which is the ut 

 most of punishments ; and it were a just but a mise 

 rable severity, to execute the law without all remis 

 sion or mercy, where the case proveth capital. And 

 yet the late severity in France was more, where, by 

 a kind of martial law, established by ordinance of 

 the king and parliament, the party that had slain 

 another was presently had to the gibbet, insomuch as 

 gentlemen of great quality were hanged, their 

 wounds bleeding, lest a natural death should pre 

 vent the example of justice. But, my lords, the 

 course which we shall take is of far greater lenity, 

 and yet of no less efficacy ; which is to punish, in 

 this court, all the middle acts and proceedings which 

 tend to the duel, which I will enumerate to you 

 anon, and so to hew and vex the root in the branches, 

 which, no doubt, in the end will kill the root, and yet 

 prevent the extremity of law. 



Now for the law of England, I see it excepted 

 to, though ignorantly, in two points : 



The one, that it should make no difference be 

 tween an insidious and foul murder, and the killing 

 of a man upon fair terms, as they now call it. 



