He would conduct himself as all gentlemen did.

He would challenge to a duel the insulter of his father.
This was the custom.

The refuge of all gentlemen who felt themselves insulted, disgraced, or persecuted in those days, was to seek vengeance in a personal encounter with deadly weapons, called a duel.

It is a foolish and savage way of seeking redress; but even today it is resorted to by those who feel themselves ill treated by their "equals." So Napoleon felt that he was doing the only wise and gentlemanly thing possible.
But, even then duelling was against the law.

It was punished when men were caught at it; for schoolboys, it was considered an unheard-of crime.
[Illustration: _Napoleon sends his Challenge_.] Still, though against the law, all men felt that it was the only way to salve their wounded honor.