CHAPTER XVI.
THE ORDEAL BY BATTLE.
The chronicles of the small-sword and pistol are pregnant with horrid and absurd illustrations of certain great moral facts.

Let them pass.

A duel, we all know, spirit of 'Punch and Judy'-- a farce of murder.
Sterne's gallant father expired, or near it, with the point of a small-sword sticking out two feet between his shoulders, all about a goose-pie.

I often wondered what the precise quarrel was.

But these tragedies smell all over of goose-pie.