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One
of the most famous duels was fought during the reign of Henri III,
and one which distressed the King the most, was the so-called DUEL
DES MIGNONS, fought between his favorites Quelus and d’Entragues,
who had fallen out over some ladies of the court.
With Riberac and Schomberg, who were d’Entragues’s
seconds and Maugiron and Livarot who were Quelus’s, they met near
the ramparts of the Porte Saint-Antoine with no one present but
“three or four poor persons, wretched witnesses of the valour of
these worthy men”. The
principles had scarcely begun fighting before Riberac said to
Maugiron “I think we ought to reconcile these gentlemen, rather
then let them kill each other” To this unworthy proposal the other
replied “ Sir I did not come here to tell beads but to fight”
But with whom”, Riberac asked innocently, “since you are not
concerned in this quarrel?” why with you, to be sure” replied
Maugiron. “In that
case” said Riberac, “Let us pray” and drawing his sword and
dagger and crossing their hilts, he fell on his knees.
Maugiron was neither a patient nor a religious man for before
long he told Riberac “he
had prayed long enough” At this the two men fell upon each other
and within a few moments Maugiron was dead and Riberac mortally
wounded.
Meanwhile,
ashamed of standing by while all this slaughter was going on
Schomberg said to Livarot “These gentleman are fighting, what
shall we do? To which Livarot reasonably replied “We cannot do
better than fight to maintain our honour” Schomberg, who was
German followed the fighting method of his country and cut off half
the left cheek of his opponent who returned the compliment by
running him through the breast, killing his on the spot.
Of
the two victorious seconds, Riberac died the following day and
Livarot was killed in another duel two year later. As for the
principals in the duel des mignons, d’Entragues though severely
wounded made his escape, while Quelus who had received nineteen cuts
lingered on for over a month. On
his deathbed he complained bitterly that d’Entragues had been
armed with a dagger as well as his sword and that when he had
protested that he had no dagger himself, his opponent had retorted
“So much the worse for you, you ought not to have been such a fool
as to have left it at home”.
But
at least Quelus when dying and dead was given all the honour that
was his, for although he died continually repeating “Oh my King,
my King” without one word of Almighty God, so that a preacher of
the time exclaimed in the pulpit that “the bodies of these
blasphemers should be flung into a ditch”, the King visited him
every day on his deathbed and gave him and his fellows a princely
funeral, a noble monument and an epitaph calling upon God to receive
the disrespectful mignons into his bosom.
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