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T
Copyright, 1913, by the
Star Company.
Great Britain Rights Reserved
How a Jealous Denver
Husband Settled His
Doubts by Reviving a
Tragic Combat of the
Middle Ages, When the
Only Divorce Court
Was a Hole in the
Ground and a Wife
Had to Battle for
Her Fair Name
The Ancient Mediaeval Ordeal by Combat, in Which the Wife
Had to Fight Her Husband to Prove Her Innocence.
From Talliofcr's "Fcchlbuch.
dence of his young wife’s infidelity,
and accused her of it. With all the
ardor of her hot Spanish blood she
denied the accusation and denounced
her husband.
“You are a cowardly slanderer and
tradueer of women!” she cried.
“If you are innocent, let the knife
prove you guiltless!” he retorted
with equal ferocity. “If you win, then
1 have lied and I will make amends
to you. If I win, you are guilty, and
you will die, as you deserve!”
The courageous wife eagerly ac
cepted this terrifying proposition
They agreed to fight it out in the par
lor of their little home at Eighteenth
side, but missed. He seized the op
portunity and made a sure stroke
that cut deeply into her right side.
As she sank to the floor, sw imming
in blood, she could not repress a
shriek of pain that brought neigh
bors to the rescue and saved her life.
Policeman Orbach entered and found
the woman lying unconscious on the
floor and her husband standing over
her with a knife.
They were both taken away to the
hospital, where it appeared that the
husband’s injuries were not serious,
while his wife’s recovery was prob
able.
Strange to say, the same way of
ending a quarrel between husband
and wife was employed in Paris the
other day. The Count de la Grange,
a member of the most fashionable
Parisian society, found letters ad
dressed to his wife which he consid
ered compromising. He accused her
of unfaithfulness, while she de
nounced his conduct in opening her
letters as unworthy of a gentleman,
at the same time denying any sug
gestion of impropriety.
They agreed to settle the matter
with a duel. In order to give his
wife a reasonable advantage the
Count consented to JKve his right
arm tied. In every over respect the
duel was conducted like one of the
conventional Parisian encounters.
The Countess cleverly succeeded
in getting on her husband's ham
pered side and inflicted a slight
wound on his left arm. Honor was
immediately declared satisfied. Under
the terms of the duel the Count was
required to acknowledge his wife's
innocence and to live with her in
peace and good will thereafter. Thus
the scandal of a divorce suit and the
unhappiness of a divided family were
effectually avoided.
and 1-awrence streets, Denver.
They entered into the combat in
the true spirit of the Middle Ages as
it is revealed to us by the ancient
chroniclers. To equalize the contest
Palecia agreed to have his right hand
tied behind his back, to fight with
his left hand and to use a knife three
inches shorter than his wife’s.
Glaring savagely at one another,
they took positions on opposite sides
of the room. She gave the word to
begin, and they started viciously
hacking at one another.
The wife drew blood first by stab
bing her husband on the side whore
he' was bound. The wound was
slight. He replied with a blow- that
touched her in the forehead.
She slashed him across the back
of the hand that held the knife, but
could not make him drop it. He
came back with an upward stroke
that pierced an artery in her right
wrist. Although the blood poured
out in a torrent, the plucky woman
kept on fighting.
She manoeuvred desperately to get
on his crippled side, but she was con
stantly growing weaker from loss of
blood. Her husband, moreover, was
an experienced knife fighter.
She struck desperately at his left
The
Countess
de la Grange,
of Paris, Who
Demanded
a Duel with Her
Husband to
Disprove
His Accusations,
Just as the
Wife of
Samuel Palecia,
of Denver, Did.
How the Young
Comtesse de la Grange,
of Paris,
Recently Fought a Duel
with Her
Flusband When Accused
by Him.
Snapshot of the Scene.
H HERE are still many people
who think it is better to
settje a dispute by the
quick, sharp way of the
fcnife or sword rather than by the
slow, humiliating process of law.
Even an accusation of infidelity by
a husband against a wife could be
settled in ancient times by resort to
a duel. The accused wife could de
mand a duel. In oraer to make up
or the people who formerly practised
it regularly.
Samuel Palecia and his wife Ve-
centali, two Mexicans, living in Den
ver, recently resorted to the ancient
ordeal of the knife to settle a very
grave dispute between them. Doubt
less it was the tradition handed down
from their early Spanish ancestors
Ufcit led them to adopt this method.
Palecia thought he had found evi-
for her supposed physical inferiority,
some handicap was imposed on the
husband, such as having one hand
tied or standing in a pit. If she w r on,
that proved her innocence.
This form of marital combat was
particularly common in Spain, Italy
and parts of Germany during the
Middle Ages. We have unmistakable
evidence that the custom to-day still
has a strong hold on the descendants
Showing How (he Wife Often Got the Better of Her
Husband in the Ancient Ordeal by Combat.