My Particular Friend footnotes: The Affair of the Code Duello 5
Beginning with The Gauntlet Is Thrown:
Charlotte seemed to have dismissed the whole affair as a fait accompli.
a fait accompli: a done thing
“I believe this duel to be an invention of Mr Jenkins and Mr Sunderland, and I predict that on Monday both men will fire wide, into the ground, or perhaps not even at all after a reconciliation.’
Rule 13 of the Code Duello: No dumb shooting or firing in the air is admissible in any case. The challenger ought not to have challenged without receiving offense; and the challenged ought, if he gave offense, to have made an apology before he came on the ground; therefore, children’s play must be dishonorable on one side or the other, and is accordingly prohibited.
Mr Sunderland especially hopes that you will speak of his Damascus moment when he realizes the futility of duelling.
Damascus moment: a reference to St. Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus
From Acts Chapter 9 verses 3 and 4:
And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?