BREAUTÉ.
His extraordinary duel.

Charles de BreautÉ, a gentleman of the country of Caux in Normandy, made himself famous by a duel, wherein he died. He was extremely brave; and after the peace of Vervins, finding no occasion in France to show his valour, he went into Holland with some French troopers, where he obtained a troop of horse. His lieutenant had the misfortune to suffer himself to be beat by a party of the garrison of Bois-le-duc, which was inferior to that which he commanded. He was taken, and conducted to Bois-le-duc, whence he wrote to his captain to desire him to procure his liberty; but his captain sent him an answer, that he would not acknowledge persons for his troopers who suffered themselves to be defeated by a lesser number of Flemings, instead of beating them, though they had been but 20 to 40, as he offered to do in any rencounter. That letter, having been read by the governor of that place according to custom, before it was delivered to the prisoner, proved so offensive, that the commander of the party of Bois-le-duc wrote immediately to Breauté, to offer him to fight with an equal number. His proposal was very acceptable, but the superiors on both sides could hardly be persuaded to consent to it. Nevertheless, they at last appointed the day and the place, and agreed upon other conditions. It was resolved that they should fight on horseback, twenty-two against twenty-two, on the fifth of February 1600. Breauté would have had the governor of Bois-le-duc to put himself at the head of his Flemings; but the archduke Albert would not suffer it. Their chief was the lieutenant of the governor’s troop, Gerard Abraham, who had beaten the

former party. He sent word by a trumpeter that the men had sworn not to give any quarter, for they undertook that combat more to defend their prince’s cause, and that of the Catholic religion, than for their own honour. He and his brother, and four more, began the fight with Breauté and five more; the rest engaged each his man. Breauté killed Gerard; the brother of the latter, and two others, were also killed; and the fifth was so wounded that he died some days after of his wounds. But this was all the loss of the Flemings; that of the other party was much more dismal; for Breauté’s valour could not hinder his men from being vanquished with the utmost shame. Fourteen of them were killed on the spot; and of the eight that fled, three died of their wounds. Breauté and one of his relations, being mortally wounded, in vain begged their lives, with a promise of a good ransom; but no regard was given to it. His body, wounded in thirty-six places, was carried to Dort, and drawn to the life, to have that picture sent into his country. It exasperated the friends and relations of the deceased to such a degree, that one of them went immediately into the Netherlands, to revenge his death. For that purpose he challenged the governor of Bois-le-duc to fight a duel with him; but the same reason that hindered that governor from being in the first fight, excused him again from this. The victors, to the number of eighteen, among whom four were wounded, were received in Bois-le-duc with the acclamations of the whole town.

Thus the thing is related by the historians of the Spanish party; but all the parts of their narration are not allowed to be true. Most of the historians in the Spanish interest say, that the ransom which Breauté offered was accepted, and that he was brought alive to Bois-le-duc; but that the governor, vexed at the death of the two brothers, reprimanded their comrades so severely, because they had not revenged their death

by that of the prisoner, that they killed him immediately in his presence. Thus, as Thuanus tells us, the writers of the Dutch party related the thing. D’Audiguier and Cayetgo yet further; they say that Grobendonck had no sooner censured them than they stabbed Breauté and his cousin. Bouterouë goes further still; he says that the governor ordered expressly that the four prisoners that were brought, whereof Breauté was one, should be killed in cold blood. Grotius says only, as a certain thing, that Breauté had already gone a good way, when some men from Bois-le-duc killed him with thirty wounds. The French assert that his life was granted him contrary to the declaration of the Brabanter, that the conquered should expect nothing but death. It is certain he was gone a good way as a prisoner, when he was stabbed in thirty places by persons sent from the city; notwithstanding he prayed that at least he might die armed and like a man: an action worthy the basest of mankind. This irrefragably confutes what is said by some, that he was killed by Leckerbitken’s seconds, who had engaged to do it by an oath.

It is also pretended that the fight was not with equal arms, since the French came only with swords and pistols, and the other party brought their carabines besides. There might be more imprudence in that case on the French side, than fraud on the other. Perhaps they had only said in their agreement, that each party should come armed as usual; and therefore if it had been the custom of the Flemings to wear swords, pistols, and carabines, and if it had been the custom of the French to wear only pistols and swords, the Flemings would not have acted knavishly: the French only would have been to blame, for being so heedless as not to specify the number and quality of the weapons which were to be used. But suppose the honesty of the Flemings was untainted, it would at least be certain that their victory would be no ways

glorious: let us see how d’Aubigné speaks of this duel. ‘ When that siege was over, there happened a duel between Breauté and nineteen more, with the lieutenant of Grobendonck, called Leckerbitken, on account of some injurious words and challenges sent by some prisoners. Being agreed on the time and place, Breauté, not finding his enemies, went to look for them very near Bois-le-duc; and there the two chiefs, distinguished with white and red feathers, made choice of each other before their troops. Breauté killed his enemy at the first charge, as also his brother, who, having dispatched his adversary, came to his assistance; but all the Walloons, having other fire arms besides pistols, made a second discharge, at which the French, having only their swords, were overthrown; Breauté, being forsaken by part of his men, was taken prisoner; and Grobendonck, hearing of the death of the two brothers, caused him to be killed in cold blood. The death of that gentleman was lamented by prince Maurice, who had used his endeavour to dissuade him from the combat, by reason of the inequality.’ An historian who is very partial to the Spanish Netherlands, owns that Breauté’s martial heat, which made him advance further than he should have done, was the reason why the duel was not fought in the place designed for it: they kept, says he, to the field of battle where they happened to meet. That author is far from acknowledging that the Flemings had more fire arms than the others; for he says of the latter that they had all their pistols in their hands, and that the Belgians had only their swords in their hands. He adds one thing that ought not to be omitted: ‘ the Belgians had the forecast to fasten little chains behind their bridles, for fear, if the enemies should happen to cut them, they should not be able to govern their horses. The French on the Dutch side had not that forecast, which contributed much to their defeat.’ We may infer from thence that the Flemings fought cunningly; they fell first upon their enemies’ horses; the bridles being cut, it was not easy for the troopers to save their horses from being killed. Father Gallucci observes, that at the first onset there were above twenty-six horses killed. Thuanus informs us, that almost all the horses of the French were lost there.

This is indeed the fate of all such duels; their success and circumstances are always related several ways. Breauté had married the daughter of Nicholas de Harlei-Sancy, by whom he left a son. She was a woman equally beautiful and virtuous, and not above twenty years of age. Though she was courted by several people, yet she renounced the pleasures of the world, and made herself a nun of St Theresa, which order was but newly settled in Paris. It is said, that their son, intending to revenge his father’s death, sent a challenge to the new lieutenant of the governor of Bois-le-duc during the siege of Breda, and that he was killed in that duel. I cannot tell whether a marquis de Breauté, who was killed at the siege of Arras in the year 1640, was descended from the duellist.—Art.Breauté.