duels
Honour defended with swords, pistols, and occasionally mathematics.
The Chevalier Who Wouldn't Lie Down
What kind of person enters a fencing tournament against an entire garrison while their brain is swelling inside their skull?
The Woman Who Rewrote French Opera With a Sword at Her Hip
She broke a woman out of a convent by stealing a dead nun's body, and then went back to singing.
The Man Who Died Facing West
He delivered three-hour speeches that left grown legislators pale and silent, in a voice that never finished puberty.
The Astronomer and the Moose
The greatest astronomer of the sixteenth century lost his nose in a duel over math, consulted a clairvoyant dwarf, and owned a moose that died falling down stairs drunk on beer.