in Brussels. Sons and daughters were born to him in due time, during his
subsequent residence in Parma. Here, however, the fiery and impatient
spirit of the future illustrious commander was doomed for a time to fret
under restraint, and to corrode in distasteful repose. His father, still
in the vigor of his years, governing the family duchies of Parma and
Piacenza, Alexander had no occupation in the brief period of peace which
then existed. The martial spirit, pining for a wide and lofty sphere of
action, in which alone its energies could be fitly exercised, now sought
delight in the pursuits of the duellist and gladiator. Nightly did the
hereditary prince of the land perambulate the streets of his capital,
disguised, well armed, alone, or with a single confidential attendant.
Every chance passenger of martial aspect whom he encountered in the
midnight streets was forced to stand and measure swords with an unknown,
almost unseen but most redoubtable foe, and many were the single combats
which he thus enjoyed, so long as his incognito was preserved.
Especially, it was his wont to seek and defy every gentleman whose skill
or bravery had ever been commended in his hearing: At last, upon one
occasion it was his fortune to encounter a certain Count Torelli, whose
reputation as a swordsman and duellist was well established in Parma.
The blades were joined, and the fierce combat had already been engaged in
the darkness, when the torch of an accidental passenger gashed full in
the face of Alexander. Torelli, recognising thus suddenly his
antagonist, dropped his sword and implored forgiveness, for the wily
Italian was too keen not to perceive that even if the death of neither
combatant should be the result of the fray, his own position was, in
every event, a false one. Victory would ensure him the hatred, defeat
the contempt of his future sovereign. The unsatisfactory issue and
subsequent notoriety of this encounter put a termination to these
midnight joys of Alexander, and for a season he felt obliged to assume
more pacific habits, and to solace himself with the society of that