François Fournier-Sarlovèze

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François Louis Fournier-Sarlovèze (6 September 1773

In The Encyclopedia of the Sword, Nick Evangelista wrote:

As a young officer in Napoleon's Army, Dupont was ordered to deliver a disagreeable message to a fellow officer, Fournier, a rabid duellist. Fournier, taking out his subsequent rage on the messenger, challenged Dupont to a duel. This sparked a succession of encounters, waged with sword and pistol, that spanned decades. The contest was eventually resolved when Dupont was able to overcome Fournier in a pistol duel, forcing him to promise never to bother him again.^[1]

They fought their first duel in 1794 from which Fournier demanded a rematch. This rematch resulted in at least another 30 duels over the next 19 years in which the two officers fought mounted, on foot, with swords,

Fournier-Sarlovèze was afterwards sent to Spain and between 18 and 23 May 1809, succeeded in defending the town of Lugo for five days with only 1,500 men against 20,000 attackers.

He attracted attention once more by giving some slashes of his sabre to an aide-de-camp placed under his orders by State Secretary

Since his services were needed, he set off again with the

Fournier-Sarlovèze died on 18 January 1827, aged 53.^[citation needed]

In popular culture

The story of Fournier-Sarlovèze and Dupont was fictionalized in Joseph Conrad's short story The Duel (1908). Conrad's short story was adapted to film by Ridley Scott as The Duellists (1977).

Sources

• Marcel Dupont, Fournier-Sarlovèze le plus mauvais sujet de l'armée, Librairie Hachette, Paris, 1936
• Jean Delpech-Laborie, Le Général Fournier-Sarlovèze : le plus mauvais sujet de Napoléon, Paris, Productions de Paris, 1969, 192 p.
• Napoleon website

References