1912. Silent. French.
On October 14, 1912, Léon Blum (later to become prime minister of France) fought a duel with theater critic Pierre Weber.
According to L’Aurore:
“M. Pierre Weber received a penetrating thrust to his right side, ending the fight. The wound was less serious than it seemed at first. The tip of the epee had been halted by [Weber’s] rib, but had it been a centimeter higher, it might have been fatal, because it would have touched the liver. The adversaries did not reconcile.”
Similarly, for L’Intransigeant, a newspaper that was hostile to the values (political views and stance) that Blum represented:
“the combat was intense…. This was a serious duel that at several points came close to ending tragically…. M. Blum, a tall man with a fiery gaze behind his glasses…. wore a black shirt, a black hat, and gray tennis shoes.”
The description in Le Temps was even more detailed:
Owing to the manner of M. Blum’s attack, a certain anxiety gripped the spectators…. After a seconde parry and a sixte parry, M. Blum made a powerful charge…. During the pause, M. Blum walked with M. Porto Riche. M. Weber sat. After two minutes, the duel resumed more vigorously than before. And suddenly, a moment of anxiety… M. Blum’s epee grazed M. Weber’s face. Another pause and another resumption. This time the adversaries seemed calmer and eyed each other warily. M. Blum tried to catch his opponent off-balance. At one point, the adversaries picked up the pace. M. Blum took the epee to the left hand, and blood flowed. Then came the denouement: suddenly M. Blum was able to catch his adversary’s blade… a direct thrust followed. M. Weber fell backward. The witnesses rushed forward, opened his shirt … a centimeter lower and the liver would have been hit. The wounded man was carried off. “A clean thrust ended a brawl,” the master of ceremonies commented.
The front page of L’Ouest-Eclair called it:
“a ferocious duel…. M. Blum, who aimed at M. Weber’s body, succeeded in hitting his sternum. A centimeter either way and the would would have been fatal.”
The Director of the duel was Jean-Joseph Renaud (16 January 1873 - 8 December 1953), a French fencer who competed at the 1900 and 1908 Olympics:
"On October 14, 1912, I saw him again, heroic really, facing off against Monsieur Léon Blum, whom he had seriously provoked and who was a highly trained fencer. As a matter of fact, from a fencing perspective, Pierre Veber brought little more to the field than his courage.
"[The fight would take place on an area of ​​thirty meters. Two minutes rest was allowed after each round. The duel would terminate when the witnesses attested to an injury.]
"Mr. Léon Blum attacked strongly and almost every thrust singed Veber's shirt, without actually injuring him. Two thrusts passed along his neck, right and left, leaving a mark. Pierre Véber kept himself on guard with indifference, just as if he didn't just see death pass close by. He even managed to land a stop hit that almost was a fatal hit!
"Finally, Veber received a clearance to his chest that luckily only creased a rib and stopped the fight…
"I've never seen a man dead on the terrain, but I was close that day!"