that's one way to put it

[hradzka]

Duels between women were rare and highly irregular, but when they occurred they aroused a great deal of male interest. There is evidently a timeless appeal in the spectacle of women, usually in some degree of undress, violating intimate parts of each other's anatomy, too hot-blooded to concern themselves with modesty or propriety.


-- Paul Kirchner, DUELS WITH THE SWORD AND PISTOL: 400 YEARS OF ONE-ON-ONE COMBAT.

...um, I'll be in my bunk.

(The quote above features in the chapter on the duel between Senorita Marta Duran vs. Senorita Juana Luna, reported in the Daily Telegraph of April 4, 1900. The incident occurred in Mexico, apparently in Juarez, though the Telegraph article, which Kirchner reprints, is a little unclear on the subject. The two women quarreled over a gentleman named Rafael Riquelme, who was dating both of them; Luna challenged Duran when she saw Duran and Riquelme at a ball together. The two women fought with swords. Topless. They fought three rounds, Duran was wounded twice and became unable to continue, and then they embraced, kissed each other, and were reconciled, no doubt aided by Duran's pledge to drop Riquelme.)