UFI hi-jack:
Code Duello
Codes duello regulate "fair fights" and are supposed to prevent vendettas. They assure that non-violent means of reaching agreement have been exhausted (so, Infidel-6 may not be the best choice for your Second) and that harm is limited by both the terms of engagement, and by providing medical care. Finally, they assure that the proceedings have a number of witnesses. The witnesses assure grieving members of factions of the fairness of the fight, and help provide testimony if legal authorities become involved.
A duel would start with the challenger issuing a traditional, public, personal grievance, based on an insult, directly to the single person who offended the challenger. The challenged person had the choice of a public apology or other restitution, or choosing the weapons for the duel. The challenger would then propose a place for the "field of honour". The challenged man had to either accept the site or propose an alternate. The location had to be a place where the opponents could duel without being arrested. (In one case, the challenger was a very small, very deadly fencer, who enjoyed killing. The challenged person was a peaceful blacksmith well over 6 feet tall. He chose 10 lb sledgehammers, in 5 feet of water. The duel didn‘t take place. ;D) It was common for the constables to set aside such places and times and spread the information, so "honest people can avoid unpatrolled places."
At the field of honour, each side would bring a doctor and seconds. The seconds would try to reconcile the parties by acting as go-betweens to attempt to settle the dispute with an apology or restitution (again, Infidel-6 may not be the best choice for your Second). If reconciliation succeeded, all parties considered the dispute to be honourably settled, and went home.Each side would have at least one second; three was the traditional number.
If one party failed to appear, he was accounted a coward. The appearing party would win by default. The seconds and sometimes the doctor would bear witness of the cowardice. If reconciliation failed, the seconds would help their friend prepare for the duel, and keep alert for cheating and the authorities. Cheaters would be shot, usually out of hand. Honourable seconds sometimes shot their own friend if they found him cheating (yeah, Infidel-6 is definitely not the best choice for your Second).
The two parties would start on opposite sides of a square twenty paces wide. Usually the square was marked at the corners with dropped handkerchiefs. Leaving the square was accounted cowardice.
The opponents agreed to duel to an agreed condition, such as first blood, incapacitation, or death. While many modern accounts dwell heavily on "first blood" as the condition, manuals of honour from the day universally deride the practice as dishonourable and unmanly. Far more common was a duel until either one party was physically unable to fight or the physician called a halt. While explicit duels to the death were rare, many duels ended in death of one or both combatants because of the wounds sustained.
When the condition was achieved, the matter was considered settled with the winner proving his point and the loser keeping his reputation for courage.
Some duels miscarried because both opponents did not hear or see the starting signal.
A custom had grown (before the Irish Code Duello) of deloping, discharging one's firearm in the air (usually to one side) when two friends had quarrelled and one (or both) wished to end the duel without harming his friend or appearing cowardly. Far too often, this custom resulted in accidents and the Irish Duello forbade it.