In any kind of fencing bout with well-thought-out rules, the objectively better fencer can be counted on to win more often than not. Under the rules of the Broadsword League, for example, the more skillful fencer will usually receive fewer touches in a five-minute period, but he will still be touched. In an Olympic saber bout, the better fencer will probably be the first to touch his opponent five times, but even if he is far better than his opponent, he will be touched at least once. There is no one who cannot be touched at all, and for this reason a duel with sharps is not entirely a matter of skill. Psychological and moral factors come into play, along with the factor of dumb luck. Superior skill is no guarantee of triumph in a fight with sharps. Consider the case of Basil Lee.

Basil Lee was a Scottish Borderer of rather questionable character who ended up fighting under Brigadier General Simon Fraser in the Revolutionary War. On the ship that was to take him to the war he fell in with a charming young lady named Clifford Mackay. Although she was accompanied by a "haughty overbearing Highland devil" named Lt . Colin Frazer, the Highlander treated her with a marked coolness and reserve, an attitude that simultaneously irritated Lee and convinced him that the Highlander had no claim on the girl.

The tension between the men grew as the journey continued, and they developed the habit of sitting opposite each other at meals, for no other reason than to get on each other's nerves as effectively as possible:

We never looked one another openly and frankly in the face, when we conversed together; or if we did, it was with a kind of sneer: and our custom was to sit opposite one another with averted eyes, and cut and snub one another all that we could, still pretending to be in good humour, yet all the while full of bitterness and gall. (From The Adventures of Basil Lee, 1837)

Annoyed by Frazer's sarcastic comments, Lee made the mistake of mocking his Highland accent. This turned out to be the straw that broke the camel's back: The Highlander gave his mouth a twist, curled up his nose, and turned round his heel, saying at the same time, "You'll be answering for this by and by, my brave fellow."

Lee kept the beautiful young Clifford company for the next few weeks as they traveled upriver, and Frazer seemed to avoid them and even to become more civil to a degree. As soon as they reached dry land, however, the challenge was delivered. Frazer's second was an Irishman named MacRae, who expressed the opinion that Lee ought to be beaten like a dog and drummed out of the service, for openly seducing the lieutenant's ward and friend in front of the men he was later to command. Frazer was willing to do him the honor of fighting him instead, and Lee had little choice but to accept or suffer lasting disgrace.

Consulting with an English friend named Mr. Dow, Lee expressed a belated reluctance for his disrespectful behavior, as well as a previously unsuspected religious sentiment:

His friend only smiled at this protestation, advising him to behave himself like a man and a Scotsman, and reminding him that he had the choice of weapons. Dow then went out to have a word with MacRae, leaving Lee alone to ponder the matter. Lee considered himself as good a marksman as any in Britain, but he could not bear the thought of having a pistol ball dug out of his entrails by "bungling American surgeons," so pistols were out. He considered the smallsword, but rejected it as a "vile insidious weapon" that could plunge with a jerk into one's body as swift as lightning. Furthermore, "the blue holes they made in one's body were unseemly, and not to be cured." The broadsword, on the other hand, was a noble weapon, and a man had at least a fighting chance with it, even if he was untrained and his opponent a Highland officer.

The service swords that both men wore were actually more like the spadroon, being somewhere in between the broadsword and the smallsword, and "not remarkable for their sharpness." Lee settled on these. When his second Mr. Dow returned, the time and place of the duel were already set, although Frazer did stipulate that he would accept an apology, providing Basil Lee begged for pardon in public and on his knees. Lee was perfectly willing to do so, but his friend would have none of it, reminding him that he would ever afterward be branded a coward, and forced to hide his head from human acquaintance.

The fight was to take place in a grove of trees at seven PM. Now that there was no way to avoid the fight, Lee saw no purpose in waiting, so he set out with Mr. Dow to find his opponent. Shaking hands with Frazer before the duel, he had tears in his eyes.

"I never thought it would come to this!" he said.

"You did not, did you?" replied the Highlander coldly. "Why the devil did you be talking to her then?" And with that he flung away Basil's hand.

"Here's for you, then!" said Basil, drawing his sword.

"Devil, damnation and hell!" said the Highlander, and drew his as well. The two men crossed blades, but the Highlander's contempt for his untrained opponent was all too obvious. He put his edge against Basil's own, "with such marks of disdain were never before witnessed by any living creature." Basil Lee launched a mighty attack, intending to cleave Frazer through the head or shoulder, but his opponent parried it "with the greatest indifference" and began to advance.

Not having the slightest idea of how to use his weapon, Lee simply held it out at arm's length and moved it up and down as rapidly as possible, a tactic which proved surprisingly effective at keeping the Highlander away from him. In his retreat, however, he stumbled over a tree stump, and somehow managed to cut Frazer in the belly and wrist on his way to the ground. Frazer flew into a rage and began to kick Lee on the ground, simultaneously stabbing at him with more fury than calculation. One of these jabs caused his blade to go right through Basil's mouth and out behind his ear, knocking out one of his teeth as it went by. Lee struck out randomly in pure desperation, stabbing his opponent in the groin from behind. Frazer instantly fell.

Mr. Dow helped Lee to his feet, choking on blood. As for the Highlander, he was more embarrassed about his defeat than he was worried about his wound, ranting on about the injustice of it all:

"That I should be mortally killed by such a crawling Lowland beast! Such a dreg of the generations! Such a poor miserable creature!"

A wound to the groin is generally mortal, and indeed everyone who saw Frazer pronounced him not long for this world. He, however, pretended to make very little of it, once he had gotten over the initial amazement at his defeat. As for Basil Lee, he got the girl, who received him with open arms and copious tears. Not very long afterward, however, this "young lady of as high respectability as any in the shire of Inverness" revealed that she was actually a common street prostitute.

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