I see your pistol and raise you a blunderbuss and gas balloon.

I do like a good rummage in our archives, as the occasional unexpected gem arrives en route, and it seems that the folks at the British Newspaper Archive are of the same mind.
How about the first recorded duel in gas balloons, in Paris, by two men having affairs with the same Opera Dancer? 
Take a sexy situation, add bonkers fighting methods almost bordering on steampunk fantasy and then dollop journalistic puns on top. What's not to like?

Northampton Mercury – Saturday 23 July 1808
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

See the original post, and find more oddities: http://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2012/08/24/the-first-duel-fought-in-hot-air-balloons-paris-1808/