This is the sort of dispute that might well have been settled with a duel at dawn in a bygone era. Holding the 'pistol' on one side stands Simone Velluti Zati, the Italian-born Duke of San Clemente.
The honour of his late father, he claims, has been impugned by a 'poisonous slander' that sees him accused of using underhand tactics to dupe an unsuspecting Englishman into buying his Tuscan estate.
Standing on the other side is his father's maligner, his pistol now shamefully lowered. He is a milkman's son from Newcastle called Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner.
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