— Also termed chaud-medley; casual affray. Cf. MEDLEY.
“But the self-defence, which we are now speaking of, is that whereby a man may protect himself from an assault, or the like, in the course of a sudden brawl or quarrel, by killing him who assaults him. And this is what the law expresses by the word chance-medley, or (as some rather choose to write it) chaud-medley; the former of which in its etymology signifies a casual affray, the latter an affray in the heat of blood or passion: both of them of pretty much the same import; but the former is in common speech too often erroneously applied to any manner of homicide by misadventure; whereas it appears … that it is properly applied to such killing, as happens in self-defence upon a sudden rencounter.” 4 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 184 (1769).
