Paulus Atreides' 10156 bullfight

The final bullfight of Duke Paulus Atreides, known as the Old Duke, took place in the Plaza de Toros on Caladan in 10156 AG, around the same time that the Padishah Emperor Elrood Corrino IX died on Kaitain. It was the last bullfight ever to be held on Caladan, and it ended in the Duke's planned death, engineered through the treachery of his own wife in league with House Harkonnen.

The contest#

At first Duke Paulus played with the Salusan bull for the better part of an hour, dancing beyond the reach of its horns and completing the performance the excited spectators of Caladan expected of him. When he saw that the bull did not tire and remained intent on killing him, he resolved to end the contest quickly, planning to use his personal shield, a trick he had learned from one of the finest matadors in the Imperium. The next time the beast charged past, its horns ricocheted off the shield, a collision that finally disoriented it. Paulus stabbed the bull's head with his banderilla and set the barbed hook into its muscles.

The sabotage#

Unknown to the Duke, the barbed tip had not been drugged. His wife, Helena Atreides, had conspired with the Harkonnens to kill him, and the absence of the drug allowed the bull to recover. It floundered back to its feet and charged again to Paulus's surprise. He side-stepped, but the bull caught the mutela on its horns and tore his ceremonial cloth to shreds, leaving him without a cape to distract it and with only a short barbed spear and a partial shield. Beginning to suspect the sabotage, Paulus jabbed at the bull as it feinted and swerved; the barb caught on a knob of its skin but did not sink in, and the weapon tore from his grasp and fell to the floor.

Death of the Old Duke#

For a moment Paulus was weaponless. He scrambled back and reached for the fallen banderilla, turning his back on the bull and listening for it to grind to a stop and return. As he bent to retrieve the weapon, the beast reached him with incredible speed, ducking under the partial shield and ramming home. Its horns gouged deep into his back, breaking through his ribs into his lungs and heart before thrashing him from side to side. Within seconds of the Duke's death, the Mentat Thufir Hawat and the Atreides guards entered the field and cut the Salusan bull into piles of meat with their lasguns, the creature's momentum scattering the carcass in different directions. Its head was later mounted on a wall in Castle Caladan, facing a painting of the Old Duke.