Seconds

SECONDS, crim. law. Those persons who assist, direct and support others engaged in fighting a duel.
     2. As they are often much to blame in inciting the duellists to their rash act, and as they are always assisting in the commission of the crime, the laws generally punish them with severity but, in consequence of the false ideas too generally entertained on the subject of honor, the are too seldom enforced.