A Certain Noble Lord, Of Our Country, When He Was Yet A Commoner,
On His Travels, Involved Himself In A Dilemma Of This Sort, At
The Court Of Lorrain.
He had been riding out, and strolling along
a public walk, in a brown study, with his horse-whip in his hand,
perceived a caterpillar crawling on the back of a marquis, who
chanced to be before him.
He never thought of the petit maitre;
but lifting up his whip, in order to kill the insect, laid it
across his shoulders with a crack, that alarmed all the company
in the walk. The marquis's sword was produced in a moment, and
the aggressor in great hazard of his life, as he had no weapon of
defence. He was no sooner waked from his reverie, than he begged
pardon, and offered to make all proper concessions for what he
had done through mere inadvertency. The marquis would have
admitted his excuses, had there been any precedent of such an
affront being washed away without blood. A conclave of honour was
immediately assembled; and after long disputes, they agreed, that
an involuntary offence, especially from such a kind of man, d'un
tel homme, might be attoned by concessions. That you may have
some idea of the small beginning, from which many gigantic
quarrels arise, I shall recount one that lately happened at
Lyons, as I had it from the mouth of a person who was an ear and
eye witness of the transaction.
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