A Norman priest, who lived in the middle of the seventeenth century,
named the Abbé Malotru, was remarkably deformed in his figure, and
ridiculous in his dress. One day, while he was performing mass, he
observed a smile of contempt on the face of M. de Lasson, which
irritated him so much that the moment the service was over, he
instituted a process against him. Lasson possessed the talent of
caricature drawing: he sketched a figure of the ill-made priest,
accoutred, as he used to be, in half a dozen black caps over one
another, nine waistcoats, and as many pair of breeches. When the court
before whom he was cited urged him to produce his defense, he suddenly
exhibited his Abbé Malotru, and the irresistible laughter which it
occasioned insured his acquittal.