On the 1st July 1750 Madame Ferron, washerwoman of Vanvres, entered Paris
riding on a jackass in the flower of its age. The good lady had come
a-marketing; and on reaching the house of M. Nepveux, grocer, near the
Porte S. Jacques, she descended from Neddy’s back, and entered the shop,
leaving the animal attached to the railings by his halter. After having
made some purchases of soap and potash she asked the shopman to keep his
eye on her ass whilst she went a few doors off to purchase some salt. This
he neglected to do--_Hinc illæ lacrymæ_. A few moments after Madame Ferron
had disappeared there passed Madame Leclerc, wife of a florist in Paris,
mounted on a she-ass of graceful proportions and engaging appearance.
It has been questioned by some whether love at first sight is not
altogether a fiction of poets and romancers. We are happy to be able to
record an instance of this on unimpeachable historical evidence. A mutual
passion kindled in the veins of these two asses simultaneously, during the
brief space of time occupied by Madame Leclerc in passing before the
grocer’s shop. Their eyes met.
The she-ass, unable to express the ardour of her affection by any other
means, brayed thrice in the most tender and impassioned manner. The
jackass replied with corresponding sentiment. He panted to approach her,
but was restrained by his halter. To love, however, nothing is impossible;
or, as the Latin syntax has it, “Amor omnia vincit.” He tossed his head,
broke the cord, and trotted after the mistress of his affections.
Madame Leclerc adjured Neddy. Ladies do not like their servants to
encourage followers. She shook her head at the lover and bade him return.
But passion sometimes renders its victims insensible to the dictates of
duty; Neddy still pursued.
On arriving at her door, near the Porte du Demandeur, the florist’s wife
caught up a stick, and charged from her doorstep upon the young and ardent
lover. The lady was exasperated at the silent contempt he had exhibited
for her entreaties and objurgations. She hit him on the nose, she whacked
his ribs, she beat his back, and the poor ass brayed with pain and rising
indignation. The she-ass brayed sympathetically.
Madame Leclerc’s blows fell faster and more furiously, and then the lion
under the ass’s skin became apparent. Neddy reared, and falling on the
old lady, bit her in the arm.
The brayings of the animals and the cries of the lady attracted a crowd,
and the combatants were parted. The washerwoman’s ass was consigned, with
back-turned ears and palpitating sides, to confinement in a stable. Madame
Leclerc retired to her apartment exhausted from her battle, and fainted,
with feminine dexterity, into the extended arms of monsieur the florist,
her husband, and monsieur the deputy florist, his assistant. By slow
degrees the lady was brought round, by means of feathers burned under her
nose, and a drop of cordial distilled down her throat. And where was the
she-ass, the cause of all this mischief? She had been turned out into a
clover-field. Such is the way of the world.
Next day the gardener’s wife sent notice to the shop of M. Nepveux that
“If any one had lost an ass he would find it at the house of a floral
gardener, Faubourg S. Marceau, near the Gobelins.”
Jacques Ferron, husband of the lady who had gone a-marketing on Neddy, had
spent the night, as we learn from his express declaration in Court, on the
borders of insanity. Not a wink of sleep visited his eyes during the hours
of darkness, and the dawn broke upon him tossing feverishly on his pillow,
with all the bedclothes in a heap upon the floor.
The news of his Neddy’s whereabouts being discovered, restored his spirits
to equanimity. He wept for joy, and despatched his wife to claim the
truant, whilst he himself remained in his doorway, with palpitating bosom
and extended arms, ready to embrace the returning prodigal.
But, alas! Madame Ferron, on reaching the gardener’s house, learned to her
dismay that she was involved in further misfortune. Madame Leclerc
demanded damages for the bite she had received, to the amount of 1500
livres, and the ass would not be given up till the sum demanded was paid.
Tears and entreaties were in vain; and the washerwoman returned to her
husband with drooping head and a soul ravaged by despair.
On the following day, 4th July, a claim against Jacques Ferron for the sum
of 1500 livres damages, and 20 sous a day for the keep of the ass, was
lodged with the Commissaire Laumonier.
On the 21st August the Court ordered Leclerc to bring forward evidence to
establish his claim, and the defendant was bidden challenge it. The case
was heard on the 29th of the same month.
The plaintiff urged that his wife had been brutally assaulted by an
enraged jackass belonging to the defendant, had been seriously alarmed by
its ferocity, and had been severely bitten in the arm.
The damages claimed were reduced to 1200 livres, and payment was demanded,
as before, for the keep of the delinquent.