“The ass of the washerwoman was tied to a railing. It was not likely to
break away unless induced to do so by some one else. The she-ass of the
plaintiff was the cause of the jackass breaking its halter and pursuing
Madame Leclerc. Consequently the defendant was not responsible for what
ensued.
“The distance between the Porte S. Jacques and the Gobelins is
considerable, and the streets full of traffic. Had the florist’s wife
wished to get rid of the jackass, there were numerous persons present who
would have assisted her; but from her not asking assistance, it was
rendered highly probable that she had deliberately formed the design of
profiting by the circumstance, and of appropriating to herself the
pursuing ass.
“The plaintiff pretends that 1200 livres are due to her because she was
bitten by the ass of the defendant. No medical certificate of the date is
produced, but only one a month after the transaction. No evidence is
offered that this bite was given by Ferron’s ass, and the wound attested
by the medical certificate may have been given by the ass of the
plaintiff. But supposing the bite were that of Ferron’s ass, was not the
poor beast driven to defend itself from the blows of the defendant? Is an
ass bound to suffer itself to be maltreated with impunity?
“Asses are by nature gentle and pacific animals, and are not included
amongst the carnivorous and dangerous beasts. Yet the sense of
self-preservation is one of the rudimentary laws of nature, and the most
gentle and docile brutes will defend themselves when attacked. Is it to
be wondered at that the tender-spirited and love-lorn Neddy, when fallen
upon by a ferocious woman armed with a thick club, her eyes scintillating
with passion, her face flaming, her teeth gnashing, and foam issuing from
her purple lips, whilst from her labouring bosom escape oaths and curses,
at once profane and insensate--such as _sacré bleu_, and _ventre gris_,
suggesting the probability that the utterer of the said expressions was a
raving maniac; is it to be wondered at that Neddy when thus assaulted, and
by such a person, should fall back on the first law of nature and defend
himself?
“The opinion of Donat. (_Loix Civiles_, tom. i. lib. 2, tit. 8) is
conclusive, for it enunciates the law (xi. tit. 2, lib. 9) _Si quadrupes
paup. fec._, ff.
“‘If a dog or any other animal bites, or does any other injury because it
has been struck or wilfully exasperated, he who gave occasion to the
injury shall be held responsible for it, and if he be the individual who
has suffered he must impute it to himself.’
“Now the woman Leclerc was not content with merely exasperating the
jackass of Ferron, she almost stunned it with blows. She has therefore
little reason for bringing so unfounded a claim for damages before the
Court. _Si instigatu alterius fera damnum dederit, cessabit hæc actio_
(Liv. i. § 6, lib. I).
“The more one reflects,” continued the counsel for the defendant, “upon
the conduct of Madame Leclerc on this occasion, the less blameless appear
her motives. If, as seems probable, she designed to gain possession of the
donkey, she richly deserved the bite which she complains of having
received. Pierre Leclerc cannot plead that his wife did not irritate the
ass, for this is proved by the very witnesses whom he summoned to sustain
his case. They stated in precise terms that ‘they saw Madame Leclerc pass,
mounted on a she-ass, followed by a jackass, to which the said woman
Leclerc dealt sundry blows, with the intention of driving it off; that, on
reaching her door, and the animal approaching nearer, she beat him
violently, and that then the said jackass bit her in the arm.’
“But further, who induced the ass to break his halter and follow the woman
Leclerc as far as the Gobelins? Madame Leclerc’s ass, and none other but
she. Having thus drawn another person’s animal away from its owner, and
having placed it in her own stable, she claims 20 sous a day for the keep
of an ass which Pierre Leclerc has retained on his own authority, against
the will of the legitimate owner, from 1st July to 1st September, using it
daily for going to market; thus, in all, he demands 60 livres for the keep
of the beast. Although the price is twice the value of the ass itself,
Ferron does not dispute the amount; he contents himself with observing
that the woman Leclerc having brought upon herself the wound from the bite
of the ass, which is the subject of litigation, she was not thereby
morally or legally justified in detaining the animal that bit her till
her demand for compensation was satisfied. If she fed and tended it, she
was amply repaid by the use she and her husband made of it for carrying
heavy burdens daily to market.
“On the other hand, Ferron has suffered from the loss of his ass, through
its unjustifiable detention. He has been compelled to hire a horse during
two months to carry on his business, and this has involved him in expenses
beyond his means. For this loss Ferron will claim indemnification at the
hands of Leclerc.”
Such was the case of the defendant. Along with it were handed in the two
following certificates, the latter of which, as giving a character for
morality and respectability to a donkey, is certainly a curiosity.
Certificate of the Sieur Nepveux, grocer, at whose shop-door the ass
was tied.
I, the undersigned, certify that on the 2nd July 1750 the day after
the ass of the defendant Jacques Ferron, which had been attached to my
door, had followed the female ass of the person Leclerc, there came,
at seven o’clock in the morning, a woman to ask whether an ass had not
been lost here; whereupon I replied in the affirmative. She told me
that the individual who had lost it might come and fetch it, and that
it would be returned to her; and that it was at a floral gardener’s in
the Faubourg St. Marcel, near the Gobelins: in testimony to the truth
of which I set-to my hand.
(Signed) NEPVEUX, grocer.
PORTE SAINT JACQUES, PARIS,
_20th August 1720_.
Certificate of the Curé, and the principal inhabitants of the parish
of Vanvres to the moral character of the Jackass of Jacques Ferron.
We, the undersigned, the Prieur-Curé, and the inhabitants of the
parish of Vanvres, having knowledge that Marie Françoise Sommier, wife
of Jacques Ferron, has possessed a jackass during the space of four
years for the carrying on of their trade, do testify, that during all
the while that they have been acquainted with the said ass, no one has
seen any evil in him, and he has never injured any one; also, that
during the six years that it belonged to another inhabitant, no
complaints were ever made touching the said ass, nor was there a
breath of a report of the said ass having ever done any wrong in the
neighbourhood; in token whereof, we, the undersigned, have given him
the present character.
(Signed) PINTEREL, _Prieur et curé de Vanvres_.
JEROME PATIN, }
C. JANNET, }
LOUIS RETORE, } _Inhabitants of Vanvres_.
LOUIS SENLIS, }
CLAUDE CORBONNET,}
The case was dismissed by the Commissaire. Leclerc had to surrender the
ass, and to rest content with the use that had been made of it as payment
for its keep, whilst the claim for damages on account of the bite fell to
the ground.
But if dismissed by the Commissaire, it was only that it might be taken up
by the wits of the day and made the subject of satire and epigram. Some of
the pieces in verse originated by this singular action are republished in
the series _Variétés Historiques et Literaires_; allusions to it are not
infrequent in the writers of the day.
About the same time an action was brought by a magistrate of position and
fortune against the curé of St. Etienne-du-Mont, a M. Coffin, for refusing
him the sacrament on account of a gross scandal he had caused. A wag
contrasted the conduct of the two priests in the following lines:--
De deux curés portant blanches soutanes,
Le procédé ne se ressemble en rien;
L’un met du nombre des profanes
Le magistrat le plus homme de bien;
L’autre, dans son hameau, trouve jusqu’aux ânes
Tous ses paroissiens gens de bien.