While the court of France was at variance with the Holy See,
considerable acrimony existed among his Holiness's troops against all
Frenchmen; consequently, wherever they met them in Rome, they instantly
attacked them with sticks and stones, and sometimes with even more
formidable weapons. It happened one day that Poussin and three or four
of his countrymen, returning from a drawing excursion, met at the
Quattro Fontane near Monte Cavallo, a company of soldiers, who seeing
them dressed in the French costume, instantly attacked them. They all
fled but Poussin, who was surrounded, and received a cut from a sabre
between the first and second finger. Passeri, who relates the anecdote,
says that the sword turned, otherwise "a great misfortune must have
happened both to him and to painting." Not daunted, however, he fought
under the shelter of his portfolio, throwing stones as he retreated,
till being recognized by some Romans who took his part, he effected his
escape to his lodgings. From that day he put on the Roman dress,
adopted the Roman way of living, and became so much a Roman, that he
considered the city as his true home.