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As for the common people, they are so much inured to the scourge
and insolence of power, that every shabby subaltern, every beggarly
cadet of the noblesse, every low retainer to the court, insults
and injures them with impunity. A certain ecuyer, or horsedealer,
belonging to the king, being one day under the hands of a barber,
who happened to cut the head of a pimple on his face, he started
up, and drawing his sword, wounded him desperately in the shoulder.
The poor tradesman, hurt as he was, made an effort to retire, and
was followed by this barbarous assassin, who, not contented with
the vengeance he had taken, plunged his sword a second time into
his body, and killed him on the spot. Having performed this inhuman
exploit, he dressed himself with great deliberation, and going to
Versailles, immediately obtained a pardon for what he had done;
triumphing in his brutality with such insolence, that the very
next time he had occasion to be shaved he sat with his sword ready
drawn, in order to repeat the murder, in case the barber should
commit the same mistake.


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