Rouen (France) -- Description and travel; Rouen (France) -- History
In 1453 occurs an entry which suggests that the modern idiot who plays
with a loaded revolver and shoots his friend "by accident" has been in
existence ever since deadly weapons were invented. A carpenter named
Guillaume le Bouvier drew his bow at a bird which was sitting on a
tree-top. The arrow glanced off a bough, rebounded from a stone, and
killed the son of the Sieur de Savary. Twenty-two years before, a
woman had been killed by a bolt from a crossbow in almost the same
way, and in 1457 a boy was shot by his brother in an exactly similar
manner. In 1474 Bardin Lavalloys provided another particularly
unfortunate example during a game which was in great favour at
Christmas time, and consisted in throwing sticks at a goose which was
tied by the leg to a tall pole. Jehan Baqueler missed his shot, and
hit poor Lavalloys on the temple. A more serious weapon, the
"couleuvrine," a long thin cannon, was responsible for an accidental
death in 1476. Guillaume Bezet had made a bet that he could shoot at a
gate better than his friends. His aim missed, and he killed a man
sitting by a hedge not far off. A case that is still more instructive
of the manners of the time occurred in 1475. Guillaume Morin, who was
apparently making the best of his last chance of a good meal before
Lent, had gone to feast with some neighbours on Shrove Tuesday, and
when they had finished the beef, he threw the bone out of the window.
It happened to be an especially large and heavy bone, and unluckily
his little daughter of seven was just that moment returning from the
tavern with more wine for the company. It fell upon her head from some
distance and killed her. Another curious sidelight is thrown on
fifteenth century society by the record of the next year. During a
wedding-breakfast in Rouen Pierre Rogart upset the mustard-pot over M.
Gossent's clothes. They quarrelled, the other guests took sides,
swords were drawn, and the prime offender's nephew ran a man through;
a crime for which the canons pardoned him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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