A Man Who Owned Our Château Was Nearly Strangled in Parliament!

We go to the archives and piece together over a hundred years of history. We make surprising and bloody discoveries, and we get a window into the lives of the first owners of our château. For the first time, we feel a real connection to the people who lived here before us, and the past starts to come alive. The transcript of Joseph lasies Duel: Among the many duels I have taken part in, whether as a combatant or as a second, none left a deeper impression on me than the one that set Joseph Lasies, deputy for the Gers, against Alicot, an editor at La Dépêche de Toulouse. It was... before the war. One morning I received a telegram from Lasies calling me urgently to Auch and asking me to bring the “musical instruments”! We habitually used this euphemism to mean swords. The ones I took with me were heavy, but sat well in the hand, with a very wide guard, and for that very reason more dangerous than regulation swords; they had always brought good luck, both to me and to the friends who had used them. As soon as I arrived in Auch, where the meeting was to take place, I was put in touch with Dr Sancet, later senator and then president of the Gers departmental council, Alicot’s first second. Dr Sancet was a charming and very affable man; so the details did not drag on, and it was decided the two adversaries would line up the next morning, at 6 o’clock, just outside the town. We spend the evening sensibly at the Café Darolles, and at first light, after Lasies had downed, despite our protests, four or five cups of coffee, we climb into a prehistoric landau driven by a cheerful coachman and drawn by two broken-down nags that look like beasts of the Apocalypse. The doctor, sitting facing us, keeps fiddling with his “toolbox” which, as it half-opens, shows — a comforting sight! — the gleaming steel of scissors, forceps and scalpels. The landau creaks along as if reluctantly; we’re afraid of arriving late for the meeting. To crown our bad luck, the coachman takes the wrong road, to the great fury of Lasies, who swears and curses like a Templar. We cut across the fields trying to catch up with the carriage carrying M. Alicot and his seconds; we arrive after them all the same, but they graciously accept our apologies. The weather is glorious, the sky infinitely soft. A light mist, rising off freshly turned fields, blurs the outlines, and the sun gilds the top of the cathedral, whose imposing mass stands out on the horizon. We find suitable ground a few metres from a tenant farm belonging to Dr Sancet. I am to direct the combat; M. Alicot’s swords are chosen by lot. But at the very first exchange, one of them, after a violent parry, is completely bent out of true. So the fight continues with mine. A few astonished peasants watch the spectacle from a distance. At the fourth bout, the two adversaries charge together, arm extended. Their swords should pass right through each other, but instead strike violently on the wide guards, and I stop the fight. The points are badly blunted. Should we put off the rest of the encounter to the afternoon, or go back to Auch for the necessary repairs? With Dr Sancet I go to the nearby farm to try to find at least a file, when I notice, under a lean-to, a magnificent grindstone that seems to have been placed there expressly for our use. What follows is the most indescribable spectacle imaginable: we take turns cranking the grindstone, while the two adversaries, Lasies and Alicot, in shirtsleeves, sharpen their swords and start fencing again. Five times we have to go back to the grindstone, because five times more the points of the swords have gone blunt. The adversaries fight bravely, but fatigue sets in and they begin to grow irritable; we start to worry, and fear a tragic outcome. At one point Alicot’s sword vanishes, passing clean through Lasies’s shirt, which is torn wide open at the right breast. Visibly, they both want to finish it, and it’s a miracle they haven’t run each other through. At last, after three-quarters of an hour of fighting, Alicot disengages and lunges straight: Lasies is hit; the blood gushes freely and we rush forward... But it seems this duel was fated to be original to the very end. The doctor attending Lasies — a former medical major of the 9th Chasseurs — no doubt carried away by the romantic character of the encounter, pours pure carbolic acid onto the bleeding wound, having forgotten to dilute it with water! And never, I’m sure, did the countryside around Auch, where I was to return some time later for another encounter, hear such fine oaths bellowed by a deputy. Chateau Capers with Jane and Rory at Château de Pican Ep 114 Follow us on: Facebook -   / 61555402393725   Instagram -   / chateaudepican   https://ko-fi.com/chateaucapers